Makan Session

Wow, I was uploading pics from my camera today and realized that I totally forgot to post about a very unique Singaporean experience Andy and I had a couple of weeks ago.

SMRT, the MRT (subway) company in Singapore, was running a drawing, or "lucky draw" as they call it here, to promote the grand opening of the new Circle Line MRT line.  The prize: Makan Sessions with famous local food bloggers at eateries nearby various stations on the Circle Line.  Makan means "to eat" in Malay and is used regularly in Singlish vocabulary.  You know I'm interested in all things regarding food so I entered and won a spot at the Makan Session near Buona Vista station (which is only two stops away from our station) with Dr. Leslie Tay from ieatishootipost.  It's a great blog that reviews Hawker food and other local cuisine establishments.  I was so excited because I had actually heard of Dr. Tay before - I'd seen a TV segment about him and his blog when I first got to Singapore.  And, what's even more awesome is that I was able to get a spot for Andy as well!

The location of the Makan Session was kept secret until we arrived at the MRT station.  Dr. Tay brought us to Spice Peranakan, which specialized in....you guessed it, Peranakan food.  Peranakans were the native Singaporeans and were the elite of Singapore back in colonial times.

Chatting with Dr. Tay before we line up for some food

The spread

The line, or as they say here, the "queue"

While eating, we got to listen to a little info session on the origin of Peranakan food

Here's what we feasted on:

Papaya Titek - green papaya and dried shrimp soup

Ikan Tamban - fried sardines

Chap Chye - mixed vegetables

Ayam Goreng - fried chicken

Satay Ayam - chicken curry

Fish curry

Kueh Salat - coconut glutinous rice cake (my favorite item in this meal!)

My delicious plate

Afterwards, Dr. Tay held a little photo shoot session where he gave us tips on food photography.

Dr. Tay giving away free codes for his iPhone app - too bad Andy and I have Android phones

SMRT also hosted a little contest to win some prizes.  We were each passed a quiz with about 10 trivia questions about the Circle Line.  A combination of speed and accuracy determined the winners.  Among the prizes were a few copies of Dr. Tay's book, The End of Char Kway Teoy and Other Hawker Mysteries.  Andy won first place!  I was so excited because I expected he would win a copy of the book for us.  Here he is with Dr. Tay and his prize....

which turned out to be Churp Churp the mascot of the company that was sponsoring the event with SMRT.  As you can see, Andy was thrilled.  Every grown man needs a stuffed animal called Churp Churp.

But, the excitement wasn't over yet.  Coming into 5th place was....yours truly!  The 5th place prize was...

The book! I'm actually excited, unlike Andy who was probably thinking what you are thinking....1st place gets a stuffed animal and 5th place gets an autographed book?  Well the great thing about being married is that when one wins, both win.  So we got our book, and one of Andy's coworkers got a cute stuffed animal for his baby.

Another great Singaporean experience for us.  We'll definitely be back to Spice Peranakan in the future to try out the rest of their menu.  Bonus that it's so close by too!

Birthday Week(and a half)

This year, I turned 29 on the 29th...only happens once in your lifetime!  Andy and I were born only 11 days apart so every year we turn our birthdays into a week-long celebration.  We pool together our birthday money and treat ourselves to some good eats.  A very special birthday treat that I received was a visit from my mother-in-law.  It was her very first visit to Asia - she braved the long flight to Singapore by herself and made it in one piece...despite a few glitches on the way.

To kick birthday week, Andy treated us to hi-tea at The Regent Hotel (obviously Andy was at work and did not care to join us in eating dainty little sandwiches and scones).  The spread was amazing and the scones were awesome.  Usually I don't like scones because they tend to by dry like biscuits, but these were moist and warm.  Delicious!

This year, I decided I wanted a cake for my birthday.  In Asia, there's a bakery on just about every corner, so Andy and my mother-in-law picked up a beautiful mango mousse cake for my birthday.

Some of you may think getting a cake is no big deal, but seriously, I think the last time I had a birthday cake was about 10 years ago...

