Cheap N Good Weekends! - Part 1

Singapore is an island that is blessed with lots of good eating places. By that, I am not referring to the fanciful restaurants that we find at all shopping malls. We are talking about streets lined with eateries and our popular food centres that both tourists and locals must check out.

This post will be on a popular food centre that most Singaporeans and even tourists are familiar with.

Indeed, we are speaking of this food centre which gets really crowded in the evenings. Rows of food stalls line the food centre. This place serves what most Singaporeans would say 'local fare at its best'. We arrived shortly before 6pm which is a good time to check this place out before it starts getting packed. We saw famous local treats such as Prawn Noodles, Char Kway Teow, Rojak, Ngor Hiang and freshly made kuehs. What was also an interesting sight was a long queue in front of a stall selling pasta and several food stall serving Western cuisine. Nothing is complete without the Tze Char stalls which serves up cooked food and the seafood stalls.

And so, the first dish we decided to try was the Char Kway Teow. Scouting the place, we were drawn to this stall which had a long queue. This stall was also introduced to us by a member of our Facebook group Makan Time! and so we decided to check it out.

We were in the queue for half an hour and as the legs started to ache, the level of expectation increased. I remember saying "This have better be good!". This stall is called Lao Fu Zi Fried Kway Teow located at #01-12. Pricing starts from $3.00 per plate up to $10.00. Choice to add prawns is available. Operating hours is from 10:00am to 12:00am (Weekdays) and 11:00am to 12:00am (Weekends) with their rest day being Tuesdays.

Here is our order of $4.00 Char Kway Teow with chili and cockles. With the smoke till rising, we dug in and oh... I must say, it was worth the wait. The noodles were tasty and not too spicy. It was loaded with Chinese sausage, beansprouts, spinach, egg and a generous portion of cockles. The plus point being the 'Wok taste' as the noodles were fried over high heat. Nice.

Next up, we decided to try out the Western food. Well well, I have heard of the the London Grill but since there was quite a lot of people eating from the other stall, Holy Grill, we decided to order from the latter. 

Well, the ordering system is pretty simple. Just order a main course and choose 2 side dishes to go along with it. They have a variety of poultry, fish and steaks that you can choose from for the main course. We decided to order a simple grilled chicken chop with sides of baked potato and pasta salad for $5.90. They will serve it to you so all you need to do is to provide them your table number.

Hmm... This was actually quite disappointing. The meat felt a little overcooked. It was not tender but a little hard and dry. The sauce was a diluted version of brown mushroom sauce. The pasta salad was normal and the baked potato was dry and bland. So I guess we should have just stuck with local fare instead. 

Moving on, we decided to try from stall selling seafood. I didn't get the name of the stall but it has a white color signboard and is located opposite the Taiwan Porridge stall. We ordered a dish of Crayfish and since it was a famous stall, we were quite certain that it would be alright.

Perfect. The crayfish was fresh and its natural sweetness preserved in its flesh which is moist and tender. The shellfish was lightly seasoned with salt and steamed. It comes together with chili and lime as side condiments and costs $18.00. The price is not fixed as most Singaporeans would know. Seafood here is charged usually by weight and season so avoid seafood if you intend to stretch you dollar here. Also, from what I hear about this stall, there is no definite operating hours and they do not open every day.

With our stomachs filling up, we decided it was quite enough that we have eaten since we needed to leave some space for our stomachs. So, dessert here we come. 

I guess everyone has heard of Lao Ban Beancurd. They currently have outlets at Maxwell Food Centre and One Raffles Place too. The length of the queue was an approximate of 3.5m long and it is a common sight to see people holding on to several bags of beancurd. Each container of original flavor beancurd costs $1.50. From our observation, the average number of beancurd ordered per customer is 10 containers.

Smooth as silk is its texture and it is light on both the palate and stomach. Every spoon of it is simply irresistible. So it is no wonder that we too, left the place with bags of beancurd too. 

I supposed the next time we come back for dinner here, we will check out the other popular dishes such as Rojak, Claypot Chicken Rice and more. Till then, we will continue to check out other food centres.

Cheers!

