What a way to start the day: Breakfast in Toa Payoh

Dieticians say breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

I woke up this morning, squinting against the glare from the window and wondered what would be the perfect food for the day’s most important meal. The answer came almost naturally – breakfast at the Toa Payoh market. Toa Payoh in general has some good hawker food. I love taking my friends to revisit all the hidden gems I discovered during the 6 years I worked in the area.

This morning, the only other person up at 7am was my brother. He’s always regarded breakfast with great importance, so he eagerly accepted my offer of a ‘traditional Singaporean breakfast tour’. This was our ‘itinerary’:

First, to cleanse and refresh the system – a glass of sugar-cane juice, freshly squeezed between 2 fat rollers, sweet and icy cold.

Next: To indulge the senses and awaken those tastebuds (and overdose on your body’s daily fat requirement) – some pan-fried ‘chai tao guay’ cake (which is actually a sort of turnip cake). The lady who runs the stall lovingly cooks it on a giant pan, until the outside is golden crisp, and then smears it with chilli, so that it looks…well sort of like the picture below… This means a 30 min wait, especially when there’s a breakfast crowd, but damn it’s good! Even my self-confessed chai tao guay-connesieur brother agreed. The stall is only open weekend mornings, but during the week they remain open through lunch as well.

The mixture of turnip and egg is soft and fluffy, their texture contrasting wonderfully with the crunchy bits of 'chai po', that are liberally sprinkled over.

This plate of black chai tao kuay came for the guy with whom we shared the table . I secretly snapped a pix because it looked so good - the sweet black sauce all carmelised down to burnt crispy bits. According to our 'neighbour' it tasted pretty good too. Also a 30 min wait - from the other carrot cake stall.,

While waiting for the carrot cake to come: Distract yourself with all the other delights that the market has to offer. Like the small paos that are freshly made everyday. There are both savoury and sweet varieties

Yes...you don't have to tell me what this resembles...

The pao fillings include the usual char siew, chicken, tao sa etc. They also make mini 'khong bak' (braised pork belly) paos which are really fun to eat if you like the big ones.

Lastly: To cleanse the palate and soothe the stomach, a snow-white bowl of porridge. This stall is very popular for their wide variety of porridge and mee suah.

I had a bowl with meatballs and 'pei dan' (century egg). The porridge itself is very tasty and oh so smooth. Perfect for dunking with crispy 'you char kway' (dough fritter). The only thing I don't like is the 'manufactured' fried onions - which, to me, is one of the biggest food travesties.

This market also houses my favourite fishball noodle stalls of ALL time. The noodles are cooked to just the right texture and coated with a mouth-watering vinegar and chilli sauce. Their fishballs are bouncy and have a lovely bite. And the owner’s brother, who serves, is pretty cute and never forgets a customer’s face (service with a smile rarely seen at hawker centres). It’s not on the itinerary because sadly, I had no more room after all that ‘chai tao kuay’, paos and porridge. Moral of the story, the more people you go with the more food you get to eat!

Lorong 1 Toa Payoh Block 127 Market & Food Centre
Open daily for breakfast and lunch (dinner-time stalls may differ)

A New Year’s Contemplation

I’m feeling restless in 2010. Last year ended with a lovely white Christmas holiday but now it’s back to reality and it feels harsh. Too harsh for me to face without wanting to bury my head in a bowl of pasta (or to be proverbial about it, some sand).

I’ve also been reminiscing about some of the good meals I recently had – like the steak in Gorgonzola sauce in Ristorante Rusticone, a small trattoria in Stuttgart, Germany.

The meat was perfectly done. Meltingly tender and pink inside, its buttery texture nicely complimented by a perfectly seared, crusty exterior. I really love the contrast of food textures and the sweetness of carmelised meat and animal fat. Just thinking about it makes my eyes want to roll back into my head and my jaw fall open (bearing a striking resemblence to Homer Simpson when he says “Mmmm doughnuts…”). The sauce was a work of art – creamy and rich and redolent of the Gorgonzola’s pungency. And there was a hint of nuttiness from the butter it was cooked in. Browned butter, smelly blue cheese…oh my stars! There isn’t anything on this planet that could taste better than that.

Mr T, who had conservatively ordered asparugus and shrimp pasta, stared eviously across the table as I cut my steak into delicate, pink, bite sized pieces, smothering each piece in its own juices and the sauce. Needless to say, we ended up sharing my meal. But this being ‘ang mo’ portions, there was more than enough for both of us. (Also because I’d had an entree of Tagliatelle with Alba white truffles…sluuuurp).

