Ban Chang Kueh: simple pancake or not?

Ban Chang Kueh...or ming chiang kuih as it is variously called, is basically a pancake...fried over butter or margerin on a cast iron wok. The flour is cooked till crisp on the outside, and features a very crispy edge, and filled with peanut paste and sometimes sweet corn.



Pretty simple dish...or so we think.



The secret is in getting it just right....just the right mixture of batter, with just the right balance of sweet, savoury...just the right thickness of batter, so the outside is crisp, crusty, but a thin...just right layer of soft, slightly mushy risen flour pampers the palate by providing contrast and counterpoint.



The rich peanut filling...itself providing a counterpoint on its own...the crunchy crushed peanuts dissolve into a rich, creamy concoction as one chews. The addition of the sweet, and slightly acidic sweet corn lifts the flavour a few notches. Providing yet another counterpoint. Magic...when it comes together.

This tiny little stall shows mastery of the art. Not many in Penang or elsewhere do with such success.




Pushcart outside Swee Hong Cafe
Corner of Burma Road and Jalan Pasar
Penang



View Larger Map

Eating USA: IHOP

with Eddie, Prof Horolographer

This trip to the US, being on the road...I drove some 3000 miles (about 4800km) in the 14 days we were there...treking mainly the coastal California cities and the US National Parks of Yosemite, Bryce, Grand Canyon. So it meant having to set aside fine dining, and nicer food, for fast food on the road.

The US highways are literally dotted with many such oasis of food, gas and whatnot. And in many of them, the usual suspects - McDonalds, KFC, Burger King, Denny's but also IHOP.

Easy to find, with their characteristic A frame blue roof...



Interesting and typically American to name your chain of stores International House of Pancakes...when the chain is not quite international (they have outlets only in North America), and their menu is quite complete...a bit like Denny's...all day breakfasts, and other American Diner style meals. But of course, special emphasis on pancakes.

I had earlier been kind of hooked on their pancakes...so in our little party of 3 for breakfast before breaking for Gilroy for some retail therapy, we started with a blueberry pancake stack:



This was superb. The blueberries were fresh berries, but totally immersed in a compote of blueberry jelly-jam. The pancakes were huge, fluffy, buttermilk pancakes, which were embedded with blueberries. Eaten just like that, or if you are decadent, with some whipped cream...oh...delicious! Oh, did I mention blueberries are very healthy? They contain a good dose of antioxidants, and are delicious too.

We also sampled the plain pancakes...just a stack of 3 huge, fluffy.



Breakfast, eating this with either Maple Syrup or Honey is just wonderful. Gives you the energy to bounce off walls for the next 10 hours!

We also decided to add some protein, and went for the American staple big breakfast...



Two eggs, ham, sausage, has browns, bacon...all the grease one can take...and smelled wonderful, tasted great.

IHOP...eat like the Americans...and certainly worth one breakfast when in the USA.


International House of Pancakes (IHOP)
everywhere in the USA
www.ihop.com

Australia in Singapore? Spruce Cafe

with family

Phoenix Park used to house the Ministry of Home Affairs...with its buildings full of secret and nationally sensitive information. But since the Ministry has moved into its spanking new premises in Novena (known as Phoenix Park II), the place vacated is a scattering of colonial buildings within beautiful foliage of the rain forest. Now the buildings are declassified, and house arty farty establishments.



Spruce, an Australian concept restaurant is one of the first such places to open. Beautifully renovated, and nestled with rustic timber flooring, right next to the trees, the restaurant is serene, calm, and unhurried...much like a typicaly Ozzie might be.



We dropped by one Sunday morning for breakfast.

First off...hot cakes...



I had originally thought I would be getting fluffy, buttermilk pancakes, thick, large, and a huge pile...with blueberry, butter, and lots of maple syrup....an image harking to the days when I visited Southlake (near Dallas) often to experience the huge breakfasts which make Americans what they are. I had also had equally good experiences with pancakes in Sydney, where the serving was somewhat smaller than in the US, but nonetheless just as good.

But I was served 3 pieces of what looked like McDonald's hot cakes...perhaps the name would have given it away, but I did not suspect that. The cakes were already drizzled, albeit a bit frugal, with some syrup, a sprinkling of a few fresh blueberries and what looked like blueberry sauce zig-zagging across my pancakes. The ensemble was finished with crushed cookies and what looked like half a banana.

Cutting into the cakes, and trying to scoop up what little blueberry compote there was, trying to balance a bit of the cookies...in the mouth, it tasted quite good. Certainly more than meets the eye...in fact, good enough for me to finish the entire plate. If only they were more generous with the blueberry and the syrup.

