George of Georgetown: new Penang restaurant in town!

A new Penang restaurant is always an interesting place to try...especially here in Singapore...

Penang has a well developed hawker cuisine. I have documented my favourites several times. And recently, a new Penang place opened up in West Coast Plaza

The menu seems extensive...almost all the interesting hawker foods from Penang is found here. From favourites like Penang Char Kway Teow, to less commonly found ones (in Singapore) like pasembur, inchicabin and jew her eng chye. Interesting.

I started with the Penang Char Kway Teow...a firm favourite

Excellent. One of the best and most authentic I have tasted in Singapore. Very authentic. Beautiful, almost charcoal wok hei...which I know is going to be difficult to get in a restaurant in a mall, so there wasn't the magnificent smoky flavour...as this was cooked in a gas stove. But one which puts out quite a lot of heat, and a cook who is able to control the wok. Very nice. Cooked with pork lard, with the crispy bits as well...so all the flavours are present and accounted for. A touch greasy, if that is my complaint...but with a taste as authentic as this, I am willing to overlook the grease...indulge infrequently.

Encouraged, we ordered the Sambal Fried Rice

Very nice too. Nice sambal with a firm flavour of the Penang belachan present. Nicely done. The prawn paste fried chicken which accompanies is also quite good.

We also tried the Penang Hokkien Prawn Mee

High scores again for taste, but not for authenticity. The soup base is not autentic. They use ground dried prawns to make the stock. Making it very savoury, and tasty, but not what is commonly served in Penang...whose best offers a clear soup, with rather clean taste.

The jew her eng chye was less successful

This is a dish made with dried cuttlefish, and a mix of julienned radish, carrots, and vegetables, eaten with lettuce and a dose of sambal belachan. The sambal is wonderful. Nice spicy, beautiful aroma. The rest of the dish is rather less nice. My mom's JHEC is much better. Verdict on this is that the dish is edible, but not great at all.

Their lorbak with prawn fritter was next

For the first time, lorbak served with lor in Singapore! Lor is a starcy, savoury dip common in lorbak from Penang...and somehow, even though many of the Penang restaurants do offer lorbak in Singapore, none I have seen served with lor...

And the lor in this case was rather nice and authentic. So was the lorbak. Very nice. Crisp skin, and nice meaty inside. The prawn fritters was not as good. Not crispy enough, a bit too heavy on the batter.

And for dessert, chendol

With a scoop of jackfruit ice cream. The ice cream is a bit pedestrian. The chendol...the green jelly like stuff, is authentic...looks hand made. Nice texture. Mix up the shaved ice, and within, the red beans within complete the chendol. With the very nice gula melaka...very nice. My only wish for this dish...a bit of attap seeds, and touch more gula melaka. A winning dish.

Promising restaurant. Very good CKT. Nice chendol. Good lorbak. Will be back to try out other dishes. Want to try the inchicabin, Penang Assam Laksa. And more of the fabulous CKT.

George of Georgetown
154 West Coast Road
#02-25/26
67779747

Dutch Colony: great picolo latte

Getting a good espresso or latte is getting easier in Singapore these days. Gone are the days when Starbucks and the large coffee joints dominate...and in are the days of the little cafes, where owners are passionate about coffee, and the ubiquitious roaster takes pride of place in the shop.

The Dutch Colony is one such artisanal espresso place. The roaster takes center stage...

As is typical in stores like these, they sell roasted beans...and of course, coffee is ground to order, pulled on an 3 group espresso machine...I don't remember what the make of the machine was, but its a large commercial one.

I ordered a picolo latte...as I tend to do when I am not sure of the ability of the cafe to pull a nice espresso doppio.

Usually, it is only after I have tried and satisfied with the small latte (less milk than a regular latte), I try the espresso, and when I really like what I taste on the espresso, I attempt to order a ristretto. Ristrettos are difficult animals to pull...even an experienced barista will not always pull a beautiful ristretto shot...too many variables I guess.