So onward I go. Bouyed by the memory of food like this, and the anticipation of more such meals in the company of good friends – not forgetting all the little (and big, flaming) drinkies that lubricate all good times.

Ristorante Rusticone

Kesselstrasse 29, 70327 Stuttgart Wangen

T: 0711/4708119

www.ristorante-rusticone.de

Travelblogue: Food from the Christmas market

As we move into 2010, I’m taking a final peek back at 2009 with a post of my visit to a German Christmas market or Weihnachtsmarkt in December.

The tradition of the Weihnachtsmarkt in German and Austrian towns dates back to the middle ages, in the 1500s or so, when farmers and craftsmen capitalised on the festive season to sell more of their wares; and townsfolk congregated regularly in the square to socialise during the festive Christmas advent. The desire to eat, drink, and be merry surrounded by other people hasn’t much these last hundred years and I think it’s a charming way to celebrate the cheer of the season.

The one I went to in Esslingen (which is a ’suburb’ town just outside Stuttgart) is a beautiful medieval market that originates from the town’s centuries-old past. In one section are the contemporary stalls selling Christmas decorations and knick-knacks, and in the other is stuff devoted to the middle ages – where people wonder around dressed in robes and capes and cloth shoes and you can buy things like hand-spun wool clothes, armour, weaponry, real leather-crafted jester shoes (random yes, but there is a market for it somewhere…)

I just wandered around for the food and drink…what better way to spend a cold winter’s day than drinking a warm Gluhwein (wine mulled with cinammon, nutmeg and other spices) or a cup of mead (honeyed wine) and getting tipsy with good friends? Mind you, it was -13 degrees (C) on one of our visits there and I’d have to say, Gluhwein or not Gluhwein, I preferred getting tipsy in comformt of a warm bar.

A cup of Gluhwein, a cup of Mead. There's even a Gluhwein Special with Amaretto, Cherries and Whipped cream - luxurious!

Pay a dollar extra for the cup and carry it around the market with you, while having it filled at the various Gluhwein stalls. Return the cup for a refund.

For the longest time, after reading about it in fairy tales and Chaucer, I'd wanted to know what the **** Mead was. And now I know...It's sweet, with a faint fragrance of honey, and a strange tinge of fruity acidity from the alcohol.

Besides snuggling with your partner, another way to stave off the cold would be to EAT! Lots of hot food to be found …..grmphrrrhrmpghhurirueuiworu….

No time for hugs or snuggles. Just give me my Zwiebel Steak (Steak and Onion sandwich)

Beef steak charred on a giant pan (hung from a giant tripod over a wood fire), then simmered in a savoury, sweet sauce of onions and served in a toasted focaccia triangle...Just look at the char marks on the steak...crispy bits of carmelised goodnesssss...

...but tender...oh so tender on the inside...notice the fat on the bottom left corner...

The other popular things are Sausages, Roasted potatoes, and strangely…Bread-on-a-Stick. The dough is wrapped around long sticks which are then ‘baked’ by placing them near a large wood burning fire. Every German I spoke to swore by Bread-on-a-Stick, and I don’t doubt it can taste good (as a good bread can) but honestly I just think it’s a bit of a waste of calories to just eat plain bread on a stick…why not add a sausage inside or some ham?

The guys from this stall make their living by travelling round medieval markets selling food and gluhwein...amazing!

Roast potatoes with sour cream, served in an edible wafer boat - waste not, want not!

See the perfectly crisped skin of the sausage? That's how it should be done all the time.

Some other snaps from around the Christmas market….Sayonara Esslingen! See you in 2010!~

An alternate view of the fountain in the square

Travelblogue: Waffeln in Esslingen

Just a quick one before we run off to Switzerland for the New Year – unfortunately there’s no time to post my visit to the Esslingen Medieval Christmas Market, so you’ll just have to make do with my experiments with Cheese Waffles!

Being a savoury rather than sweet person, I couldn’t resist using some of the fantastic cheese in our breakfast waffles the other day. I just sprinkled the cave-matured Gruyere onto the batter as it was poured it into the waffle maker. And voila!

The Gruyere gets all toasty and crunchy from the griddle

The best bits

I also had some Pancetta (smoky Italian bacon) in the fridge and just couldn’t resist….