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Cook using the Crock Pot for a healthy life

A crock pot or a slow cooker is an instrument which makes the process of cooking food more convenient and also helps to reduce the time involved in performing the process of cooking. The ingredients required to cook the meal can be placed in the cooker in the morning and the food is cooked and ready to be served once you return from work in the evening. This slow cooker also helps to retain the nutritive content of the food that is being cooked. Since the food is being cooked slowly, the vitamins, minerals and the other nourishment contained in the food is not lost.

Food will be even tastier when it is cooked inside a slow cooker or a crock-pot. The flavor of the food that is cooked can be enjoyed since it still contains the goodness of the herbs and the stock that have been used for cooking the meal. The meat that is cooked in a crock-pot also becomes nice, soft and tender due to the moist heat. The cooker should be functioning in a proper manner and the rules regarding cooking using a slow cooker should be followed correctly. This makes the food that is cooked perfectly safe and bacteria free.

Cheap cuts of red meat and white meat get cooked in a much better manner when they cooked in a slow cooker. They also help in saving money compared to expensive cuts of meat. The fat content in cheap cuts of meat is much less than that of expensive cuts of meat. This reduced fat content makes them suitable to be cooked in a slow cooker. A time period of eight hours is required to cook meat properly in a slow cooker.

 

The crock-pot should be filled with food only up to two-thirds of its total capacity. If a slow cooker is filled up to the brim with food, then it will not be cooked properly. But food will be cooked in a much quicker manner when the liquid level is lesser than normal. Food that is placed in the bottom half of the slow cooker will get cooked faster due to the presence of the simmering fluid. When meat has to be cooked, the fat should be removed and the skin of poultry that has to be cooked in the slow cooker should also be removed. Due to the long and slow cooking process, the fat in meat will melt and the completed dish will not taste good. During the last thirty minutes of the cooking process, the setting of the slow cooker should be changed to a high setting so that the juices involved in the cooking process will become thicker and the flavor of the food will be concentrated.

Seafood like fish, which has to be cooked in a slow cooker, should be added only in the last hour of cooking. This will prevent the seafood from getting overcooked. Seafood that has been cooked for too long will have not have a good texture. Ground meats that have to be cooked in a slow cooker should first be fried in pan before being placed in the cooker. Large cuts of meat can be turned brown in this manner before being placed in the cooker, though this is not an essential step. This only helps to give a special flavor to the meat. Vegetables like mushrooms, tomatoes and zucchini should be added in the last forty-five minutes of the cooking process to prevent them from being overcooked. A small amount of Tabasco sauce and cayenne pepper should be added after the cooking time has been completed so that the food does not get a bitter taste. Spices should also be added to the food at the fag end of the cooking duration so that their flavor is not lost when they are mixed with the other ingredients that are needed to cook the meal. Normally, dairy products like curd, milk or butter should be added towards the end of the cooking duration unless the recipe states something different.

If the recipe for the meal does not state that a slow cooker should be used to cook the meal, then the amount of liquid used should reduced by half or at least one third since the liquid in the crock pot does not boil so soon. Slow cookers are easy to use since they can cook food on low temperatures and the lid of the cooker is closed all the time. This helps to avoid cooking accidents like a fire. There are certain types of meat that will get cooked better when they are cooked slowly in a slow cooker.

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Cool stuff from Texas Chicken!

Check out these cool stuff from Texas Chicken! Share this with your friends on FaceBook if you like this!

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Cooking Pasta the Italian Way!

Pastasciutta and pizza are iconic Italian foods . You probably know Spaghetti alla Bolognese, the most known method of preparing pasta in the world. That is just one of the endless possibilities you have to pastas.

Pasta is quick to prepare, comes in many different sizes and shapes, and can be accompanied by an almost limitless number of sauces. You can eat pasta every day and yet never have the same dish appearing before you. Hoever, pasta is very high on carbs , so it is actually not recommended to have pasta for lunch and dinner every day.



 This guide is easy and the instructions are simple to follow. Let's start with a summary of the steps for a perfect pasta :

First, cooking pasta means actually cooking the pasta and the sauce. While cooking the pasta itself is basically made by the one step of throwing the pasta in boiling water, the sauce can be a more complicate affair. I will give you recipes for two easy sauces, which is very popular in Italy. Since the basic steps are more or less the same, you can go on and create your own sauce from there.

