Night of Wine and Dine

Bottom left picture - from left:
Pathy (sommelier, Table@7)
Daniel Chathiard (owner, Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte)
Eugenia & Karl (owners, Table@7)
Clinton Ang (owner, Cornerstone Wines)

It is a stretch to find me at wine-pairing dinners. For the simple reason that I am allergic to alcohol.

But because it is the folks at Table@7 who asked.

And because we have fond memories of our dinner at the Chateau Smith-Haut Lafitte.

We went.

It was, of course, another thoroughly enjoyable evening at our favourite restaurant, with some of our favourite people in the F&B industry...

Cabaret - the video

Here are the pictures.

Here is the video:



Thank you, photographer and videoman, for capturing the night.

I treasure the memory.

Mooncakes and more mooncakes

Mid-Autumn Festival. Zhongquijie. Lantern Festival. Mooncake Festival.By whatever name, I love everything associated with this seasonal festival - the celebrations, the myths, the mooncakes! Especially the mooncakes.

There is definitely no shortage of variety and versions here. Creativity and imagination run amok as restaurants, hotels and pastry chefs promote their idea of a new and improved mooncake with new and different flavours, fillings, textures, even shapes (!). Somehow, I think of these re-invented mooncakes as experiments. Oftentimes, quite horrific failed experiments even.

In the end, I really want my mooncake as I have always known it.

With the familiar baked skin complete with its imperfections because a pair of hands worked on it. With the smooth lotus paste filling, just this side of too oily and too sweet.

Rolled up in a stack of 4 on plain white paper contrasted against Chinese Red and Gold decorative prints. Or packed in no-frills boxes of 4. And all stacked into brown paper bags carrying the company name.

In my books, the three masters of old-school mooncakes are (listed in no particular order):

Tai Thong Cake Shop
35 Mosque Street
Tel: 6223 2905

Chinatown Tai Chong Kok Confectionery Hue Kee
122 bukit Merah Lane 1 *01-62 Alexandra Village
Tel: 6270 8994

Tai Chong Kok
34 Sago Street
Tel: 6227 5701

Cabaret Night at Table@7

The restaurant is new. The players are not. Their culinary expertise is firmly established but their gastronomic creations continue to surprise with new dimensions.

Table@ 7 opened to rave reviews in April, and its popularity continues to grow from strength to strength.

We've been to the restaurant too many times to count, with too many friends to mention. Each time, we come away happy.

So it went without saying that the man celebrated his special birthday dinner party at this special restaurant.
The restaurant worked closely with us in every way to make the party exactly as we wanted it.

We wanted cabaret. We got cabaret. Heh.

Table@7 is located at:
7 Mohamed Sultan Road,
S 238957
Tel: 68366362
Mobile: 8338 6362
website: tableat7.com

All Day Dimsum

A dimsum/jiao zi store at a hawker centre is a welcome if unusual find at the hawker centre. The new kid on the block is You Peng Fresh Mian Jiao Zi Guan.

The store stands out from the usual suspects in the hawker centre: a row of orange lights hang like a fringe at the store front. Six men in uniform - smart white top over black pants - work with quiet efficiency taking orders, making the dumplings, cooking and serving up the food.

The menu is limited to jiaozi, wo tieh, xiaolongbao and la mian.

On a quiet night, when all I want is a small order of dumplings to go with a bowl of hawker-style noodles, this store will do very nicely...

You Peng Fresh Mian Jiao Zi Guan is located at
144 Upper Bukit Timah Road,
Beauty World Centre #04-23
Tel: 64635608, 92391598

Business hrs: Everyday 10:30am to 9.00pm

Pig-out at Eng Seng Restaurant

I have said
- I will not stand in a queue for food,
- I will not eat dinner while the sun is still high in the sky,
- I will not eat at places where they serve up attitude with the food.

Then our wonderful foodie friends say we have to do crab dinner at Eng Seng for the best Black Pepper Crab. To organise this pig-out session, they had to
- go at 4.30 pm to pick and pay for the crabs,
- go at 5.30 pm to "chope" a big table for our party of 10.