You don't get it any better than this...

Travelblogue: Continental breakfast in bed

It’s a true blue white Christmas in Germany and cold enough to chill your bubbly in 20 mins… so obviously a wonderful time to be snuggled indoors with breakfast in bed.

With all thoughts of calorie counting out the window, I’ve been indulging in huge breakfasts of delicious German bread, pretzel and lots of German, Swiss and French cheeses from a local gourmet cheese shop, Fromagerie Holzapfel which sells wonderful regional and artisinal cheeses

TO MATCH THE WINTER LANDSCAPE:

Snowy white, fresh cream cheese with spring onion, topped with a slice of sundried tomato on crusty sunflower and sesame seed wholemeal bread. The onions give it a refreshing bite that’s nicely rounded by the tomato’s sweet tang.

ARTISINAL ARTISTRY:

Wildblumen Käse or Wildflower Cheese. The fruity tang of the cheese is set off beautifully by the herbiness of the dried wildflower rind.

AND IN THE STINKY SECTION:

Warning…nosepegs not included… A triple cream Brie de Meaux  and a runny, extremely pungent Rochebaron.

LIFE IS SWEET WITH MY FAVOURITE:

Gruyere.

This one had been matured in a cave and has a full ripe flavour. It got all gooey when melted into an omelette with carmelised onions.

Been nibbling all the lovely cheeses and drinking my bubbly while writing this post. Time to fill my tummy with something a bit more substantial – ham and eggs – the breakfast of champions!

Gastronomic Nightmare before Christmas: The pre-holiday gluttony begins

It’s Christmas time once again and there’s a certain magic in the air. I’m not sure if it’s the cool monsoon weather (that’s Christmas in the tropics for you) or the overall feeling of pleasure brought on by numerous glasses of vodka and wine at the numerous social gatherings that come with the season. Lately though, as my metabolic rate starts to slow, and my waistline expands from that tiny bit of extra feasting (and my jawline disappears with alarmingly inverse proportion), I’ve begun to view the season with a slight sense of dread and self-loating.

With 4 pre-Christmas dinners already under my considerably tightened belt, I think it’s going to have to be a careful-eating from here on. Not sure how successful that’ll be though…considering I’ve been cooking up things like Maple-cider pork ribs…

It’s a Nigella Lawson recipe I read in the New York Times. It combines the deep, sweetness of maple syrup with the sharp, fruity tang of apple cider. As it roasts in the oven or over a barbeque, tantalizing whiffs of maple and apples will delight both you and your Christmas guests.

Ingredients:

1 cup apple cider, as sharp as possible

1/4 cup of maple syrup (the real stuff please, not maple flavoured syrup)

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 star anise

1 cinamon stick

6 unpeeled garlic cloves

1/2 tsp chilli flakes (optional)

2 kg pork ribs or 10 chicken thighs or 8 ribs + 6 thighs (if you like a combi both)

In a bowl, whisk together cider, syrup, oil and soy. Add star anise, cinamon, garlic and chilli flakes

Place meat in a large ziplock bag or low dish and add the apple maple mixture. Seal bag or cover dish and marinate in the fridge up to 2 days.

Remove marinated meats and

i) Roast: Heat oven to 180 degrees C. Pour meat and marinade into a large pan. Place chicken skin side up. Roast for about 45 mins, basting once in between.

If ribs are fatty, you might want to leave them in for another 15-30mins, while removing the chicken and setting aside in a warm place.

ii) Barbeque: Separate meat and marinade. Reserve marinade for basting (you can add a little beer into the mix).  Brown the meat on the hot part of the grill. Remove to cooler part of grill to continue cooking. Cooking time depends on how hot you grill is.

Serves 4-6 people

Serve with a side of buttered French beans and baked potato dolloped with sour cream or oven roasted rosemary fries.

Trying to plate a dish the 'non-rustic' way ie trying to resist the urge to serve straight from the roasting pan ala "captain caveman" style

So Merry Christmas my fellow greedies! I’ll be updating on the Christmas gluttony from Germany – where it’s Christmas markets and Gluwein galore now! Auf Wiedersehen!

Travelblogue: Eating like there’s no tomorrow on our last day in Penang

We may have stuffed ourselves till we were green in the face, but Penang still held a few tasty treats that we just had to try before we left.

