Japanese curry & cabbage

I was on leave today, and decided to prepare some lunch. Since we'll be going over to a friend's place for a gathering and dinner later, there won't be a chance to cook dinner, so I thought I'll cook the Japanese curry which I'd been planning to cook, before the potatoes decide to sprout!

I've had tubers sprouting at home, right on the food shelf, until they look like alien things, like the "alienated" sweet potato.



Anyhow, I cooked the Japanese curry using S&B brand of Medium Hot curry paste, as the SO is not quite into spicy food, but it didn't taste a teeny bit hot at all - even the SO said so. I think even if they come out with a Extra Hot version, it would still barely taste a little hot for our Asian palettes.

Here's the chicken curry with the "disappearing" Hokkaido potatoes. I've added some ground coriander and chicken stock to add more flavour.




The market stall had these Hokkaido potatoes on sale, so I bought a couple of big, round tubers to try. When raw, they had the texture of crispy apples!

During the process of cooking, they've somehow disappeared, leaving me with barely half the quantity of potatoes in odd, tiny shapes. I thought I'd scoop them up into a separate bowl before there was nothing left!




The lunch, served with steamed rice.



The Beijing cabbage at this time of year tastes extremely sweet and crunchy in texture. Stir-fried simply with garlic, fresh young ginger and a bit of chicken stock, it tastes so fresh and sedap!

Yummy hawker food

We were at People's Park area for a bit of shopping yesterday, and ate quite a lot of food...too much, perhaps! In the late-afternoon, I felt hungry (having had only a light lunch) and went to galivant around the hawker centre for food.

The SO wanted to reprise his past yummy experience with the chee cheong fun, but in the end, we choose a new item instead from the same stall, i.e. chee cheong fun maki with zhar2 jiang4! We forgot to take photos of this item but it had bits of carrot and cucumber strips and meat sauce rolled in thin, smooth layers of egg crepe, seaweed and chee cheong fun (steam rice pastry), then cut up to look like rolls of maki. It was yummy, with 6 large rolls at $3.

Later, we also consumed the following:
:P


Amoy Street Fried Oyster (Orh Luah, min.$4 for a tiny plate)

Pot Stickers (Guo Tia, $6 for 12 pcs) and Hot & Sour Soup ($6, enough for two) from Tien Jin Feng Ji

Closed-up of the hot and sour soup which had lots of liao/ingredients

I felt very full after all that binging and right until bedtime. :P

Christmas dinner at Sakura

On a whim, we went to Sakura restaurant for dinner on X'mas day. It came to almost $30 per head, including 7% GST, which was slightly more than the usual price.

I noted the food was a bit different from the usual too, since it was X'mas, but of course, the usual favourite Japanese items like sashimi, sushi, etc. were all there. What was new among the appetisers were the pink prawn sashimi, the smoked salmon appetiser with some mango mayo sauce and smoked duck breast with orange mayo sauce. The hot items too, had some new items, including steamed prawn with garlic & butter*, yam ring, etc. (I can't remember coz my interest at buffets is always on the appetisers).


(* Maiden photo attempt with new hp camera)

In addition, there was roast turkey with stuffing*, honey baked chicken ham* and X'mas log cakes. Both the turkey and chicken ham were so-so. I'm not a dessert person, but I did like the green tea (minty) cake and chocolate log cake.

The bonus was when the chef brought out the scallop sashimi after the pink prawn sashimi ran out. That was like "Wow!" coz it's the very first time I've seen scallop sashimi at Sakura after all these years. We were lucky to have spotted it as we were seated just beside the sashimi platter...heehee! While it wasn't fantastic, it wasn't too bad either, so overall, it was a nice and rather satisfying dinner.

Guess the fruit

Just for fun, guess what fruit this is?