Beautiful. Just magnificent. The espresso base was nice, sweet, full bodied mouthfeel. The amount of milk added was just nice...enriching the espresso shot, instead of overwhelming it. Very nice.

Next time I am there, will try the espresso.

Nice, relaxed cafe...as cafes tend to be...a bit rustic environment, being situated in the middle of a marketplace. Good place for a chill and a nice cuppa.

Dutch Colony Coffee Co
PasarBella @ The Grandstand
#02-K67/K68
200 Turf Club Road

Revisit: Black Sheep Cafe

I reviewed Black Sheep Cafe once before. It served rather good French inspired cuisine, at rather reasonable prices. The owner and chef, Ratha closed the cafe, went to work for another restaurant...found corporate life was not for him...and worked to rebuild the cafe. It re-opened recently at a curious place, in the basement of a condominium block.

My earlier review of the food, I thought, was rather positive, as I compared Ratha's duck confit to the best I have eaten in Paris (Chez Dumonet). I recently revisited Chez Dumonet, and it was still rather marvellous. And I also recently revisited Black Sheep Cafe...

The place is situated in the basement of a private apartment block in the Sin Ming area...the basement floors were designated for shops, and Black Sheep Cafe was at B1.

The rather quaint decor, almost bare lik a canteen, but the characteristic paintings of a black sheep adorn the wall.

Chef and owner Ratha and his wife, almost in silhouette flanking the famous Black Sheep painting.

Warm bread, I suspect possibly made in house...I forget to ask Ratha...was delicious. Very nice, with a pot of butter.

I had the confit du canard...as usual, to gauge if it was still good

First impression is that this is a rather small duck. The leg was more the size of a medium chicken than a duck. The outer surface was to have been crisp, but it was not quite. It had a crispy texture, but the skin of the duck was still rather greasy, and not rendered crisp like the one in Chez Dumonet. But still, the taste was excellent, the meat was ungreasy, tender, and fell apart on probing with a fork...as it should be for a proper confit. The apple rosti was nice as a contrast to the fat infused duck leg, and a small serving of salad adorns the side.

Edward had the coq au vin

A bit unusual, as I had expected this to be served on a casserole. But I think it was cooked in a casserole, and dished out on a plate. The serving was somewhat larger than the duck. Nice flavours, tender meat. Good dish.

Kin ordered the crispy pork cheeks

This was rather good. I would have preferred a slightly more crisp outer for the pork cheek. And a little less fat on the meat. But it tasted quite marvellous. Beautiful texture, melt in the mouth quality. Very nice flavours. The orange sauce was a nice touch, providing some acidity to cut the heaviness of the pork. Very nice dish.

We ordered one soufle to be shared

Quite possibly the best soufle in Singapore. No comparison to Chez Dumonet's soufle, but for Singapore, probaly as good as it gets. Very nice, light texture, with the characteristic membrane like skin over. Tastewise, beautiful aroma of egg whites, and a little Grand Marnier. The hot soufle with the chocolate ice cream was excellent.

I chatted with Ratha after the meal...he lamented the labour situation of F&B outlets, and was eager to hear feedback on his cooking. Great fellow. Good cooking.

Black Sheep Cafe
Thomson V, B1-30
11 Sin Ming Rd

Cze Char: Exercising the wok

Cze Char is a staple standard in Singapore cuisine...food, cooked a la minute to order. Featuring fresh ingredients, some with great innovation. There are many around, most reasonably good.

Today, I feature one which was quite good. Situated just around the corner from my former office, this is a favourite in the area. This Cze Char is situated in the S11 Coffee Shop at Killiney Road, with a sitting area al fresco style behind the shop, under the shade of trees and tarpaulin. Rustic.

But most interesting is the food. Quite a standard menu, so I tried some staples. First off, Fried Beehoon with a spicy chilli sambal sauce by the side.

This is quite a standard dish offered by most cze char stalls. Apparently simple, but as with most simple dishes may be the most difficult to prepare well. This one is pretty good by most standards. Nice wok hei, beautifully cooked bee hoon...a bit al dente, but yet soft and rather soft. The crunchy taugeh and balance of salty and slight sour from the lime, and spicyness from the sambal is quite addictive.