Secondly, each type of pasta has a cooking time which is usually indicated on the package. Cook pasta for less than the cooking time, and it will remain hard. Exceed the cooking time and it will become softer and softer. Go well beyond the cooking time and congratulations! You have inedible glue! Italians like our pasta al dente , that means a little hard. You usually get it al dente by cooking it for exactly the indicated cooking time. But since foreigners often prefer their pasta soft, you may find on the package a cooking time that reflects this and advises you to cook the pasta for much more time than an Italian would. Since pasta is cheap, you can throw away a little and experiment until you find your perfect cooking time .

Third point, no ketchup . No ketchup. Repeat with me: No ketchup. Ever. Ok, lets start.

Take a pot , fill it with water for 3/4 of its capacity and put it on the stove, heating it until it boils. Put a lid on, to make it boil faster. When the water boils, add sale grosso or cooking salt. Its salt in big grains of irregular shapes. You can use the finer table salt as it wont change the flavour, but you will need a lot more and its harder to measure the right quantity. You may find that for you, it might be easier to get the right quantity of salt by using table salt. The right quantity of salt is a personal taste affair, experiment until you find yours. Why do we wait until the water boils to add salt? Because salted water takes longer to reach the boiling point .

Adding salt right away will not affect the final flavour, but it will lengthen the time to reach the boiling point. After adding salt, wait half a minute, then put the pasta in . Put the p asta in the water when it boils, not before, or you will ruin it! Wait for the cooking time indicated on the package, stir the pasta often to avoid it gluing to the surface of the pot. Now, cooking pasta is simple and there are no secrets in it. But there is one trick . Pasta is like a sponge: it absorbs the fluid in which its immersed. Cooking it immersed in water is ok, but cooking it immersed in the sauce is better! It will be flavoured by the sauce from the inside . So here's the trick- one minute before the cooking time is over pour one or two table spoons of cooking water from the pot in the pan where you are heating the sauce, then strain the pasta out of the water and pour it in the pan , mixing it with the sauce and ending the cooking time in there. Let it heat for a minute, a minute and a half, then take the pan from heat and serve your pasta. Thats it, true Italian-style pasta .

Now, recipes of the sauces . The first one is a classic, tomato sauce.

Put a table spoon of oil in a frying pan, add tomato sauce, a hint of pepper or finely minced chilli pepper, let it heat for 5-6 minutes stirring from time to time, pour the pasta in the pan, keep cooking for a minute more. When its ready, take out from heat, add a few leaves of basil and serve. Of course you will be heating the sauce while the pasta is cooking in the boiling water.

The second one is zucchini and shrimps . Put a table spoon of oil in a frying pan, add the zucchini, the shrimps (without shells) and spray lightly with pepper. Let cook on low fire for 10 minutes stirring from time to time, then add the pasta and keep heating for a minute more, stirring the mix. When its ready, take out from heat and serve.

There you are. Original Italian pasta .

To save time I usually prepare the sauce and start heating it while I wait for the water to boil and for the cooking time to be over. You can also prepare a variety of sauces in advance and freeze them , taking them out of the freezer when you need them, letting them unfreeze naturally or microwaving them, then heating in the pan while the pasta is cooking up. You can also use industrial made sauces, theres nothing wrong in that. Remember: the only trick is to heat the sauce in a pan, cook the pasta one minute less than suggested, then pour it along with a couple spoons of cooking water in the pan and finish cooking the sauce and the pasta together in the pan .

Buon appetito!

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Khansama Tandoori Village

In Singapore, we are very blessed to be in a multi-cultural society. What does this mean for us? We get the chance of trying out the many different kinds of cuisine. The problem? More often than not, we are spoilt for choice and don't know what to eat. Well, even if we do, we have to decide where. So today, I am very fortunate to share with you this restaurant that serves us good Indian food. They are none other than Khansama.

We arrived at the door and was intrigued at the beautiful ornament and decor of the restaurant. I have been to several Indian restaurants but it usually has a modern touch to it. Indeed, restaurants with traditional decor like this is really less seen in Singapore.

