Pagi Sore and Mr. Teh Tarik Cartel

With comments by Edward in italics.

Indonesian cuisine is a favourite of the family. Hot, spicy, pungent, creamy...it is a cuisine which is principally Malay, but heavily influenced by India, the Middle East, China and Europe.

I used to love the food and excellent service at Sanur, especially the branch in Centerpoint in the 90s, but have found them to be on the decline since. Pagi Sore - meaning morning and evening in Indonesian was first established in 1989 in Duxton, and moving to Amoy Street, and finally settling in China Square.

A traditional starter is belinjau crackers. Made from the germ of the belinjau tree, it is deep fried, and served with excellent home-made sambal belachan. The slightly bitter taste of the cracker, compliments the spicy, fragrance of the sambal belachan.

Sambal is a condiment made by pounding various kinds of chilli with toasted belacan. Belacan is made from a paste of fermented prawns, and sundried to form cakes. The cakes are then grilled, and packs a wonderful, intense fragrance, and salty taste of concentrated prawns.

It is bitter normally, so I much preferred it with the sambal.

Rice was served in a kinda nice ketupat (dumpling) style...wrapped in a banana leaf, the rice was fragrant, fluffy. I am not sure if the rice is cooked in the banana leaf, but I suspect not, as it remained wonderfully fluffy, so probably it was steamed, and wrapped while still hot in the banana leaf. The heat is sealed within the leaf, which also imparts a gentle fragrance to the rice.

First dish was a fried chicken dish - Ayam Goreng Bumbu. The chicken was fried to golden brown. Bumbu is a typical Indonesia spice...made from a blend of spices would include cinnamon, star anise, coriander seed, cumin seed, cardamom and chili, crushed up and cooked down into a gravy, Somehow, I found this dish to be nothing really special, just regular fried chicken.

The skin was... umm... sweet, I don't really know, but it was different... in a good way.

The beef rendang was heavily smothered in gravy...this was a healthier version than the traditional Malay rendang, which uses grated coconut in the gravy. The gravy is thick, smooth, and lacks the crunch of grated coconut, but still remains very tasty.



The meat used was a cut comprising of much connective tissue which can tend to be tough, but becaus rendang cooking method is over a long time in spices and coconut milk, the beef was rendered tender, and flavourful. The collagen in the connective tissue provided some textural interest to the tongue in contrast to the soft fibrous meat.



Their version of petai served with prawns proved to be very special. Petai is made from twisted cluster bean. The beans used in this dish were smaller than those found in the wet market. I suspect they are possibly Indonesian sourced...compared to the more typical Malaysian or Thai cultivars which tend to be larger, and less fragrant. The smaller petai were crunchy, and very fragrant. the special sauce of sweetish sambal belachan added zing and completes this class act.


The centerpiece was the fish. Leather jacket fish, de-skinned, and with the head removed was used. Called the Otak Kukus, it was cooked otak style. Typically otak is prepared by either steaming or grilling a mixture of fish paste and spices (typically chillies, garlic, shallots, turmeric, lemon grass and coconut milk) wrapped in a banana leaf. But here, they used a whole fish, and cooked so that the otak paste surrounds the fish.

I didn't like the coagulated coconut milk of this dish, too watery. I prefer the grilled version in which the coagulated coconut milk is firmer, with chunks of ground fish embedded.

 

Cooked to perfection, the meat was soft, tender, and had great texture and an imbued with the sauce condiments. Excellent taste. This a dish to return to the restaurant for.



Excellent meal in one of the better Indonesian restaurants in town. Surely, for me, a worthy successor to the Sanur crown.

After lunch, we walked over to Mr. Teh Tarik Cartel...a curiously named stall...but is quite a traditional mamak coffeeshop.

The teh tarik, tea made from a special tea dust and sweetened with condensed milk as only the Indians know how to. This style of tea is commonplace in Singapore, Malaysia and India, and the strong bitter tea conterpoints nicely with the very sweet and creamy condensed milk. The Singapore/Malaysia version features an interesting spectacle of tossing the tea from one container to another...sometimes over a distance of an entire armspan of the master-brewer. A generous froth appears at the head when the mixture is poured into a cup.