It was still hot and sunny at 5:30pm. Every table in the house was taken. Ceiling fans with grease coated blades spun lazily, circulating hot air and cooking oil vapour.

There was a line outside, and walk-in's were being turned away because every crab was already spoken for!

Our dinner order hit the table and empty plates removed in rapid succession. Every dish was surprisingly very tasty.

Then came the piece de resistance - Black Pepper Crab. This isn't crab fried up with cracked black peppercorns. The crab is fried in a fragrant sweetish pepper sauce that clings to every part of the crab, making it literally finger-linking good!

Everyone of us pronounced this the best Black Pepper Crab we have ever had.

Would I come back? Yes I would (forget what I said at the top of this post.) And very soon too.

Eng Seng Restaurant is located at
247/249 Joo Chiat Place
Singapore 427935
Tel: 6440 5560
Important:
Hrs: 4:30pm till when the last crab is eaten at about 9:00pm.
Closed on Wednesdays

The big dinner

We do three big dinners in the year for the friends and family: the Chinese New Year round up, Christmas and New Year's Eve.

After many trials and errors with choice of food and mix of dinner friends, we more or less have our act together.

The huge spread of food got to the table with minimal hiccup, and the humans got along nicely.

There was even a little surprise birthday celebration thrown in the mix!

It was a lot of work, but we got a lot of help from the friends throughout the evening with putting away dishes, refilling drinks and making merry.

And so it came to pass; we had a grand time celebrating the first of three big festivals of the year.

The friends, the family, the food, the drinks. Everything was right.

Dimsum conversation

After doing all the Christmas food, there is something comforting about sitting down to a lunch of dim sum with friends.

Feeling their excitement as they flesh out plans of their new project in a new place. It is a hare-brained idea, and an oft-traveled road to frustration and heartbreaks. But it is futile to point out the flaws.

And so, keeping my own council, I let them happily paint their perfect picture for me.

I want to remember happy optimistic moments with friends in these last days of the year.

Night of Chili Crab

We had planned a Chili Crab night with the friends but it was a long time coming because of busy work/travel/social schedules. Finally, it was D-Day.

It was such a biggie with the guys. A whole week before the date, the man went every day to the crab vendor to check on the supply of fresh crabs. The man's BFF said if there were no crabs at this one location on the day, they will both source from another vendor across the island.

Thankfully, picking up the crabs did not pose a problem. In fact, the crabman helped us select the crabs.

Then the furious cooking among the friends. The final spread - freshly rolled Vietnamese spring roll (not featured in picture), sambal prawns, fried bee hoon, chili crabs. We actually had to struggle to put away some of the cakes came dessert time.

We had a grand time putting the dinner together. But, oh the work!

I think we will let the Chili Crab restaurants do the cooking the next time Crab fever hits.

Eating in Bordeaux and Biarritz

Eating is always a priority for any visitor to France - always an experience to re-live and re-hash long after one has left the country.
French food is diverse, and what sets French cuisine apart from other great cuisines is the culture of cooking with what is available locally.

I still remember the food experience from last year. Lyon boasts the most tantalising of sausages; the Rhone valley is famous for its fruit and young vegetables; the world's most exquisite desserts come from Provence and Cote d'Azur.

This time, in Bordeaux and the Basque country of Biarritz, I am in the land of seafood and heavy farm-based foods like pate, terrines, foie gras, confits, magrets.

Just an old fashioned char siew bao

I first made bao's when I lived in California in the 80s. At the time, there were no decent bao's to be had in the desert town I lived in. My only option was to drive 2 hours to dim sum restaurants in Los Angeles.

The industry-packed bao's available in Chinese supermarkets were, in a word, disgusting. What passed for char siew bao filling was just this bit of sweet red goo.

I have big choice of bao's here, so I don't have any real push factor to make my own.

