Cheng Delicacies - Authentic Hainanese Curry Rice 正宗海南咖哩饭 ............ Good Fried Pork Chop with Hainanese curry

Cheng Delicacies is tucked in a "secluded" area in Tiong Bahru. When you reach the restaurant, you'll find that the place seems quite "laid back". The big sign board that says "Authentic Hainanese Curry Rice" sticks out prominently from one of the shophouse pillars.

The chi char style restaurant at the corner of Yong Siak street ..........

You can order the a serving chicken chop curry rice at S$4.80. My lunch buddies and I ordered a little spread to share. The following's what we had and I find them good.

The little spread that we had for 4 person ....................

The Hainanese pork chop that comes with a separate serving of curry so that you can eat it with or without curry. This is very crispy and the pork is tender inside ...........



The Hainanese curry chicken is a nicely cooked chicken in thick curry. This curry is a bit different from the one that comes with the pork chop ..........



Fried tofu with mince meat ..........



Cost : About S$12 per person

Address : 27 Yong Siak Street

Tel: 6223-7883

Opening hours: 8.30am to 8pm (weekdays), 8.30am to 3pm (weekends)

Country : Singapore

Butterflied Cuban Style Pork Chops

As you well know, I really love pork chops, but I needed a new idea for the fresh new package in my fridge just waiting for an adventure. I went to the Food Network site (best site in the universe), typed "pork chops" and picked the very first one that came up. The recipe, designed by Bobby Flay, had my eyebrows raised for a moment, but all the different flavors combined really added up to something delicious! If you're in the mood for an adventure, I highly recommend this recipe.


Ingredients
3/4 cup fresh orange juice
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1/3 cup coarsely chopped fresh oregano leaves
6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup canola oil
4 (8-ounce) pork chops, butterflied and thinly pounded
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 (1/4-inch) thick slices Swiss cheese
8 (1/4-inch) thick slices boiled ham
2 sour dill pickles, thinly sliced (need about 16 slices)
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves
1/4 cup olive oil

Directions
Heat the grill to high.
Whisk together 1/2 cup orange juice, 1/4 cup lime juice, 3 tablespoons oregano, the garlic, cumin, and canola oil in a large baking dish. Add the pork and turn to coat. Cover and let marinate for at least 15 minutes and up to 2 hours in the refrigerator.
Remove the pork from the marinade and pat dry. Place the chops on a flat surface, cut-side up and season with salt and pepper. Place 1 slice of cheese, 2 slices of ham, a few slices of pickle and another slice of cheese on 1 half of the chop. Fold over brush the top with oil and season with salt and pepper. Repeat with remaining ingredients.
Place the chops on the grill, oil side down and grill until golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Flip the chops over and continue grilling until the bottom is golden brown and the cheese has melted, 2 to 3 minutes longer.
Whisk the remaining orange and lime juices, oregano, and the cilantro with the olive oil and salt and pepper, to taste. Spoon over the chops and serve.

Tanglin Halt Original Peanut Pancake ............... thick tangy pan cake!

The pancake is good stuff. It's thick and tangy. The aunty is generous with the peanuts.

When I open the styrofoam box in my office, the fragrance just gush out ...........

Thick pancake with generous serving of peanut ...............

I intended to eat 1 and share the rest with my colleagues. In the end, I ate 3 and shared 1. That's just how good it is. As for the peanuts, I like it from Tiong Bahru Peanut Pancake stall. The highlight of the Tanglin Halt pancake must be the tanginess of the pancake. Best!

I was there at 8.15am and there was only 1 person after me. Surprise that there's no queue (I heard a rumour that you'll have to be there at 7am). How lucky.........

Cost : S$0.60 for 1 piece of panut pancake, S$0.60 for 1 piece of red bean pancake, S$0.90 for 1 piece of yam paste pancake 

Address : 48 Tanglin Halt Road, Stall 16, Tanglin Halt Market

Opening Hours : 5am ~ 11am. Closed on Monday.

Orzo with Feta and Tomatoes

Okay, so maybe this isn't exactly a weight loss dish, but it is melt-in-your mouth delicious and will compliment many of your main dishes. Thank Rachael Ray for this one!

Ingredients
1/2 pound orzo
Salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup feta cheese crumbles
A handful of parsley leaves, chopped
1/2 pint grape tomatoes, halved
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Heat water in large sauce pot to boil and add pasta, cook to al dente.
Melt butter in the pot while still hot and combine with feta. Add cooked pasta to feta butter and toss with parsley and tomatoes, season with a little pepper.

Lunch at the Bar Room at The Modern

I polled several friends before heading to New York and the restaurant at the Museum of Modern Art, The Bar Room at The Modern was recommended over and over again. I wasn't the only one in town eager to dine there, Alice of Alice Q. Foodie put together a lunch of fellow food bloggers Lisa from Homesick Texan, Deb of Smitten Kitchen and Gourmet food editor and all-around nice guy, Ian Knauer.