For dinner, we went out to Marina Bay and my mother-in-law treated us to dinner at Osteria Mozza, one of Mario Batali's restaurants.  I was lazy and didn't bring my camera so there won't be any pics of the awesome food we had.

Now, fast forward 11 days to Andy's birthday.  I made my first Singapore groupon purchase and got a great deal for dinner at Anar, a Middle Eastern restaurant on Sentosa Island.  So, I decided to take Andy there for his birthday dinner.  We walked around the island a little before dinner:

     

Universal Studios Sentosa and the scene outside Candylicious candy store

The restaurant itself was beautiful.  There was a beautiful chandelier in the center of the restaurant.

This time, I actually got pictures of the food since I brought my camera.  Yay!  

Appetizer: Hummus with minced beef and Falafel

Entree: Couscous Royale - Braised lamb shank, chicken sausage, roasted veggies and couscous

Dessert: Baklava - Not quite the baklava I was expecting

All in all, it was a great birthday week (and a half)!  We had visitors, great meals out, and had lots of fun. Gotta make the most of this year because next year is going to be the - dun, dun, dun..... - big 3-0!

Rojak

The other day, I was at my lupus support group meeting and got to try something uniquely Singaporean.  I'm the only foreigner in the group so often times, my friends like to introduce me to new things (mainly foods).  One day, we were talking about Singaporean dishes and my friends asked me if I'd ever had rojak.  I hadn't and asked what it was.  The description I got was a bit vague.  They called it Chinese salad where you put rojak sauce on veggies, fruits, and other things.  So, the next meeting, one of the ladies brought in all the ingredients to make rojak.

The rojak spread.

So here is what goes into rojak:

You start by chopping up some cucumbers, guava, jumbu, mangoes, pineapple - basically whatever you've got on hand.  Then, you add in some.....Natural Jellyfish!  Surprisingly, the jellyfish is actually pretty tasty, although a little strange when mixed with pineapples and other fruits.  

Here is a look at my first try of rojak.  I had at it the group, but afterwards there were leftovers that I brought home to let Andy have a try.  See that black thing in the middle of my bowl?  That would be a lovely slice of century egg - another item that you can add to your rojak.

So once you have the "salad" together, you add the rojak sauce.  It's a thick syrupy sauce that at first glance looks like chocolate sauce...but don't be deceived. 

If you are wondering what this sauce is made of, here you go:

It's basically a shrimp paste with honey and chili mixed in.  Hmmmmm........ Yep.  That's what I thought at first.  But, once I tried it, it wasn't quite as bad as it sounded and smelled.  Not sure that it's my preferred salad dressing, but at least I can say I tried it.  I took it home and let Andy have a try, he wasn't too thrilled with it.  Definitely one of the stranger things I've tried since moving here!

Take Away

It's been a rather uneventful week as Andy's been working late.  I'm home resting off the after effects of a migraine so I thought I'd write up a post.

The other day, Andy called home and asked me if I had planned anything for dinner.  I had just planned to have left overs and so he said his coworker was bringing him to get some great Chicken Rice at a stall near where we live.  Of course, I'm always in the mood for Chicken Rice and to hear there's a good place nearby is an extra bonus.

Something you should know is that here, they have a different name for alot of things, such as takeout.  The local people speak what has been dubbed as "Singlish", and seriously, even though it is technically English, the grammar and phrases are completely different and can be difficult to understand at times.  One of the first few times I ordered takeout at a hawker center, I had quite the hilarious experience.  Proud to be using my Mandarin, I had ordered a cup of soy milk from the vendor and as he was busy filling my order, the cashier (who looked to be Malay) asked me something like "havhiere o takway".  I asked her to repeat herself about 5 times before the Chinese vendor turned around and exasperatingly asked me in Mandarin if I wanted to drink it here or take it to go.  I have learned that sometimes it's easier for me to understand Mandarin than Singlish...

So really, what the lady was asking me was if I was "Having here" or "Take away".  Thus is the Singaporean way.  Perhaps I need to enroll in some Singlish courses...

This chicken rice was a little difference since we got tofu and egg with it, but it was definitely good!