Another standard for cze char is fried rice

Yet another deceptively simple dish. This one with beautiful wok hei, crunchy bits of deep fried salted fish, fresh prawns, and taugeh. Very nice.

Yet another standard...the har cheong kai...or prawn paste deep fried chicken

The cook/chef demonstrated excellent control of his wok and fire skills. Magnificently cooked...crispy, but yet not greasy outside. Even though this is a deep fried dish. And wonderfully moist and juicy within. Beautiful flavours.

Sambal kangkong

Rather de rigeur, but nicely cooked. Nice, young kangkong, cooked just right, crunchy. With a beautiful paste, with bits of dried shrimps. Very nice.

And an innovative dish

Pork chop slices with a sauce of salted egg yolk. Salted egg yolk is often used as a sauce ingredient for crabs and the ever popular prawns. But this is the first time I have seen it with pork. Creamy, almost milky, the flavours of the salted egg yolk blend beautifully with the tender pork slices. With a bit of chopped chilli padi...quite magnificent.

Quite a nice cze char stall, in the middle of the city. Great cooking.

Cze Char Stall, S11 Coffee Shop
117 Killiney Road

Authentic Thai: Mad Thai.

Wandering into a restaurant, sans reservation, sans recommendation is not usually something I do often...but one Sunday afternoon, after church service, we thought of lunching at Oh's Deli on their superb roast pork, but alas, it was done only on order. So we skipped acrossed the road, and spied this curious restaurant...named Mad Thai.

Intrigued by the name, we browsed the menu, and a gentleman came out to entreat us to enter, highliting some items on the menu. Very nice service! So we dropped in...the decor was quite nice...soothing.

Started our meal with a typical Thai salad...the mango salad

Quite a decent sized serving...heaped with julienned Thai mango, drizzled with fish sauce, chilli and crushed peanuts. Tasted very authentic, beautiful flavours...sour, sweet, spicy, salty and very aromatic.

We also order the Panang Beef Curry

Typically a thick red curry, this version had the gravy a bit less viscous than I anticipated. The gravy was very rich coconut flavours, with a touch of spice. The beef, seemed to be high quality beef, was sliced thinly, and was a bit over powered by the rather strong gravy. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this dish, especially as a counterpoint to the sour, salty mango salad.

One of their signature dishes is the Home made Tofu with seafood

What a beautiful dish...a magnificent splash of colours. Fresh seafood...the fish, prawns, and squid were very nice and fresh. The tofu made in house, and deep fried before being doused with the thick gravy. Very nice. Flavours a bit muted, but in combination to the other two dishes, quite superbly balanced.

Seemed to be a very interesting restaurant, with some beautiful flavours and good service. Recommended.

Mad Thai Authentic Thai Cuisine & Charcoal Barbecue
384 East Coast Road
General@madthai.com.sg
6348 6686

Friends Favourites: Beef Noodles at Ngee Ann Poly

School food...used to be a dread...but these days, schools compete for students, and have gone upmarket. Today I feature in Friend's Favourites, a brief food tour of Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

In my day in NUS, the best canteen was Eva's Kitchen. While the food was good, the environment was basic. But Canteen 4 of Ngee Ann Poly was like a high end food court in the Orchard belt. Air conditioned, well kept, clean tables and chairs. Very nice.

We were there to try the Beef Noodles, which my friend, a lecturer there, highly recommended. We ordered the upsized portion...increased noodle portion as well as additional ingredients...all for the princely sum of $4.

And a $2 plate of deep fried wantons to be shared.

We helped ourselves to the soup, as well as the pork lard crisps

The noodles were very nice. Cooked to perfection. The noodles were like the ones used in wanton mee...yellow, thin, springy, and very nice texture. The beef sauce was very good as wel...thick, smothering, and savoury. Within, boiled white radish accompanied...I found the radish to be quite flavourful. And the beef itself...very good. Contained slices of beef, brisket and tendon. All extremely tender, and very flavourful.