Snug under 2 large rainforest trees - this makeshift eating area is aptly named 'Under a big tree'. Check out the 'drive-through' in front of the duck mee sua stall

For instance the hawker stalls at Sungei Pinang, just in front of the Honda dealership. I’d been there 5 years ago, and the blurred memory of what to me was an unbeatable bowl rich, spicy  Curry Noodles (or ‘karri mee’ as it’s lovingly called) and a solid Herbal Duck Mee Sua, made returning a must.

Sadly, in the clarity of the present, what I had remembered as kick-ass curry noodles had somehow lost its magic for me. The soup seemed thinner and not as ‘lemak’ as before. To make up for my disappointment, I took comfort in the duck mee sua.

Delicate skeins of rice noodles quickly cooked – so that they are still firm to the bite – in a rich herby broth of ‘gei zi’ (wolfberries) and ‘dong guai’ (the root of the Angelica sinensis, which is a member of the celery family). Beats any duck mee sua I’ve had in Singapore…

Mee Sua by morning light

Makes you want to abandon all your mother's lessons in table manners, pick up the bowl and slurp it all down

Besides the mee sua and ‘kari mee’ there was also a stall selling fried fish bee hoon. It was too garlicky for my taste, although my friend Chiang said it reminded him of the bee hoon his mother used to make – which he liked – and well familiar, childhood tastes are what make up comfort food – so I guess it was good for him.  The upside for me was the freshly battered and fried fish and prawns.

Truly a last meal to remember…not least because the sun was blazing it’s way up and through the little shelter and drowning us all in pools of our own perspiration!

I don’t usually have a sweet tooth, but just had to leave you with a sweet helping of  ‘dessert’:

“San se nai cha” or Three colour milk tea is served with a thick layer of gula melaka (semi-liquid, dense, dark locally produced palm sugar), and packs a powerful punch in the mornings.

We were there during the Mid-autumn Mooncake festival and had the opportunity to try home-made yam mooncakes – with the flaky pastry. These had a creamy yam filling that was not too sweet; and a light flaky crust that was still warm from the oven. Heaven! Price: $S1 per piece….what a treat!

Travelblogue: Big breakfast in Penang

Discovered an awesome coffeeshop on the corner of Jalan Rangoon and Jalan Macalister, where the saying “eat like a king for breakfast” can really be put into practice.

In the morning, you can get prawn/crawfish noodles, awesome bannana pancakes, kick-ass gula melaka coffee and home-made dim sum with paos as big as your head.

Enough talk. Here’s what we ate.

Breakfast item #1: Har mee (prawn mee)

Har mee with crawfish (or 'lai liu har')

Prawn and pork stock makes for good soup and made even better with savoury chilli paste

Best buddies: sweet (if a bit overcooked) crawfish and succulent fatty roast pork with crispy skin. They'll dance the lambada in your mouth

You can also have pork ribs instead of crawfish. Don't bother with the dry version though. They just give you less soup

Does parties and functions too! If I lived in Penang I'd hire them every weekend!

Breakfast item #2: Banana Pancakes – A sweet and savoury concoction with bananas, raisins, egg and sesame seeds. Sounds weird, but it’s good, really good…

Frying up our pancakes on a griddle so large she could fry a few other orders of french toast at the same time!

The bananas carmelise in the heat and create a perfect crisp exterior while remaining soft and warm on the inside

Breakfast item #3: Big pau…as big as your head. Lots of moist meat and egg filling…

In proportion to the coffee cup

In proportion to a hand

In proportion to the fork

And finally...in proportion to my head. Told you it was BIG

And if you can’t get enough of the coffee shop during the day, you can always go back at night when the place comes alive with satay stalls, claypot porridge sellers, an awesome Pi Pa duck stall and a whole bunch of other local favourites. (prawn noodles and pancakes are off at night).

Travelblogue: Belachan fried chicken and beer in Penang

Disclaimer: If you’re a health nut (like my dad who can skin a chicken faster than you can say “boo” and throws away all that fatty goodness) or don’t like animal fat, you can stop reading now… This post is about chicken. Fried. Deep fried.

You can fry a chicken many ways.  America has its southern fried style, Singapore has American-imported ‘Kentucky-fried’ style and Penang, I’ve discovered, has Belachan Fried style. I’ve eaten a lot of fried chicken in my day (and in credit to my waistline) and I have to say that Belachan friend chicken is way up on the yummy list. Especially when you’re over-stuffed from lunch (2 plates of char kway teow and 1 bowl of assam laksa) and are looking for a carb free, but not fat free, dinner (nor particularly healthy dinner – as my dad would say)

Juicy chicken thighs...sounds almost salacious...