Except that the comfort food called char siew bao which I remembered from my childhood has been through some evolutionary process. The bao's have become too "refined", if you will. I crave the more "robust" version I remembered sinking my teeth into; the bao back then had more "character" in taste and texture.

So, one day recently, when I had leftover char siew, I made my own bao's.

There is something deeply satisfying about biting into an old fashioned unpretentious char siew bao and taste every nuance of char siew wrapped in a basic steamed bun.

Suji - still a good idea

It really seemed like a good idea at the time.

I was baking suji cookies and happily passing them out to the ladies at my folkdance class.

I got a kick out of their surprise and pleasure.

They then asked if I would make the cookies for them over Chinese New Year. They'd be very grateful because suji is simply hard to come by. That was long before there was any hint that I'd travelling anytime around January or February. So happily I said yes, it would be my pleasure.

Of course I will now be travelling. And the ladies were self-consciously saying that while they would be so happy to have the suji cookies for Chinese New Year, they totally understand I wouldn't have the time now.

It is true that I am somewhat pressed for time. But I couldn't bring myself to tell them that I am sorry that things have changed and I'd make it up to them after I got back.

So, I have been busy the last few days baking suji cookies. They got delivered to the ladies today. And it was gratifying to see their glee all over again.

So, in spite of spending a precious chunk of my time on this, it is still a good idea today.

An evening at Shiraz

It has been a while since I was at Shiraz.

The review about the food continues to be mixed. Diners tend to be hung up on whether the restaurant serves authentic Persian fare rather than Middle-Eastern. Does it truly matter? My input is that the food is definitely good, whether one thinks it's Persian or Middle-Eastern.

The review about the bellydance performance continues to be generally unkind. Similarly, comments tend to focus on whether the performers dance Arabic or Persian. Again, does it truly matter? The performers are entertainers, and they do the best they can with a less than ideal stage.
The bellydance show changes every few months.

The current dancers are Fatema (a winner of several bellydance competitions) and Angelina (a favourite with local media and events).

Shiraz is located at:
Blk3A, #01-06 Clarke Quay
Tel: 6334 2282

It really is always about the the food

Like my blogger friend put it in a recent post, it is always about the food. Really. And it makes for a happier world.

I enjoy baking. I enjoy making extra to pass them on to people I know who enjoy them: friends, the cleaning crew at the condo, the dance aunties at the cc...

Then there is this small staff of three who work extremely long hours in a neighbourhood mall. I have been bringing them cookies, brownies and cakes. Each time, I'd watch with amazement as they put away the entire tray within minutes. Without any drinks. Without any hesitation. Without any more critical review beyond "Thank you. This very good" between their mouthfuls.

Then the man decided to be really nice to them. He made a huge plate of woh tieh (pot stickers), taking care to arrange the 30 pieces in perfect nautilus-fan pattern, and rushed it over to the crew. He expected them to go oooh and aaah over the fancy arrangement, to ask how he got only one side of the woh tieh fried perfectly brown and the other side remained a steamed white, to show curiosity as to what the filling was, to wonder how we managed to make the perfect pleated folds.

The three grinned at us, thanked us as usual, grabbed their forks and started to dig into the food. Between "Thank you. This very good" and shoving the pot stickers into their mouths, the platter was cleaned out within minutes.

As we left them, the man turned to me and said, "They never noticed the perfect fan arrangement. They never realised the woh tieh were handmade. They didn't even wonder how come the woh tieh were still warm!"

And I said, "They are hungry. They are happy to see us, they are happy about the sale they make off us. But in the end, it is always about the food."

And we are happy if it makes their long day just that little bit brighter.

Julie Julia - the movie

The movie Julie and Julia is one of those rare gems that is enjoyable at so many levels.

There is post-war Paris: the world may be reeling from the devastation of WWII, but in Paris, it is still a world of fabulous clothes, fine food and wine, cigarettes, architecture and scandals. There is present-day Queens NY: a world of over-worked citizens living out their over-crowded soul-less existence.

The movie tells the story of two women from two different generations who lead very different lives. The common thread is their love for cooking.

