Gator Cooks - Braised Pork with Soya Sauce

Gator has been cooking and has been trying out some recipes with varying success. This post and the upcoming post are strictly non-halal.

The first dish - Braised pork with soya sauce is a typical dish served in many Malaysian and Singapore Chinese families. It is commonly known in Hokkien ( a Chinese dialect spoken in Malaysia and Singapore) as Tau Eu Bak. Tak Eu meaning dark soya sauce and bak as pork.

It is very simple recipe and the result is pretty good. I adapted my recipe from this Malaysian blog (http://kyspeaks.com/2011/03/06/ky-cooks-tau-eu-bak-braised-pork-belly-with-soya-sauce/)
The author of this blog is pretty hilarious.

The main ingredients are :

• Pork belly
• 8 dried mushroom - I left it to soak for about half an hour and cut away the stems
• 1 or 2 cinnamon sticks
• 10 cloves
• 1 Teaspoon of 5 spice powder
• 2-3 hardboiled eggs
• 3 tablespoon of dark soya sauce

Gator first brown the pork belly with about 1.5 tablespoons of dark soya sauce on each side of the belly. And then Gator basically added all the ingredients (except the eggs) together with about 1litre of water. Try to add in enough water to just cover the pork belly, push the pork belly down with your ladle occasionally and basically simmer the liquid with the pork to a thick broth. You don't want too much liquid but also just enough gravy to eat it with steamed rice. Add the hard boiled eggs last. Finally, Gator "rest" and cool the pork for about 10-15 minutes before slicing it.

And now, some pictures..

The aftermath - after slicing the pork

A pile of pork

Sliced pork with all the codiments - suggest to remove all the spices before serving so that it looks more pleasing

Tucking in - what a gooey mess

This receipe is basically quite successful and its pretty authentic. Thanks to KY blog :) Warning: It does look very messy and sticky but its a great comfort food. It is also very important to select the right cut of the pork belly - with just enough fat. If the pork belly is too lean, it kinda defeats the overall purpose of this dish. And if there is too much fat, the dish will be way too oily and you will feel quesy after eating it.

End the meal with a nice pot of pu-erh tea.

Sweet Revenge Patisserie, 4160 Main Street

Sweet Revenge was introduced to me by a dear friend of mine. Gator tried going there recently but there is always a large crowd of people waiting for a table. We took the chance to go there one evening and thankfully, the waiting time wasn't that bad.

What I really like about Sweet Revenge is the ambiance. I really love the red walls and the tea set. The only drawback - Sweet Revenge is only open in the evenings till late at night. So, if you go there after dinner, you might have difficulties getting a table, particularly since the place is really small with less than 10 tables. Even if you go get a table, it can be stressful at times seeing the huge line-up and at least for me, I feel pressured not to dilly-dally, pay up and go.

The quaint table setting - it matches with Gator's hat

Everything matches here - it is pleasing to Gator's senses

Each corner of the wall has some unique pictures - its an eclectic mix.. Since its Halloween, Sweet Revenge has taken an effort to include some unique decorations - I spotted a head inside a fishbowl and a portrait of Mona Lisa morping into some skeleton.  Our side of the table seemed pretty normal and uneventful.

There were small picture frames on our side of the wall.

A little skeleton head overlooks our meal

Now, comes the yummy bits. We ordered two types of desert - creme brulee with blackberries and Sweet Revenge with vanilla ice-cream on the side. I liked the creme brulee, although Gator must confess that I prefer a classic flavour. Unfortunately, they only had 2 seasonal flavours - blueberries or raspberries. The Sweet Revenge was a pretty little cake but I much prefer my cake with a bit more sponge - still, it went very well with the vanilla ice-cream on the side.

I must say that this creme burlee does not look appetising - looks like with blueberry chickenpox. But it sure is yummy

One lonely raspberry on top

The Sweet Revenge cake - with its acronym, SR

It has a crumbly texture - Gator prefers a smoother feeling to my cake

Slowly devouring the SR

Of course, nothing completes desert with a cup of tea. Gator is fussy about tea and Gator totally approves of the tea at Sweet Revenge. We ordered a lavender rosehip - it had a nice scent and was quite calming. The temperature of the brew was perfect. Also, I love the teacups. Probably from Royal Albert - I did not check. It was a daintier version of Gator's own tea set.

Pretty tea cup and saucer

Gator loves the gold coloured rim

Lovely little rim

The large pot of tea - love the rosehip bits

Overall Experience:

Deco: 4/5 - lovely place. A bit cramp though
Quality of food: 3.5/5 - cakes are great but not excellent
Value for $$: $$$/5
Overall Experience: 4/5 - service was pretty efficient but I felt so pressured to leave, seeing the line-up forming just in front of me

Tenhachi Japanese Restaurant - 1125 West 12th Avenue

Sorry for being incommunicado on this blog. Been swarmed with a multitude of things. Hungry Gator is now back in action and promises more exciting news! Gator has been eating in a lot lately except for some interesting episodes. Should take pictures of home cooked food. But usually too busy and hungry (hehehe).

