Singapore Culinary Chronicles... Part XI

Before heading out to Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, yesterday, I stopped by at Balestier Food Market for some breakfast.

Much to my delight the stall selling fish ball soup was open...

I first had fish ball soup at Hong Kong International Airport and have been completely in love with this hearty dish ever since...

Rice noodles and the springy, chewy fish balls make the dish filling, while the flavourful stock makes it heartwarming...

A breakfast in Singapore without Kopi? No way...

My Kopi-O being prepared... It's a lot of hardwork at this kopitiam at Balestier...

A taste of heaven right there in my cup of Kopi-O...

A late afternoon break after walking through Little India brought me to Toast Box at Bugis Junction...

Trendy kopitiams like the Toast Box and Ya Kun Kaya have been pit stops where Singaporeans - young and old, congregate and catch up with friends...

Finally snack comes with another cup of Kopi-O - Oh man, I am totally addicted to this bitter-sweet nectar...

In case you were wondering what my snack was, while I drooled on my Kopi-O, it was pork floss toast...

Pork floss or rousong (肉松) as the Chinese call it, is dried meat with a light and fluffy texture similar to coarse cotton. It is made by stewing cuts of pork in a sweetened soy sauce mixture until individual muscle fibres can be easily broken down with a fork. This happens when the collagen that holds the muscle fibres of the meat together has been converted into gelatine. The meat fibres are then strained and dried in the oven. After a light drying, flavourings are added and the meat is mashed and beaten while being dry-cooked in a large wok until it is nearly completely dry...

My pork floss toast was crisp with a thin layer of kaya and a thick layer of rousong on it. It was a unique blend of sweet, sour and umami... 

Today, after returning from Botanic Gardens, we had a late lunch - chicken rice and roti prata... The plates tell you how hungry we were...

And then dinner... sea food fried rice... extremely flavourful... Indeed an exciting meal before we head to Kuala Lumpur...

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 yú) sounds the same as the Chinese word for "fish" (鱼 yú)...

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...

Singapore Culinary Chronicles... Part IX

The second part of my culinary discovery of Singapore has begun and what better to start it off than the Telok Ayer market or Lau Pa Sat, in the Downtown Core...

Thankfully, for me, the bugs in my tummy were already washed out in the morning at Changi and I followed it up with a dose of the nauseating Norflox-TZ as prescribed by Papa at about 9AM. Four hours of roaming around the Downtown Core and a brief meeting with Neeti at the One-North MRT had worked up quite an appetite in me...

The Telok Ayer Market, or Lau Pa Sat, bears an uncanny resemblance to Mumbai's Crawford Market...

On my last trip to Singapore in August last year, I had passed by Lau Pa Sat, but I could not visit this legendary marketplace...

In the early 19th century, the market was a simple wooden building, located on piles just over the waters of Telok Ayer Bay and hence the market's name. (Telok Ayer means "water bay" in Malay)

When Telok Ayer Market first opened in 1825, it extended over the sea and jetties leading from the market allowed stuff to be loaded and unloaded directly onto boats. The structure wasn't sturdy enough and was repaired many times until 1836 when it was decided that a bigger market was needed

Architect Coleman, who designed quite a bit of the downtown area in the 1800s conceptualised an octagonal building with ornamental columns at the entrance. The redesigned market opened in 1838 and stood until 1879, when it was demolished to make way for land reclamation

After completion of reclamation the Telok Ayer Market was reconstructed in 1894, on reclaimed land and was designed by an engineer, James MacRitchie. MacRitchie adopted Coleman's octagonal shape, but added cast-iron supports to strengthen the structure

Lau Pa Sat was gazetted as a national monument on 6 July 1973. The market was again reconstructed in the 1980s after the development of the area as the business district and construction of the MRT. The latest building remains true to MacRitchie's and Coleman's designs and the cast-iron supports that were incorporated in 1894

The elegantly designed cast iron supports give a Victorian feel to the market...

Being the new year, there were hardly any crowds around...

With my tummy bugs convincingly getting defeated, it was time to try out something real, something new and that had to be something really meaty!!!

Qiu Lian Ban Mian met my "requirements"...

The chain is was set up in 1988 and is named after Ong Qiu Lian, a housewife who came up with a delicious soup recipe and chili sauce formula. That sauce found its way into ban mee (flat wheat noodles) at Qiu Lian Ban Mee...

Undoubtedly, the ban mee here is quite popular...

I appreciated the architecture as I waited in the queue to order...

"Please don't take so much time!"

The braised pork belly looked yum...

After an agonising wait, my order was ready... lip-smackingly meaty and delightful...

I relaxed a bit after my meal appreciating the design of the market...

And I found my nirvana at the Kopitiam!

There isn't anything as close to a heavenly nectar than the bitter-sweet Kopi-O

The cast iron supports are truly a work of art...

These supports were fabricated in Glasgow in the 1800s and bear the inscription of the manufacturer, W. MacFarlane & Co.

After the late lunch at Lau Pa Sat, and long 7 kilometer walk around downtown and into Chinatown, by 7PM I was famished again...

An early supper was calling out to me and it had to be at the iconic Maxwell Food Centre in Chinatown...

Again, this was a place I had missed during my last trip here but I had to experience the food here this time around...

Set up in 1935, this marketplace, then known as the Kim Hua Market was home to butchers and fishmoners. It was redevoped in 1986 and food-hawkers moved in...

Today, the Maxwell Food Centre is a landmark destination for food freaks, locals and foreigners, alike...

The entrance to the market suggested what one could try in here...

I chose Sisaket Thai Food...

The elderly gentleman took my order of Balachan Fried Rice...

This is a classic Malay-Thai dish...

Started off as a solution to deal with rice-leftovers, the fried rice is essentially rice tossed around in a hot wok with belacan (shrimp paste), shallots, ginger and a touch of soya sauce...

My dish came alongwith some stir-fried chicken, julienned cucumbers and fiery red chillies...

The fried rice was quite yummy - it smelt pungent and spicy. It tasted of the sea, a unique flavour imparted by the belacan, made from fermented ground shrimp mixed with salt. This is such a cool ingredient that I must take home!!!! 

I strolled through the alleyways of Chinatown, which bore a deserted look...

Most Chinese were indoors celebrating the new year...

But the durian shop that I had visited in Chinatown last time around was open...

I ordered a durian milkshake to beat the unbearable heat and humidity...

The milkshake was the right antidote to the heat...

Durians on sale...

These ladies walked out not being able to figure out what all this fuss about durians was... as they say in Hindi - बंदर क्या जाने अदरक का स्वाद or "What would a monkey know of the taste of ginger?"