From the first to the sixty-third floor

September 19th, 2010 § 1 comment § permalink

Despite the huge variety of food in hawker centres, sometimes it’s nice to take a break from food-court cuisine in the form of more upscale dining. Here’s a different look at eating in Singapore.

Lunch at a Chinese restaurant near work.
Hand-made noodles in a soy-based soup with tea eggs.

Ground pork 'cake' with Chinese greens.

Lunch went down really well with a cold glass of oolong tea.

I didn’t get pictures of our first dinner, which was at Jumbo Seafood Restaurant and included such memorable dishes as the jumbo chili crab, deep-fried beancurd, steamed fish, liang ban jellyfish, prawns with cabbage, and seafood fried rice.

Dinner at Otto, an upscale Italian restaurant, the next night.
Eggplant and herbed goat cheese cannoli with assorted leaves salad.

Ripe Italian tomato, Burratina cheese and Pio Tosini Parma ham. » Read the rest of this entry «

First Impressions of Singapore

September 9th, 2010 § 1 comment § permalink

I haven’t cooked once since I arrived in Singapore, not even to make rice (which you all know is like my life line). Apparently, eating out is the Singaporean lifestyle, since food is so cheap and plentiful. There are shopping complexes (with food courts, cafes, and restaurants) and hawker centers (outdoor food courts) everywhere. Literally, everywhere.

I have been eating all varieties of Asian food, from Indian roti prata to Singaporean laksa to Korean spicy soup to Chinese dim sum. And while I may have died and gone to Asian culinary heaven, I noticed an interesting phenomenon. Some of the longest lines were in front of the fish and chips joint, or the McDonalds, or the pasta place that serves only one type of pasta, or, god forbid, the sandwich shop (I mean, really? Sandwiches?). And that’s when I realized: Western food is really popular here. I don’t know if it’s because people actually think fish and chips tastes better than a bowl of curry, or if it’s because of the Asian mentality that “Western is better.” Probably the latter, I can’t imagine a ham sandwich competing with made-to-order roti prata on any scale.

Lunch/dinner at ThaiExpress, a popular chain ‘restaurant’ in Singapore. It can be found in many shopping complexes.

Fried fish paste pancakes.

Mango salad.

Some sort of fried seafood/bread appetizer.

Tom yum soup.

Pad thai. » Read the rest of this entry «

Hungry for Hong Kong

August 27th, 2010 § 1 comment § permalink

Some of the best meals I had in Hong Kong I didn’t get to take pictures of. They included: street food at Tsim Sha Tsui1, dinner at a Western-style restaurant on Discovery Bay2, and brunch at a Shanghainese dim sum restaurant3. However, the rest of the pictures speak for themselves.

Lunch at a tiny but busy Japanese joint near Causeway Bay MTR. They are known for their fatty tuna sashimi.
Tuna sashimi with salmon roe on a bed of preserved shrimp and rice.

Combo meal (raw egg to be mixed with tuna sashimi), miso soup, preserved radish, and egg cubes.

Lunch at an apartment-turned-restaurant near Sham Shui Po, Western-style cuisine, prix-fixe menu that included appetizer and entree. The dessert (every single dessert on their menu) was compliments of the owner, who seemed to know my friend’s aunt.

Some sort of meat-in-pastry appetizer and a side salad.

Vegetarian pasta in tomato sauce.

Beef tenderloin strips in a tomato-based sauce with sweet corn and buttery rice.

Dessert 1: No idea what this was, maybe a hazelnut cake? But it wasn't a spongey cake, it was very dense, as if it was made out of peanut butter.

Dessert 2: Coconut pudding with sliced grapes.

Dessert 3: New York cheesecake with strawberries and a chocolate stick.

Dessert 4: Souffle with cream and ice cream on the side. » Read the rest of this entry «

  1. Curry fish balls, lobster meatballs, sausages, roasted octupus, and deep-fried calamari. With a side of Hong Kong milk tea. [↩]
  2. Deep-fried seafood platter, soooo good. Pumpkin risotto was also delicious. [↩]
  3. I got two pictures from it, but the rest of the meal went unrecorded. I can’t remember what else we ordered, other than xiao long bao and shrimp dumplings, but I know there was an order we added at the end that was delicious. [↩]

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