The package actually says "fresh fruit in syrup". :PP





I bought it at the market yesterday, but haven't tried it yet. While at the market, I had this exchange with the fruit seller (in Mandarin):

Me: (Intrigued, confused and peering intently at the fruit package) What is this?
Seller: This is good. It is xxxx (name of fruit).
Me: Got seeds inside?
Seller: I don't know, I haven't tried it yet.
Me: You haven't tried yet, then how you know it's good???
Seller: *speechless....*

*cues comedy music*
Gwa gwa gwa gwaaaaa!

Ikoi Japanese buffet

We went to Ikoi for the a la carte buffet lunch which I'd heard so much about, mostly about the fresh sashimi that's good value-for-money. We didn't eat a lot, but I felt so full after eating most of the sashimi, and a bit of everything. The staff also gave out free soup, perhaps to fill up our stomachs faster? Kekeke...

It was about 12pm, so the lunch time crowd hasn't arrived yet.


Anyway, it wasn't a full house during the lunch, though I was told it's wise to book at least 2 to 3 weeks in advanced for dinner.

The complimentary appetiser - sake sashimi in a slightly sour (plum?) sauce.


I didn't know what that crispy stick of vegetable was (maybe mung guang?), but it was nice and the slightly bitter taste of raw dou miao contrasted well with the sauce...yum!

All tables were "decorated" with a bowl of edamame (Japanese green beans) and soramame (broad beans) that we could eat while waiting for our orders to arrive. Well, we sure don't want to eat too much of these at the start, since they're apt to create gas in the tummy.



The first dish I ordered - mixed sashimi, which has sake (salmon), maguro (tuna), mikajiki (swordtail), tako (octopus) and a dark fish (right next to the octopus) which might be hamachi (yellow tail)? I couldn't be sure coz I'd never had yellow tail before this.


The above is one person's portion. The sake was sweet and tasted great with just a teeny dip of soya sauce. The fish sashimi was generally quite soft, and everything was served cold, which is good.

Then came the yakitori (skewered chicken), tebasaki (mid chicken wing) and california handroll.
Perhaps we could have skipped the chicken wing, and I think I didn't taste any avocado in the california handroll ?


By the way, everything came in 1-piece portion per order, so if you want want more than one, you'll need to specify.

Then came the saba shioyaki (grilled mackerel) and agedashi tofu which came in a tiny piece - about 1 square inch each. These were good, except the tofu was a bit over crispy / hard at the top.



They started serving us the complimentary sake/miso soup. It has salmon, toufu and bits of vegetable. I guess it wasn't too bad except that it was too salty, so we hardly drank the soup.



Mixed tempura with prawns, shitake mushroom, sweet potato, brinjal and ladies finger...generally ok, though I think the batter was a little hard and too thick.


I guess if the batter mixture is too thick, i.e. not enough water, too much of it will stick to the vege, making the fried product hard, instead of light and crispy

The potato croquette was nice, with a curried layer in the middle. These 2 tiny pieces are considered 2 portions.



Ahh...more complimentary teapot soup which had a prawn head inside. The squeezed lime was definitely needed.



I ordered this by mistake, thinking it was soft-shell crab (which wasn't available). It's just one piece, but look at the way it's presented!



California maki, but as one can see, there was no avocado. :-(



Of course, I had to have another portion of sake and tako sashimi. It's just one portion but look how generous they are!


They were very good, but as we get more and more full, the law of dimishing returns sets in and my level of satisfaction per mouthful goes down somewhat...

The SO had the yaki udon, which was not bad.



Stewed meat and potato dish (niku jaga) - the dish that I want to learn to cook!



Broiled tofu (Atsuage tofu)



There were no desserts but there was free flow of hot green tea - all at a price of $33++.

While Kuishin-Bo has more variety, dinner there costs $46++ and it is impossible for anyone to eat everything from the buffet table, and I'd barely eaten one-third of the food the last time I was there, so I guess this smaller Ikoi buffet at a cheaper price is good enough for me.