An iced version is also available, the same method of preparation is used, and the mixture then poured into a glass of ice cubes, ass shown below picture right.

Also available, shown left was an milo version...milo was made as a chocholate drink, tarik-ed, and poured into ice, and a generous sprinkling of powdered milo is dusted over.

The Dinosaur didn't have a spoon-straw which made eating the milo powder difficult.

This goes well with a very simple kampung style potato curry puff. Potato curry is stuffed into a pastry wrapping and deep fried. This version is typically served room temperature, in contrast to the Chinese version typified by Old Chang Kee which is always served hot.

As can be seen, the pastry is lightly fried...only managing to be a light yellow golden in color.

Pagi Sore, Indonesian Restaurant and Mr Teh Tarik Cartel, both in China Square.

Crystal Jade Restaurant, Singapore

This may come as a surprise to you, but today, just like almost every other day, we had lunch. And this time, we had it in Crystal Jade, Great World City, Singapore, Asia, Earth. As usual, it was full and there was a queue, lucky for us, the queue was not too long and we only had to wait 15 minutes. We didn't really mind the wait that much as this was one of our favourite restaurants and we visit it very often.

After the wait, we entered the restaurant and sat down at a table in a corner. We began ordering our usual stuff but only to have it returned to us as we were later than usual and most of the items sold out.

First came the Preserved Egg with Meat Congee. It was good.


I espcially liked the you tiao. Crunchy, crisp smothered by the creamy like congee. This also was counterpoint to the slightly salty lean meat burried deep within.



Next came the roast pork, my grandma's favourite.



See that strip in the middle of the meat? Thats fat, not as a layer, but marbelled within the meat. Awesome! Juicy!



The crust was very crispy and adds to the overall pleasure when consuming this dish.

As we ate the roasted meat, the Glutinous Rice Dumpling arrived.



It contained salted egg yolk, dried scallops, roast pork, yam and yellow bean held in place by the glutinous rice.



A plate of Deep Fried Beancurd Skin soon landed onto our table as the plates of some of the other dishes which we had finished took off.



There was a total of 6 halves available. Inside it contained shrimps that tasted fabulous.



The last to come was the Salad Prawn sprinkled with Sesame Seeds. The large shelled prawns were coated with mayonaise.



This photo is not that great. This is because the colour of the mayonaise was too similar to the colour of the plate hence fooling the camera's metering system, causing the picture to be overexposed. The prawns were very fresh, and had a firm, crunchy bite.




Crystal Jade Kitchen
1 Kim Seng Promenade
Great World City #03-30
Singapore 237994

Ghim Moh Food Center, Singapore

After church, we headed off to have lunch. We intended to consume fish noodles at the famous XO Fish Noodle place in Holland Village. When we arrived it was under renovation. I may blog about it another time. So, for now I present ye, oh faithful reader with a rather mediocre meal. We went to Ghim Moh Food Center, latitude: 1° 18' 39", longitude: 103° 47' 17".


Wanton Mee


They were quite generous with the ingredients but the wanton and the char siew quality was very ordinary.



The noodles were firm to the bite and were covered with a black sauce reminiscent of the gorgeous wanton mee found in Kular Lumpur, but this was just a poor cousin of it. The noodle tasted very strongly of kee the ingredient that gives it its characteristic yellow colour. It was accompanied by a bowl of shui kau dumpling soup.



The dumplings were large but unspectacular in taste. The skin was too thick and the filing was bland. The stock could have been tastier and would have improved with some pepper.

Ipoh Hor-fun


This hor-fun was nothing like the variety found in Ipoh. I didn't like the noodles as I felt that it was very plain. It was not as smooth and soft as the genuine noodles you would get in Ipoh and in some specialist stores in Singapore. The sauce was very uninteresting also.

Char Kway Teow


We thought this was a good find because of the loooong queue. We were impressed by the old man frying so we imagined that the food would be great. It took a total of four shifts (dad, then me, then mom, then me again standing in line) to buy one plate of $3 CKT. It came full of lard and cockles, which usually is a promising sign.


Huge pieces of lard were spread out randomly in the midst of the noodles. Looks yummy!


