Makan 2013 Day 2: old local favorites

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I woke up this morning feeling physically drained, so I allowed myself the luxury of not hauling my ass out of bed to jog off the calories.  I guess I'll do that tomorrow morning, after a heavy day of eating today...

I putzed around the apartment in the morning, spending a little bit of time with my aunt who's putting me up.  Eventually I headed out for a very pretty late breakfast, riding out to the middle of Singapore island to find one of the things I just can't get outside of Singapore and Malaysia - decent roti prata.

The last time I went to The Roti Prata House on Upper Thomson Road was almost 10 years ago, just before I moved out of Singapore back to Hong Kong.  It's been touted by many to be among the top roti prata outlets in town, and I have fond memories of the place.  On a trip two years ago, I was just about to get into a taxi to head there when a last-minute phone call from a client derailed my plans.  I've been hankering to go back ever since.  I'm a creature of habit, and I knew exactly what I wanted even before I walked in.

Kopi tarik - you just can't do prata without a teh or kopi tarik.  It's been too long...

Makan 2013 Day 1: farang dinner

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So here goes... My week in Singapore.  Why am I here?  Well... I guess I just wanted to be somewhere else other than Hong Kong, and be away from the office for a few days.  There are a lot of friends and family I can visit in Singapore, and I haven't seen enough of most of them for the last few years.  Of course, there's always food - a good selection of both international fine dining as well as the local stuff.

I arrived late in the afternoon, after a long and slightly tortuous journey - during which I made an unintended stopover at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport.  I HATE stopping over in Bangkok, because they won't let you get off the freakin' plane.  You are stuck on the plane for more than an hour, during which time the cleaning crew come and do their work, and you're not allowed to roam around and can't even use the toilets.  I didn't look carefully enough before booking the cheap tickets online, and this is what I get.

Anyway, I got settled into my relatives' nice apartment with a gorgeous view overlooking Keppel Island and Sentosa, and when dinner time rolled around, led them to Thanying at the Amara Singapore Hotel for their first taste of this old Singaporean favorite.

I deferred to the elders for ordering, as I know they're not as adventurous as I am, and only requested 1 little appetizer...that failed miserably...

Miang pla-tu - this is an appetizer where you're meant to mix and match the ingredients as you'd like, and wrap it all in a leaf along with the sticky sauce made with palm sugar and tamarind.  I mixed in pieces of fried mackerel, peanuts, galangal, lime...etc.  Not bad.

Goin' off the reservation

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A friend of mine pinged us out of the blue a couple of days ago, announcing that he was back in Hong Kong for a few days and that he would like to get together with us for dinner.  While I haven't seen him in a while and always enjoy dining with him, this is kinda bad news for me.

I'm about to go on a week-long trip to Singapore, where I'm just gonna hang out with friends and just eat.  It's no longer about having a couple of cheat meals next week - I'm totally going off the reservation - and tonight's meal just gets me started one day early...

Since the cholesterol sandwich was no longer an option, I suggested that we meet at Guo Fu Lou (國福樓).  These guys have earned themselves a well-deserved macaron, and I was excited about going back after my first visit 2 months ago.

Our friend's moved to Korea for the last couple of years, and we got to talking about how, when you move to other countries, it's always the really cheap and local Cantonese stuff that you miss... because it can't be found elsewhere.  High-end Cantonese isn't an issue in many countries, but just you try ordering a simple plate of good char siu...  With that in mind, we decided to go for some of the more homey dishes tonight.

Deep-fried bean curd with spicy salt (椒鹽脆豆腐) - uh... methinks they were a little overzealous with the frying...  I don't need my tofu to be THAT crispy...

A hazy shade of winter

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I've been remiss in keeping in touch with some friends, and haven't seen them in over a year.  I finally found some time to round them up for lunch today, and figured we should go have some dim sum at Above and Beyond (天外天).  I figured since a couple of us were on the Dark Side, we could meet up over here once in a while.

We were up on the 28th floor, with a nice view over Hung Hom and Victoria Harbor.  Unfortunately the skies were very hazy today, and it wasn't the usual beautiful view.

We ordered mostly a series of dim sum items, and ended up adding when particular items weren't enough to ensure each of us could have a taste.

Losing mojo

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It was supposed to be our last lunch with him.  There had been persistent rumors that Jeremy Evrard, our beloved mâitre d' at Caprice, would be leaving Hong Kong.  We had recently heard that Jeremy would be leaving at the end of the year, so we hurriedly booked a table at our beloved restaurant so we could see him one last time.

I was greeted at the door by a hostess who knew me by sight, which is always a nice touch.  Once I stepped foot in the restaurant, I saw Peter and was immediately relieved.  Another familiar face who could take care of us.  But there was no sign of Jeremy, the person we had come to see, and we were sad to learn that he was taking the day off.

The plan had been to do a cheese lunch, but with Jeremy MIA we eventually decided to stick with the set lunch and have cheese in lieu of dessert.  I do have to say, though, that there weren't many dishes on the set lunch menu that jumped out at me... and minutes later I would be accused of being a "copycat" by No Fork Use as I ordered exactly the same dishes as she did...

"Crispy puff pastry" with Mimolette powder and creamy jamón ibérico filling - not bad, but the éclair was not very crispy.  I had to chuckle when my chef friend at the table commented that it tasted like Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Crackers...