For dessert, we took the campus bus to Blk 72, to try out the brownie at Fahrenheit 8, a very interesting stall for artisinal ice cream set up as a social enterprise by the students.

They make the brownie on the premises. It was nice, chocolatey, but I did not find it very special or unusual. I was expecting some bits of semi-melted chocholates within, and perhaps some nuts. But this was just a plain brownie. The ice cream we had was salted caramel and rum and raisin...both quite good.

Interesting place to go for lunch, though the canteens get rather crowded during meal times, the food was excellent, and the pricing unbeatable. Recommended.

Noodle stall
Blk 43 Ground floor, Canteen 4.
Bus stop is Bus stop 4.

8 Fahrenheit
OurSpace@Blk 72
Ngee Ann Polytechnic

Hochiak takes a break today...back on Thurs.

Peranakan Cuisine: 2004 Novena Peranakan

Peranakan food is special, being peranakan, our home cooked comfort is of this genre, and as generally Peranakan womenfolk are good cooks, we are pretty pampered when it comes to good food.

As a result, many of us never venture to try out peranakan restaurants when we eat out, because home cooked is best...often because of familiarity, and also as mom would say, "mine is better and cheaper!"

Anyway, I am filing two stories on peranakan food...one this week and another next week. The focus of this week's posting is on 2004 Novena Peranakan Cuisine.

We started the meal with the iconic peranakan dish...Ayam Buah Keluak

First taste...very good. Nice flavours. The buah keluak is a bit more meaty than most I have eaten, so a bit mild on the nutty flavours, but very tasty. The chicken is very good, cooked till very tender. Gravy excellent.

The Ngor Hiang was next.

Another excellent dish. The skin...a beancurd style covering was crisp, very light, and not greasy at all. Within, stuffed chunks of tofu, water chestnut and meat. Very nice.

The Beef Rendang looked a bit different from what I am used to

A bit lighter in hue than the typically dark beef rendang. The flavours were very good. The beef was very tender, perhaps a higher end cut of beef was used instead of the more sinewy, tougher cut used traditionally. And the rendang was done wet, with gravy. I found this to be good.

The Bakwan Ketiping was next

It was served sizzling hot in a claypot. The soup was clear, savoury and tasty. A bit robust tasting. The bakwan was very well done. Tender, but still retaining the slight chewiness typical of a hand made bakwan.

The Fish Head Assam Curry was one of their signatures...

I found this to be quite superb. The assam gravy was superb. The brinjal, ladies fingers, tomato and pineapple made a nice addition. And the fish head was very fresh, beautiful fragrance only a fresh fish can provide. Two thumbs up for this fish head curry. Some of my lunch companions lament that they prefer a lemak version, but for me, the assam curry was the star.

A portion of sotong with sambal

Nicely done. Not too spicy. The squid (sotong) was fresh, lightly cooked, and retained the springiness and light crunch with a creamy mouthfeel.

Sambal Prawns

Freshness of ingredients are paramount. The prawns were beautiful. Not too large, bite sized. But very fresh, with the wonderful crunch, and a light whiff of the sea, even through the light sambal sauce.

And of course some vegetables, instead of the usual sambal kangkong, we elected the Kangkong to be done with a garlic sauce.

Also quite good...the vegetable was young, fresh, and lightly stir fried.

Highly recommend this restaurant. Reasonable prices, very good cooking.

2004 Novena Peranakan Cuisine
273 Thomson Road
#01-02 Novena Garden
6256 1430
Daily: 11.30am – 3pm, 5.30pm – 10pm

Tomi Sushi: Eating Japanese

Japanese food in Singapore is a mixed batch, especially after one's palate has known the wondrous pleasures of eating Japanese in Japan.

There are some good ones, even very good ones outside of Japan, to be sure. But they tend to be rather expensive.