Tenhachi is a quaint little Japanese restaurant located at a lobby of a service apartment and/or hotel. They served home cooked food and it came highly recommended from a Japanese friend. As Gator was there to celebrate an occasion, we decided to go there for a splurge. Verdict: It was worth the experience. Gator was fortunate that the meal was a treat - otherwise, I will be eating instant noodles for a number of days :)

We ordered two sets - Una Don and Katsu Don. My dinner companion thought that the Katsu Don was good but was not the best. I personally liked my una don set - the eel was done very well. And both of us enjoyed the miso soup - it was rich, flavourful, had choke-ful of vegetable and and not the standard salty miso paste.

I thought my eel was done beautifully

I really like the egg - goes very well with the breaded pork and rice

A close-up shot of the breaded pork

This ought to be one of my the best miso soup I had.

We also ordered tempura as an appetiser. There was a little signage on the table stating that food is cooked using Oil Guard which contains less saturated fat and makes food crisper. We asked the waitress about details of the Oil Guard and she proceeded to ask the kitchen staff. She came back and asked us to check the website for further details because they bought the oil directly from the supplier. That was interesting - we thought that they would have done some research on this beforehand.

Nevertheless, we had our tempura. I would not say that it was the best but it was pretty good.

Our prawn tempura platter

Catching prawns by the tail :)

Trying out this photo app

We concluded our meal with sesame ice-cream. Gator loves it - Yum Yum!

Our sesame ice-cream with sesame powder. Beautiful!

My black seasame ice-cream: one of the best that I had

The deco of the place was really quite interesting - a bit retro and somehow stuck in the time zone of the 1970s. I love it though - it added a more interesting atmosphere to our dining experience.

Our dining area

Overall Experience:

Deco: 4/5 - very quaint. Gator likes it :)
Quality of food: 4/5 - Me thinks its pretty good
Value for $$: $$/5 - its pretty pricey. The dinner came up to be around 60 bucks including tips. I later found out that they have an early bird special (20%) from Tuesdays to Sundays between 5-6:30pm. Urgh - should have gone there earlier. See http://www.facebook.com/pages/%E5%A4%A9%E5%85%AB-Tenhachi-Japanese-Restaurant/161346733905275
Overall Experience: 4/5 - I had a lovely time; service was excellent. We left our car keys and our server came out looking for us.

The Battle of the Wanton Mee Noodles at the Lion City

In Singapore, wonton noodles is generally spelt as wanton which means something very different in the English dictionary. I suspect that wanton mee is a Hokkien (a Chinese dialect) derivative. But I can't be sure.

One of my favourite hawker food in Singapore is wanton noodles. So, the first place I ate straight after arriving from the airport is Eng's noodle house at Tanjong Katong Road. This store has an illustrious history. 3 generations have already eaten at this place - My grandparents, my parents and my generation. And so have many who lived near the Katong, Joo Chiat and East Coast area.

Eng's have moved to a spanking new place at Tanjong Katong Road. You used to be able to pay for SIN$2.50 or CAN$2 dollars for a bowl of noodles but now, the price has increased to about SIN $4 or CAN$3 which to me, is still very reasonable. Uncle Eng told us the main reason for the increase in price was his monthly rental, which is now around a 5 figure range. Crazy but a true state of reality in urban Singapore. But at least, he has his own outlet - the place is cooler and he has a bigger pool of staff to help him.

Eng's story started in the 1950s. His father, nicknamed Panjang which means tall in Malay started selling wanton mee in a push cart. I can't take a picture of his entire storyboard at his new place but here are some extracts.

Eng's dad - with copy of his first hawker licence issued by the City Council of Singapore

The young Uncle Eng

Finally, the moment I was waiting for - the wanton noodles. Eng's noodles is famous for his spicy chilli. In the past, he will put it as part of your noodles but now its served separately so customers have control on the amount of chilli.

The char siew is sliced quite thinly but the entire combination is heavenly

Close up of the wanton.

Uncle Eng's mother used to make the noodles when she was alive. Delicious!

Over the next few weeks, I ate wanton mee at least another 3 times. For breakfast, I had wonton mee at Haig Road market. This wanton mee store was there for years at some old canteen called Hollywood - why Hollywood? All because the canteen was located near a cinema. A nostalgic walk down to memory lane for me. My granny used to buy for me their wanton noodles every weekend.