Being handed the menu, we looked through it and was appalled at the wide variety of dishes on the menu. From Veg to Non-Veg dishes, from traditional drinks to alcohol. It was really difficult to decide. So what did we do? Lol, order the drink first. That's the easiest!

Mango Lassi - $5.00

From my understanding, this drink or rather Lassi is a popular traditional yoghurt based drink that is well known to many in our community. This Mango Lassi is a sweet creamy drink made by blending Indian homemade yoghurt and mango pulp. With the humid weather lately, we were very happy to be served this drink which is cold, refreshing and has a distinct Mango taste. I was actually planning to have a second cup. I would say if you visit this place, DO TRY this drink of theirs.

While looking through the menu, I couldn't help but notice the cutlery on the table.

Since we could not decide on what to have, we decided to leave it to them to do the recommendation. Their recommendation was the Non-Vegetarian combo platter, Butter Chicken, Butter Naan, Cheese Naan, Garlic Naan and the Paneer Butter Masala. First up...

Non-Vegetarian Combo Platter - $35.00

This combo platter is a combination of Chicken Tikka, Haryali Tikka, Malai Tikka, Reshmi Tikka, Fish Tikka, Tandoori Prawns, Mutton Kebabs and Chicken Kebabs served hot with mint sauce and green salad. I must commend them on the presentation of this dish. Looking at the platter made me extremely hungry. So we tucked in and it was WOW!

The tandoori prawns were well done and not too dry. I thought that it was interesting how they actually have the aluminium foil in place so you can just hold up the prawn and eat it without having to dirty your fingers. It is good for eating on its own or with the mint sauce that accompanies this combo platter.

Amongst the many different tikkas in the combo platter. A personal favourite of mine is the Fish Tikka. I am not a 'fish' person and the only fish I eat is Dory and Sardines. Lol. I was actually skeptical about trying this because fish pieces this big are usually dry. To my amazement, look at the meat of the fish, the exterior is nicely char-grilled with a moist interior. I couldn't resist it and finished the Fish Tikka that was served on the platter. Just a lil note, tikka actually means bits, pieces or chunks of meat. Next up... Here comes the Naans.

Basket of Butter Naan, Cheese Naan and Garlic Naan

Let me do a brief introduction of Naan. Naan is actually crispy Indian bread that can be eaten on its own or stuffed with other ingredients, in this case butter, cheese or garlic, and roasted in a clay oven with heat of burning charcoal. I will say that the Naans here is a MUST TRY!

Garlic Naan - $3.50

Butter Naan - $3.00

Cheese Naan - $5.50

Accompanying these, the next dish served was Butter Chicken. The dish is made up of boneless barbecued pieces of tender chicken, cooked in thick rich creamy gravy with butter. This is a Non-Vegetarian dish and goes really really well with the Naans. You have to try it!

Butter Chicken - $12.50

For our friends who prefer Vegetarian dishes, there is a particular dish that I think is very interesting. It tastes really good you should order this when you visit Khansama.

Paneer Butter Masala - $10.50

This is the Vegetarian dish that I mentioned earlier. This dish is made up of cottage cheese cubes cooked in rich, creamy mild onion gravy and butter. This is seriously nice and since I have not tried Vegetarian dishes from an Indian restaurant before, I must say that this is good. Initially while we were eating, we thought the the cubes were beancurd cubes or 'Tahu". The texture, however, was much firmer than that so we checked out the menu and ohh... so, its cottage cheese cubes. Goes very well with Naan and just the Naans and these two dishes are good for a meal of 3 persons.

We were extremely full and satisfied with our lunch. We were so pleased that we were planning to make another visit there. After having a conversation with the owner, we realised that they actually have lunch buffets. No more consideration needed, we will be back again.

Check out their buffet at www.whattoeat.com.sg

Info:

Khansama Tandoori Village87 Science Park Drive
#02-01 The Science Hub
Singapore Science Park 1
Singapore 118 260


Tel : 6299 0300 (No reservations needed!)

Its Easy To Get There:

1. Nearest MRT - Kent Ridge (Circle Line/Orange Line). Transfer can be done at Buona Vista.

2. Exit MRT station and take bus 92 at bus stop B15139. Alight 5 stops later at Blk 85 Science Park Drive. Basically, the end of road where you will see a bend/U-turn.

 

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