I am much more interested in the Meryl Streep-Julia Child-Paris parts of the movie; the Julie Powell-Amy Adams-Queens NY bits is just the vehicle to make Julia Child relevant today.

I enjoy cooking. I especially enjoy cooking for friends. But I am not of the Julia Child school that dictates that every dish and course must be a masterpiece, although I adore her motto i.e. "No matter what happens in the kitchen, never apologize". I maintain that I am not a restaurant; I do the best I can to the point when I can still enjoy having friends over for dinner.

Of the Julie Powell part of the movie, the one line that caught my attention was when she wailed "Julia hates me!" when told that Julia Child was not interested in her blog. What is the truth behind this seemingly uncharacteristic response from Julia Child? The answer lies here.

Eating with Friends

This girlfriend started her circle of eating friends - school friends, former colleagues, uni mates etc. - when she started work.

I joined her group on and off over the years. Of late, I have started to look for them more frequently.

After years of going my own way, sorting out my life, trying to make a connection with so many different people, I find myself drawn back to the familiar. I know their quirkiness and their sincerity. Over the years, I got to know every line on their faces - creases that came from years of sharing evenings of laughter with good friends.

The circle of eating buddies have lasted 30 years. And I know we will carry on for many many more years ahead.

Because, in the end, it is not about the eating at all. It is about getting together for an evening with good friends.

Thank you, girlfriend, for starting this group and thank you, group, for your active participation.

I have come back to take my place at helping to keep a good thing going.

The Food in France

If I were asked to name one best thing I will remember forever about France, it will have to be her food.

From the traditional to nouveau, farmhouse to 2-star Michelin, I ate my way through Paris, the French Riveria and Provence. It is the ultimate gastronomical experience. - it is gourmet eating down to the last lick of frommage blanc avec miel.

Every meal was special, every bite was memorable.

Bread - Home baked

It isn't that we are particularly picky about our dinner rolls. It's just that we have not found any that we like enough to go through the hassle of shopping for it and then having to stand in the long line to pay for one loaf or half a dozen pieces of rolls.
So on a whim, I thought to make our own. The kitchen always has the basic ingredients : flour, yeast, salt, sugar.

It really turned out good for a first attempt. I have not reached the stage of proficiency that I care to identify what kind of bread I baked. It is just bread, with a crust, that came out of the oven in time for dinner.

Happily, we slapped butter on the still warm home-baked bread, and savoured it with our dinner of cold cut beef roast, mash, and slaw - all home cooked and prepared.

The faint smell of yeast and baking still lingering in the kitchen as we sat down to dinner was simply heavenly.

A tale of Singapore food

We listened to the sweet young thing tell us of her business trips to various cities in China. What she loved about the place, what she hated, what she missed.

Food, she declared. I miss Singapore food! Everything in China came in huge portions and were too oily and too salty.

Yes, we thought! She's one of us! She loves her food. She knows her food!

So, we asked, you headed straight for food the minute you touched down?

Yes! came her gleeful reply, I headed straight to Newton Circus for macaroni!

Newton Circus? Macaroni?

She's supposed to say mee pok dry, char kway tiao, Hainanese chicken rice, something like that. And at any of the many old name hawker centres!

Not macaroni at Newton Circus!

She may love her food, but there is definitely a huge gulf between her idea of real and worthy Singapore food and ours.

ps I never clarified what she meant by macaroni, because what came to mind immediately was macaroni and cheese a la Kraft. It was later that I thought she must mean bak chor macaroni soup. So maybe she is half way to qualifying as a foodie of Singapore food.

Selamat Aidilfitri

A lovely evening of cross-cultural celebration with Malay food from our non-Malay kitchens.

At our dinner table were friends who are recent arrivals to Singapore. They were delightfully fascinated with the intricate tastes of Malay-style food - a totally new culinary experience for them. Looking at how they readily tried all the alien- looking and tasting dishes in front of them, I know they will take to living here well.

I am happy to be one of the first locals to introduce them to the local food scene.