Wanton mee cooked in a different way - more of the brown soya sauce effect rather than chilli

The noodles have a slightly more wet effect than Eng's

Gator's mandatory bowl of wanton - I ate everything up :)

Finally, Cho Kee Noodles at Old Airport Road. A family friend ordered this for me with no char siew. I much prefer having the char siew in my wonton noodles

The wanton here is pretty smooth

The chili here is so-so. Its a bit wetter version

The verdict - Eng's wanton mee is still my favourite choice after all these years. When my dad was alive, it was his favourite too. It was our favourite hang-out place at a humid and hot hawker centre, sitting down, eating our noodles and chatting. One of the simple pleasures of life.

Hawker's Delight - 4127 Main Street

The word "hawker" usually denotes a person who goes from place to place selling food. And that basically is the origin of the phase hawker food in Southeast Asia and Asia. In the early colonial days, many of these itinerant hawkers were unlicensed and over time, strict controls were implemented to ensure food safety and for better controls in sanitary conditions. The term hawkers eventually evolved from an itinerant trader to one which became settled into a fixed place - where people usually congregate to eat cheap and good street food. The hawker centers are now an ubiquitous feature in many parts of Asia and its a great way to savor a variety of street food.

I was thus very excited to try out the hawkers delight at main street. Actually, the place is pretty gritty itself - small and hole in the wall place and where one can see the chefs frantically stir-frying food in huge iron woks over the hot stove.

For appetizers, we ordered vegetable fritters. I have to say that the dough was pretty light and bouncy and it was so crunchy. Gator loves her fritters.

Crunch veggie fritters

The inside of the veggie fritters

For main course, we ordered two dishes. The mee pok noodles were a HUGE disappointment for me. It came choke full of ingredients - bbq pork, prawns and vegetables. But the brown sauce was weird. The sauce was salty and came with minced meat.Traditionally, the sauce should come with a bit of spicy chilli sauce, mixed with soya sauce and vinegar - it should be spicy, salty and a bit tangy. The sauce served unfortunately was just salty and lacks the oomph factor .Mee pok refers to the type of noodles and can be served with wanton or even with fish balls, fish cakes or minced meat.

Mountain of mee pok noodles

Gator loves her shrimp but the sauce wasn't nice at all :(

View of meat in noodles

The second main course - nasi goreng (in Malay) which means fried rice  was much better. Even then, I found it pretty ordinary - it was fried with onions, tomatoes, shrimp and some pieces of fish cake and tofu. Nothing much to rave about.

My fried rice paradise wasn't much of a paradise :(

Close up shot of the nasi goreng

Overall Experience:
Deco: 2/5 - this is a no fuss, eat and go place. No problems for me in that aspect
Quality of food: 2/5 - except for the veggie fritters, the 2 main dishes were a thumbs down for Gator. Quite disappointing
Value for $$: $$/5 - price is cheap - between CAN$5.25-CAN$9 bucks. But the quality of food is below average
Overall Experience: 2/5

It was an overall disappointing experience for Gator. Hopefully, the other dishes like the laksa will be much better.

Dragon Ball Tea House, West King Edward Avenue

One of my favourite comfort food is bubble tea. It is like a perfect ending to an Asian meal. And my all-time favourite bubble tea place is Dragon Ball. I usually have mango slush without pearls. Tons of people have told me that they don't see a point of me having bubble tea without pearls. Don't get me wrong - I like those  sago pearls but I don't enjoy the experience of sucking those pearls from a straw and chewing them. I much enjoy having them as a desert - coconut milk and sago in a proper desert bowl.

One of the reasons why I really like Dragon Ball is that the drinks are really not that sweet. The place does get busy in the evening but service is pretty prompt. Dragon Ball opens at 2pm till midnight so I usually go there in the evenings or late at night.

My two favourite orders - mango slush and purple taro slush

If you are a blueberry fan, you will enjoy this drink

I tried a couple of flavours at DragonBall - including logan, strawberry and horlicks. But I always gravitate towards my favourite mango slush. Yummy!!

A note of warning though - do not think about parking at the back of the building. Apparently, there are frequent patrols and your vehicle might be towed. So, if you drive, parking your car at the Saveway parking lot (opposite Dragon Ball) is the best bet.

A notice put up by Dragon Ball - there are designated parking lots for DragonBall customers.

I have never ordered their snacks at Dragon Ball. The pictures of their snacks don't look very appetising. I usually grab the bubble tea as a takeaway. Another note of caution: this place only accepts cash.


Overall Experience:
Deco: Limited sitting capacity. Dragon Ball does look a bit old and tired.
Quality: 4/5 for the drinks - The place has become my benchmark for all other bubble tea joints. Whenever I have bubble tea at other places, I always comment that I prefer Dragon Ball.
Value for $$: $$$$/5 
Overall Experience: 4/5 - What can I say?? I am addicted to this place.