Kin had the English Breakie:



Typical English big fry up...comprising two eggs sunny side up, English styled sausage, bacon, stir fried fresh mushrooms, some baked beans, half a fried tomato and bread. The sausage was kind of average. The eggs were perfectly cooked. The mushrooms were a nice touch...not the button type you get in England, but what looked like oyster mushrooms. They were delicious. The bread is a type of country loaf and was thick, and gorgeous. Lightly toasted, it was wonderful with the eggs.

Edward had the Big Breakie:



Scrambled eggs, German style wurst sausage, bacon, grilled yellow and red bell peppers, half a grilled tomato, and the same gorgeous bread.

The coffee was also very good...here is a espresso macchiato.



Overall a very nice place...reasonably good food, relaxing. Good place to chill out.


Spruce
320 Tanglin Road
Phoenix Park
Tel: 6836 5528
Weekdays: 10.30am - 10.30pm
Weekends: 8.30am - 10.30pm

Riders Cafe, breakfast with the horses

with Kin

Once in a while, on a lazy Saturday morning, Kin and I would drive around to look for unusual places for breakfast. We thought we'd go back to 60's Live Seafood and try the Nasi Lemak, after a nice breakfast there where Kin waxed lyrical about mee rebus and the meaning of the universe...when we caught at the corner of one eye, a glimpse of a black and white bungalow amidst the horses...we decided to detour and have a look.



Charming place, this cafe...there is a terrace overlooking the meadows and the stables, but reserved for members only...but peasants can sit in the main hall...quaintly colonial, timber stripped flooring, fans spinning in the ceiling...no air-condition. But pleasantly cool.



Waiters were dressed Australian style...plain black T-shirts with CREW emblazoned on their backs, dark trousers...only a stripped apron was missing. Cool methinks. Relaxing place thinks Kin.

I ordered the pancake with berry compote.



A comfort food of mine...pleasant memories of eating fluffy buttermilk pancakes, stacked high on a large plate with honey or mapel syrup, huge chunks of butter. One of the things the Americans do right, other than char grilled air dried steaks is pancake. Even the one which is served by the huge chain, now defunct in Singapore - Denny's is very good. And in Texas, a cornmeal biscuit completes the huge breakfast to provide enough fuel to drive the cattle for a week!




The Rider's pancake was excellent. Thick, fluffy, fragrant with a generous sprinkling of icing sugar covering almost the entire plate like snow flakes...very beautiful. Served with whipped butter on top of 3 pancakes, a gorgeous lump of whipped cream and a small bowl of maple syrup on ithe side. All is well until the berry compote was slopped unceremoniously on top of the cakes. I would have preferred the berry on the side...so I can decide how much of it to eat. I dislike raspberry...too sour and too many small seeds to interfere with the taste experience. This was a mix of some raspberry (I think...or strawberries as I can detect some of the small seeds), and blueberry. Would have preferred just blackberry or blueberry.

Kin had the breakfast...with scrambled eggs, sausage, toast...kinda of like a traditional English fry-up breakfast.



Two slices of brown toast, butter, jam. Two pork sausages. Baked beans, roasted potatoes and curiously 3 grapes. Nothing exceptional, seemed home cooked. But nevertheless, good food, done right. A dozen other places can serve something similar.

We reminisced about Sebastian's for breakfast. A quaint French Bistrot right in Greenwood Avenue which alas is no more. There is something special about having a good cook even if just to fry some eggs...a case in point is one of my favourite restaurants in Germany The Caroussel at the Residenz Bülow in Dresden. An eatery with a one star Michelin under its belt, the chef de cuisine comes in to cook even for breakfast...I am amazed, considering that he must have left for home no earlier than 1am from the evening's dinner, before having to appear in the restaurant again at possibly 6am for breakfast. The scrambled eggs, fried eggs are absolutely divine.

But I digress. The sausage, eggs and toast served at Riders is just plain ordinary in comparison. Just hearty breakfast.

The place, especially the building, the ambiance is spectacular. The view as one looks out into the terrace...horse riders working with their horses is just plain wonderful. The food is quite ordinary. We also felt the prices a bit on the high side...pancakes were S$10, and the sausage/egg combo S$13.


http://riderscafe.wordpress.com/
Riders Cafe
51 Fairways Drive
Singapore 286965.
8am to 10pm, Tuesday - Sunday.

Photo notes: First picture is a compilation done HDR style with Photomatix and Photoshop, a technique with exaggerates details and tones.