Eat and eat trip (part 3)

Our wonderful eating trip continued.

After the day trip to the pottery village of Dan Kwian, we went back to Korat main town, and boy, were we hungry even before we got off the bus! And it was only around 5pm... We headed back to the same restaurant where we had the late dinner on the first night in Korat to have a snack, since we'd planned to eat dinner at the night market later. The restaurant staff recognised us (of course, we were the only ones who couldn't speak Thai and could only gong gong smile at them, what!).

They have the most yummy fruit "shakes" - they're called shakes on the menu, but I think they are more like fruit slush. Made from fresh Thai honey mandarins, coconut juice or other fresh fruits, they are simply delicious and so refreshing!



We ordered a seafood salad...but there were only fried prawns, and the salad came with 2 types of dressings - a home-made mayo dressing and a lighter vinegary dressing. The grape was not part of the salad.



Prawn cakes - we were surprised there were 6 very decent pieces served with sweet pineapple



Braised fish noodles - this "snack" turned out to be large enough for 2 full servings!



All in all, very satisfying, and very good value for money! Highly recommended. :-)

Our visit to the night market didn't yield anything spectacular, and since I was still feeling full from our earlier "snack", I didn't stuff myself further, but the SO had the seafood noodles from the roadside stall near the hotel for supper (that was when we met the baby elephant).

We went back to the hotel cafe for a night cap and I had Thai ice milk tea.


I've always wondered why their ice tea looks so orangy, even those found in Singapore. Knowing the famous Thai sweet-tooth, I'd asked for less sugar (narm-tam nit noy in Thai), so the tea tasted very good and just right.

The next day, we walked around the vibrant street along the Memorial area before leaving for Phimai.

These grilled bananas looked very good, but I forgot to try them.



The street-side market stalls selling peeled pomeloes, sugar cane, preserved tamarind (assam) , water chestnuts (I think) and the horn thing traditionally associated with the Mooncake Festival (dunno the English name?)





Here's a stall selling pan-fried gu-chai kueh, Chinese style



At Phimai, we had a hard time looking for something decent to eat as the Bai-Teiy restaurant seemed to have moved away, and it was made worse coz hardly anyone there spoke English.

We had no choice but to eat the duck noodles at our guesthouse, and yes, it came with pieces of curdled blood ( duck blood, I presume) - not satisfying nor filling. I didn't like it and didn't finish it.


We saw a French guy walking around looking for some substantial Thai zhi-char food, so we can understand it must be worse for him.

In the evening, we had snacks at the night market, though only selectively coz some food wasn't cooked and were quite exposed, so we had to play safe.

After asking around, we finally walked like 2.5km in the semi-darkness to find Bai-Teiy restaurant, and had some real food. This was where we found the one and only Korat cat (outside the restaurant).

Phad Siew (dry hor fun)



Fried Hokkien mee (different from our local version)



Kai-lan stir-fried with roast pork (very fatty roasted pork... wrong choice!)



Unfortunately, I can't say the food was good. It was rather oily and quite average lah! Besides, prices were on the high side for this type of so-so standard...a bit disappointing after all the trouble we took hunting for the restaurant.

Oh well, sometimes you win, sometimes you don't.

(to be continued)

" Tortoise beans "

Dear ksn, this is "Tortoise beans" aka 乌龟豆 in Hokkien lor.

According to Wiki, they are called green beans....so I understand. :P




I read in a Chinese cookbook that says these beans must be properly cooked, or they may be toxic or contain undesirable substance (or something to that effect), and definitely not to be eaten raw.

By the way, there is now a slimmer version of these beans which are more crunchy and faster to cook...very nice to eat.

Pasta Aglio Olio (vegetarian version)

After having it for lunch at Basil Alcove (which was very good), I've decided to cook it myself, and save 9 bucks per serving... Heheh.