One interesting aspect is that in the Japanese cities, the restaurants are generally specialized. If one feels like a tempura, one goes to a specialist tempura restaurant. If sushi, then to a sushiya. If one craves an unagi, then a visit to the unagi specialist is in order. But in Singapore, most Japanese restaurants are generalists. Even sushi-ya known for their sushi and sashimi often serve a soba or udon, and the odd tempura. Tomi Sushi is one such generalist.

Tucked in a corner in Velocity, it is one of our go to places for a nice, clean, Japanese meal. They have Sapporo on the tap

Cold, smooth, with a beautiful head, this is a wonderful beer served from the tap, vom fass as the Germans would say...why use a German term to describe a Japanese beer? Arguably, the Germans have been attributed to first have brewed beer, or at least spread its brewing techniques all over the world.

On order for dinner was a unaju, a grilled unagi with sauce served on a bed of steamed Japanese rice.

The unagi is quite superb. Creamy meat, beautifully barbequed, with a slight hint of charcoal. I found the sauce smothering the eel to be a bit on the thick side, but it was easy to overlook, as the meat was superb.

We also had an order of mixed tempura

Rather good...the batter is very light, crisp, if a bit...only the very slightest bit, on the greasy side. The prawn, fish, and vegetables are very fresh. Very good indeed.

The chawanmushi takes 15 minutes to prepare, and is quite delicious too

The egg custard was smooth, with chicken bits, ginko nuts, prawns and crab sticks. Very good.

And a cold soba accompanies

Not unusual, de rigeur soba. But really nothing to complain. The noodles were nice, smooth, a bit of the buckwheat flavour still lingering.

Quite a good place for a Japanese meal. Not spectacular, but above the more commercial joints like Sakae Sushi and their ilk.

Tomi Sushi
Novena Square, Velocity
6255-2355
11:30-15:00 17:30-22:00(open daily)

Song Fa Bak Kut Teh

Bak Kut Teh...a curious name...pork rib tea, loosely translated. But a venerable staple of local food, it combines the rice staple and good old pork ribs in a soup.

I am not sure of the origins of the bak kut teh, but many ascribe the beginings to come from coolies who needed a good solid breakfast or lunch to carry them through a hard day of labour. The rice provides the carbohydrates and the pork ribs the protein. The soup, herbal or peppery provides nutrition as well as hydration.

Interestingly, this is one dish which traditionally, can be served for all the main meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Song Fa, if I remember correctly used to operate at Blanco Court before it was demolished to become the now Raffles Hospital. They are now in South Bridge Road and in Changi Point. Their style is the peppery one, though less peppery than Ya Hua.

We ordered the premium pork loin ribs...long boned pork ribs. The meat was very tender, if a little mild. I found the soup to be very mild...preferring the more pungent version of Ya Hua.

The braised pork leg was quite good, nice, tender, flavourful. And for the healthy concious, not very fat.

The braised peanuts are exquisite. Very nice indeed.

The kiam chye is quite nice, and not too salty as the dish can sometimes tend to be. A rather refreshing dish.

I seem to remember their soup to be much more flavourful in the days back at Blanco Court. But the current version is still very nice, and robust, perhaps they are reacting to the feedback for a less peppery version. Still highly recommended.

11 New Bridge Road #01-01
7.00am - 10.00pm Closed on Monday
6533 6128

Chin Mei Chin: traditional toast and kopi

Chin Mei Chin is an old establishment in Katong. Rumours abound that they were going to close, but I confirmed with the owners...and they do NOT have any plans to call it a day...yet.

The kaya toast is a bit different from the ones by Killeney and Ya Kun, it is served on a toasted bun, spread with their home made kaya and a rather large slice of butter. Beautiful.

The bun is toasted just right. A light crisp, with a very nice, smokey, charcoal flavour. And moist and fluffy within. They also serve a dark bun with raisins, which I found to be even more shiok.

The kopi is rather good too...dark, robust, with just the right amount of condensed milk. Very nice.

Highly recommended.

Chin Mee Chin Coffee Shop
204 East Coast Road
63450419
8.30am -4pm Closed on Monday