Friday, February 20, 2015

Singapore Culinary Chronicles... Part X

My second morning in the latest Singapore sojourn began on a really hungry note. I dreamt of great food through the wee hours of today, with my salivary glands in full action. This can probably be classified as the gastronomical equivalent of a wet dream...
I needed a heavy and hearty breakfast. And I did not have the patience to head out to Balestier Food Market, so I rushed to the Toast Box outlet in Zhongshan Mall.


Oh man...
Toast Box had a long queue of hungry Singaporeans waiting to buy breakfast... All of them looked hungry. Their faces seemed to say that famine would descend upon Zhongshan Mall if they didn't get their breakfast soon... 


My time to place the order...


It had to be the Mee Siam... 
Made of thin rice vermicelli in a gravy of coconut and tamarind, Mee Siam is a Peranakan adaptation of Thai flavours...
My Mee Siam was generously garnished with hard boiled eggs, bean sprouts, spring onions, diced raw tofu and fried tofu...
The gravy was warm, sweet and tangy with a hint of chillies... It was the perfect breakfast to end the anticipation that my dreams had built up...
I ended the breakfast with a stiff Kopi-O... the legendary caffeine kick of Singapore! And then I was good to head to Pulau Ubin!


After the longish walk through Kampong Glam and the Malay Heritage Centre, I landed up at Bugis Junction, where I was seduced by the varied, exotic juices on sale...


And there were Chinese burgers on sale... pork-cabbage, vegetable and egg...


The colours of juices are so enticing...


Oh wow... Avocado juice! That indeed is exotic!


And some more juices...


My pork burger...


My avocado juice...
Cool and refreshing for a hot and sultry afternoon, the juice was lightly sweetened, appropriate for my palate...


This was hardly a burger. It was more like a stuffed and baked baozi...
Unlike the traditional steamed baozis I had in China two years back, which were quite thick, these were baked and considerably thinner...
The pork and cabbage filling was delectable and appropriately spiced... 
"Who the hell can underestimate the joy that pork delivers?", I exclaimed to myself with a loud and hearty oink-oink! 


After visiting the National Museum of Singapore, I headed to CHIJMES, where I hoped to have a caffeine dose...
Disappointment was in store for me - the Toast Box outlet here was closed for Chinese New Year celebrations...


Roaming around CHIJMES, I discovered Carnivore, which sounds like a place just perfect for me...


They promote their Brazilian-themed barbecues saying "Carnivore Brazilian Churrascaria is a buffet experience with a twist; expertly served by our knife wielding Passadors (meat waiters), satisfying customers with succulent meats right onto your plates."
Doesn't that sound yummy?

Unable to find a decent drink at CHIJMES, I headed back to Balestier - this was my going to be my first meal at the Balestier Food Market on this sojourn...



The Yu Sheng (鱼生) counter at the Balestier Food Market...
Yu Sheng is a Teochew-style salad, also consists of strips of raw fish (most commonly salmon), mixed with shredded vegetables and a variety of sauces and condiments...

Yusheng is often served as part of a multi-course dinner, usually as the appetizer due to its symbolism of "good luck" for the new year...

The diners add ingredients while saying auspicious wishes, as each ingredient is added, typically related to the specific ingredient being added. For example, phrases such as niánnián yŏuyú (年年有余; "may there be abundance year after year") are uttered as the fish is added, as the Chinese word for "surplus" or "abundance" (余 ) sounds the same as the Chinese word for "fish" (鱼 )...

All diners at the table then stand up and proceed to toss the shredded ingredients into the air with chopsticks while saying various "auspicious wishes" out loud, or simply "lo hei, lo hei" (撈起, 撈起, meaning "scoop it up, scoop it up"). It is believed that the height of the toss reflects the height of the diners' growth in fortunes, thus diners are expected to toss enthusiastically... (Source: Wikipedia)

When I met Neeti, she mentioned she had participated in the Yu Sheng tossing yesterday... What fun it must have been... 


I chose the "tried and tested" chicken rice!


The rooster seems to say "Come eat me!"


Here comes my healthy and light, but immensely delicious chicken rice meal-set!


And it had to be durian-ice for dessert... Man, I love stinky durian!


The after-dinner walk down to the I-Tec Supermart, a neighbourhood supermarket on Balestier Road yielded rich pickings... 
Lingham's - the legendary hot sauce from Malaysia, Chinese sausages, Bee Cheng Hiang bak-kwa and a can of stewed pork loin... Man, this rocks! My larder will turn into pork paradise soon! I have to come back to I-Tec to get belachan - shrimp paste in a day or two...


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