Chicken Rice is not Chicken Rice without some awesome hot sauce.....which always comes in a puffy bag.

Hot sauce is not the only thing that comes in a bag.....so does the soup!  Amazingly, all the liquids stay put.  Usually, when you order Chicken Rice, you get a bowl of chicken broth, but if you get take away,  you usually have to forgo the broth.  I guess this vendor goes the extra step.

Andy also got some Roti Prata with curry dipping sauce.  I'll admit, this is not my favorite dish, it's good, but I think the sanitary rating of "C" makes me a little wary of eating at this place....Some do say that the dirtier the stall the better the food.  Andy's had it twice and it hasn't made him sick, so maybe I should just suck it up and try it....it's supposed to be a really famous shop.  I guess it must be good if people still go despite the lacking health ratings.

Anniversary Recap

Last Friday we celebrated our 5th anniversary.  I guess we're still considered newlyweds compared to all those other marriages out there, but 5 years is the first mini-milestone.  To celebrate, I made us reservations at Au Petit Salut, a French Restaurant in Holland Village.  I was trying to evoke some Parisian feelings from when we celebrated our 3rd anniversary with a trip to Europe.

First I started with my favorite - french onion soup and Andy had some escargot.


I have a love affair with french onion soup - that stuff is so good.  Cheesy, hot, onion-y.....



For main courses, Andy had the lamb, and I had veal.  I have to admit, I was really disappointed with my entree as the meat was dry and tough.  But, Andy's was really good.  Oh well.





Before they served our dessert, the waiter brought out a surprise for us.  A little molten lava cake and a scoop of chocolate ice cream.  It's funny, they put the candle in the ice cream instead of the cake.



After our surprise dessert, we got our real dessert.  It was called a "8-hour baked apple with ice cream" but honestly it was like an apple crumble with apple sorbet sitting in a bed of apple flavored foam.  I'm pretty sure they didn't bake this thing for 8 hours....



All in all, a fun romantic meal, but I do have to say I was a little disappointed in my entree.  Not sure if I would go back again....

Can't believe 5 years have already flown by! It's just crazy.

Good Eats

Just when you thought I was done blogging about Taiwan, I felt it deserved one more post - one dedicated solely to the glorious culinary delights I got to consume.  After all, eating is what Chinese people do best!

First, we start at the market - 

The fresh noodle lady at the market - fresh noodles are amazing!  Can't get this in the states.

The fish vendor 

Fruits and Veggies - forgot to get photos of my favorite exotic fruits - guava and rose apples!

Now, on to night market foods:

The grilled corn men - they take corn, grill it and coat it with Chinese BBQ sauce.  The kernels become chewy and are so tasty with the sauce.

Andy ready to chomp into his corn.

The stinky tofu lady - apparently she is one of the more famous stalls at the night market.  The tofu was so good! Very stinky, but crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Owa Misua - rice noodle soup.  This stuff was amazing - made even better because it was chilly outside so the hot soup warmed me up.

Shaved snow ice - this stuff is way better than the traditional shaved ice.  They shave it in a magical way so that the ice feels soft and creamy in your mouth...almost like ice cream.

We went to the National Palace Museum and grabbed lunch in between browsing.  We had noodles, fried shrimp rolls, and other Taiwanese street snacks (I can't remember the names).

We spent a day in Danshui and ate some local specialties.  Stir fried noodles, some meat dumplings, tofu stuffed with vermicelli, and the famous Danshui fish ball soup.

For New Years Eve, we stayed in and had a big family dinner.  We had some yummy hot pot and my uncle pulled out all the stops and got two lobsters! 

My little cousin, anxiously ready to dip into the goods.

Now I'm finally done posting about my trip to Taiwan....a couple of weeks after the fact! Anyway, better late than never.  One more thing to share - I finally opened up a Flickr account and will be posting my pics in albums there.  I had noticed my pictures were not very clear when I loaded them straight to blogger so I did some testing and found that they look much better when I load them from Flickr.  So now you can go to this album to check out all the pics!