The cockles were equally large and once again spread out in a random order in between the noodles.

Despite the great looks, the taste was a letdown. The chilli was not hot, therefore defeating its purpose, the noodles were not salty enough. My father preferred the Outram Park Char Kway Teow now at Hong Lim Complex and my mother the one located in Amoy Street Food Center. I agree with both of them. I may blog about these another day. This plate simply wasn't worth the heart-stopping cholesterol and ultra long wait.

Roast Meats


At last, a dish worth writing about in this food center. We ordered the triple meats, comprising of roast duck, pork and char siew.

I liked the char siew the most.


My father shared my view, and declared the sweet, crispy char siew a winner.


There was a nice juicy layer of fat (blue arrow) sandwiched in between the meat that was encrusted by a sweet, crispy, roasted and charred outer layer(red arrow). The mouth feel was incredible. As you bite in, the fat would burst in your mouth and the crunchiness of the outer layer added to the pleasure. This is char siew as it should be. Sinful but tasty.

Roast Pork


Though a little bit on the salty side, the skin was super crunchy and the meat was leaner than the char siew yet it was still tender and juicy.

My mother enjoyed the duck the most. It was roasted a little on the dry side, but the skin had the same beguiling black sauce as the char siew. Dad and I thought the Kay Lee Roast Meat Joint at Paya Lebar was superior.

Wanton Mee stall


Char Kway Teow stall


Roast Meat stall

Wakashachiya - Central, Singapore

Lunch today was Japanese. My father thought of going to this place as he wanted to relive his experience of the unagi he had in Tokyo, two weeks ago. He happened into what appeared to be an old, traditional unagi place after an afternoon of shopping at Yodobashi in Akihabara. The huge camera and electronics store - one of the largest in the world had a whole floor dedicated to restaurants. The unagi kabayaki bento he had there was the best in his experience.

We started with teba chicken wings, they offer three different types - original, spicy and some other thing. We had the original one, which was the middle part of the wing.



It was nicely and lightly fried, the skin was crisp and not very oily with a hint of shio (salt). The meat was succulent and juicy. It was very enjoyable.

My mother ordered the set which comprises of curry udon, rice, and a pork katsu.



Frankly, the pork katsu could have been better. The one she had in Tokyo at Katsukura was still the best she has had. This pork was tough and fibrous although the crust was nice, light and crispy. The udon however, was fantastic. It has a nice firm bite and the curry was gorgeous. The curry gravy tasted like it was made of finely ground potatoes and featured leeks and a piece of fried tofu. She gave the rice to me.

I had the ebi tempura udon which came with two huge prawns perched atop a bowl of steaming curry udon. The curry udon had was the same as the one in the set menu.



The prawns were magnificent, large ebi delicately and lovingly tempura-ed. The batter was light and crispy and the crunchiness provided an excellent counter point to the firm but juicy ebi within.

My father had the piece de resistance: Hitsu-mabushi. This was a huge bowl of finely grilled unagi resting on a bed of rice. The Hitsu-mabushi is the speciality of the Nagoya city where Wakashachiya is from.



It came complete with eating instruction which instructed the diner to portion the dish into four equal parts. Serve the first part on the small bowl and eat it as it is. The second portion is then served onto the same small bowl, obviously after you finished your first portion. Sprinkle it with the chives/spring onions/wasabi and dried seaweed with has been finely cut into strips. Proceed to enjoy the second portion. For the third portion, use the dashi soup (fish stocks from bonito flakes) provided, and the same condiments. This was like a rice porridge. And for the final portion, you may consume the Hitsu-mabushi in any of the above that you prefer. Both my father and me preferred the second.



The unagi was very well grilled and served kabayaki style, covered with just the right amount of sweet sauce. It tasted very fresh, and the meat was soft, smooth and creamy without any hint of any bones which may appear in unagi of lower quality. My father felt that it was almost as good as the one he had in Tokyo, and certainly one of the best in Singapore.

All in all, we enjoyed ourselves very much and the bill came out to a total of about $80 for three persons.

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Wakashachiya
The Central
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
#03-92 to 95
Singapore 059817

http://www.wakashachiya.co.jp