I didn't have the red chilli powder or whatever, so modify the recipe a bit. It's got:

- lots of garlic
- about a quarter cup of olive oil for 2 servings (or slightly less oil)
- mushrooms (white, brown and portobello)
- zuchini which I like very much
- red and green capsicum
- cut red chilli (seeded and de-veined)
- "tortoise beans" i.e. 乌龟豆
- a little bit of water added after everything above was stirred and mixed

Agar agar seasoning:
- 1 tsp of salt (for 3.5 servings)
- ground black pepper
- paprika
- lots of chopped Chinese parsley

Yum...(if I may say so myself), and quite satisfying.

Eat and eat trip (part 2)

After touching town in Bangkok, we proceed to take a bus straight to Nakhon Rachatsima (aka Korat). The trip took almost 4 hours.

Inside the Bangkok to Ratsima bus



Service on these long-distance coaches are quite good, we were given a sandwich and a coke, and along the way, the lady attendant would serve us more cups of coke and water.

The triple-layered sandwich with ham and pork/chicken floss...quite yummy.


Luckily, there is a toilet on board the aircon coach.

I also bought the Thai green mango to munch on the bus. This version comes with a sugar-chilli-powder dip. There's another version had a spicy sauce that looked like rojak sauce as a dip.



By the time we reached Korat, it was almost 9pm. At the bus terminus 2, we took a tuk tuk (50 baht) to the hotel. After checking-in, we went out, hoping to find some nice dinner. Most of the shops were closed by then, although there was a roadside stall near the hotel selling noodles which wouldn't be satisfying for us after having travelled for the whole day.

After about 8 minutes' walk, we saw a small cafe/restaurant and promptly went inside to try out luck. We were lucky that night!



The food and fruit shakes/freezes were very good and also good value for money! I was very satisfied with my Tom Yam Seafood soup which came in a mini steamboat. The SO had the E-mee and Chang beer. The prik nam pla (chilli padi in fish sauce) was also supplied voluntarily...yum!



We spent the next day exploring Korat town, and the surrounding streets to look for breakfast. We found a market and also a vegetarian restaurant a few doors away from the hotel.

Snacks seen at the market:





Some glutinous rice snacks which we didn't try.





I can't remember exactly what we had for breakfast, but we must have eaten some street food like yu tiao (fried dough fritters) and some really yummy pastries from Sweet Home cake shop. The pastries were freshly made and so good that we walked back to buy some more.

There was this fantastic pastry that had a small sausage and bits of pork floss in it (6 baht)




We passed by this shophouse that sells porridge (chok) and SO had a bowl of pork porridge

The interesting thing is most shops only sell their food and soft drinks or water, but they don't serve hot beverage, so we headed back to our hotel's cafe for tea and coffee. The freshly-brewed coffee was good, except that they used non-dairy creamer seemingly everywhere (instead of fresh milk).

The nice, cozy cafe at the hotel



There's a framed photo of the Thai King and Queen in their youth, and some car models in the background.

We explored the town a bit before proceeding to look for the bus to take to Dan Kwian, the pottery village. Along the way, we passed by this rustic eating place where the locals were having lunch, so we joined in.



The remains of our noodles soup (with char siew aka bbq pork & fish cake) and Phad Thai



Cold water with ice was free, but the SO cautioned me not to drink their water or ice, although I did drink it at some point during the trip when I forgot.

After lunch, we went on to look for the bus to Dan Kwian. Along the way, we saw a "push-cart" food stall selling food. When I saw what a lady customer had bought from the stall, I couldn't helped but asked to take a photo.

It was coagulated blood, which is no long available in Sg! The lady said it's chicken blood (in English). There were two huge chunks of the "kwey huiek" (Hokkien translation my own) and just a little noodles in her bowl. :P

We dare not try it lah, although I'd eaten curdled pig's blood as a kid.

At the Korat night market, we also found other foodstuff which we dare not eat.
Fried crickets, maggots, and other creepy crawlies...

(to be continued)