It’s a common dish in Penang (from what I’ve read on other blogs) but I only ever saw one stall that sold it; which is funny because I noticed that many hawker stalls in the touristy areas of Penang serve the same dishes. It’s assam laksa, lor mee, char kway teow, lor bak, prawn noodles, oyster omelette, wanton mee everywhere you go. Just spit and you’d hit a stall that was selling one of these dishes. It’s not the most fun for an adventurous greedy girl, but it makes it all the more special when you find something out of the ordinary.

Happy as a lark at find something out of the ordinary and eating with gay abandon. Arteries? What arteries??

Up close and personal with a glass of cold beer is even better!

This Belachan fried chicken stall is on New Lane , a small street that runs perpendicular to Jln Macalister. At night, it turns into a food paradise with tables sprawled out on the pavement and hawker carts lining the roads with  such disregard for traffic, that you constantly have to lean close to the sweaty food seller in order to avoid being side-swiped by  passing cars and motorcycles.

Anyway, I’m off now to look for a Belachan chicken recipe to try. More updates on that later!

Travelblogue: Postcards from Penang – Char Kway Teow

I like getting postcards from exotic locations all over the world. If I were in Penang I’d send postcards like this to all my friends…

Dear Jane,

Just had some Char Kway Tiow…Wish you were here!”

It just so happens I was in Penang and did have this Char Kway Tiow. It’s impossible to be there and not! Who could resist a plate of freshly fried noodles, fragrant with ‘wok hei’ (the slightly charred aroma that comes from flash frying in a hot wok) and glistening with hidden gems of Chinese sausage, prawns, chives and beansprouts.

I don’t know if this sounds typically touristy, but staying on Jln Macalister is really the most convenient if you want to eat Char Kway Tiow and assorted other hawker food. With many stalls within walking distance of each other, it’s pretty easy to find something decent without having to worry about finding your way around (cabs are S C A R C E here)

Many 'kafes' here have the cooking done out front. As if it were the building that grew out from behind the food cart.

The stall I really like, and where this ‘post card’ was taken is Kafe Heng Huat. It was recommended by a friend’s aunt who lives in Penang (and by our long-awaited for taxi driver) and if the locals say it’s good, whose gonna argue?

It’s on Jln Selamat, just off Macalister , and easily distinguished by the cook out front who spends the whole afternoon ‘char-ing’ kway tiow in a flamboyant, fire-engine red chef’s hat.

It only opens from lunch onwards and closes in the evening. We were the last customers one evening, and got to watch the ‘Mrs Fire-engine’ fry up her last dish and unwind from the labours of the day by counting her takings – the fruits of her labour so to speak.

The noodles are gorgeous. So far one of the better versions I’ve had in Penang (don’t bother with Sister’s, just up the road at the start of Jln Macalister – not so great in my opinion).

Imagine a mouthful of this right now...

At ‘Kafe’ Heng Huat, the fresh strands of rice noodles are coated with just enough oil and egg to be moist but not greasy; and the perfect harmony of soft noodles, firm but succulent prawns and cruchy bean sprouts.

Imagine it steaming hot from the wok. Savoury and spicy and delightfully redolent with ‘wok hei’. Uunnghh…I would kill for a plate now. Damn the erosion of the good ole’ hawker tradition in Singapore. Damn the food court chains that serve soulless, tasteless, mass produced gloop.

The lovely thing about eating in Penang too is that you can be sitting in one ‘kafe’ but order food from a million other hawkers outside and they will serve you wherever you are. Nobody seems to mind – neither ‘kafe’ owner nor hawkers, and definitely not the customers. I think the only thing is you should order drinks from the ‘kafe’ you sit in – as a form of courtesy.

In Heng Huat, as you wait for your Char Kway Tiow, you can enjoy the delights of the street. And no, I’m not talking about hookers. More like Assam Laksa…hahah…you can get it from the stall diagonally across the street.

Noodles light as air (none of that spongy, fatty texture that’s so common in the Penang fat bee hoon), simmering in a soup that’s heartily flavoured with ‘hay kow’ (if you don’t know what this is, you don’t want to know) and mint, sweetly tangy with pineapples and crunchy with cucumbers and onions. Delightful, just delightful!

So much for postcards. Someone just send me an airticket to Penang please!