When eating with foodie friends, it's de rigeur to over order, share, nibble off each other's plates, and generally get lost in conversation and that's a perfectly good description of my final lunch in New York. Service was never rushed, helpful and proactive but not pushy. Even in an incident that will surely require dry cleaning, the staff showed themselves to be consummate professionals.

Here's what we ordered to share, the Modern Liverwurst, with pickled vegetables. It was a very refined version and there was plenty to share.


An Alsatian thin crust tart with creme fraiche, onion and applewood smoked bacon. I adored this and could have eaten one for lunch with a salad. It was a combination of crisp crust, creamy with melting onions and smoky flavors.


I must admit I ordered the homemade Alsatian country sausage with turnip choucroute and whole grain mustard because I feared I was not going to have time for a Papaya King dog. Turned out I had two of them at the airport. Really, there is no comparing the snap of a garlic hot dog to a homemade sausage except to say both were delicious, succulent and tremendously satisfying.


My final entree was one that most of the table also ordered, the finest duck confit I have ever eaten with a lovely pool of passion fruit sauce. It was tender, crisp, and so rich that sadly I couldn't eat the whole thing.


Last but not least, we had an order of beignets with various sauces. They were light and puffy and positively wonderful. And how could we not order them when an order worked out to one per person? Really, the food, service, not to mention charming company, were without fault. Thank again to Alice for making all the arrangements.


A few more blogger reviews of the Bar Room at The Modern:

Alice Q. Foodie

The Gastronomer's Guide

Manger La Ville

Yaokui

The Amateur Gourmet

Shun Xing ............... 50 cents you tiao 油条 and xian jian bing 咸煎饼

Shun Xing was awarded a 5 chopsticks rating from Makansutra for their you tiao 油条 and xian jian bing 咸煎饼. There is a variety of coffee, pandan bean and the original salty xian jian bing 咸煎饼 to choose from. It's still S$0.50 per item but I think that the sizes have shrunk some over the years. It's still tasty though. 

One other way to eat you tiao 油条 : Sometimes I like to dunk it in kopi-o and then eat it.

Cost : S$0.50 / item

Address : Blk 163 Bukit Merah Central #02-46 Bukit Merah Central Food Centre

Opening Hours: Mon-Sat 9am-6pm Closed on Sundays & Public Holidays

Country : Singapore

Pierogies

If you are a salad lover, such as myself, but find yourself in a salad rut, might I suggest these fun little potato dumplings to your leafy cuisine. Now I don't know if pierogies are an eastern thing, or if I just never discovered them until coming back east, but I finally just bought some, not having any clue what to do with them. Fortunately I rediscovered them in my freezer while suffering from the salad-blahs and found them to be fabulous on my bed of greens. They are small or large dumplings usually filled with a potato and cheese combo, they are soft, warm and velvety and give a great contrast to your crunchy lettuce. My favorite dressings are either french, or any kind of vinaigrette. Mmmm, go get some!

Raku @ Greenwood Avenue .......... Japanese cuisine out of the city bustle

Raku serves a variety of Japanese food. There's sashimi, sushi, grilled, noodle and so on. Raku has 3 outlets, one in Holland Village and Greenwood Avenue. I've been to the Holland Village outlet before and find that the lighting is a bit to dim. Readily available parking in Holland Village will be quite a distance away if you do not like to brave the car park wait at the nearest Holland Village public car park. At Greenwood Avenue, parking is available as there isn't a crowd like in Holland Village. 

The following are the dishes that I liked :

The bowl of yasai and the miso based dip - S$6 (standard welcome starter). I like this little welcome starter, a bowl of Yasai bowl that is filled with fresh crunchy cabbage, cucumber and carrots. A miso based dip is served together with the vegetable............

Anago Sushi - S20 for 4 pieces (seasonal eel, grilled and topped with a little sauce).

Raku Special Maki - S$20 (Maki with salmon wrapping fillings of unagi and soft shell crab) ...............

Raku Maki closed up ...........

Tenderloin Beef - S$30. I did not eat this but my wife and friends all liked this tenderly prepared beef................

Aji Shioyaki (Grilled Aji mackeral) - S$38.00. The texture of the fish is much better than the frozen mackerals but at a price of course. Frozen mackerals are available at S$12.

Seafood fried rice - S$24. This seafood fried rice is prepared with plenty of garlic which makes it very fragrant. Have a mint after this dish ................

Address : 10 Green Wood Avenue

Tel : +65 6219 9447

Country : Singapore

Ku De Ta ............ one of the top end dining in Bali

Ku De Ta provides one top end dining experience in Bali. The restaurant has a beachfront address and has its own boutique and even boast its own beach music. Ku De Ta provides for the full day dining experience. They have breakfast, lunch and dinner menus. On top of that, there is the "grazing" menu for finger dishes that you can enjoy while "grazing" the afternoon away till you see the beautiful sunset on the beachfront deck chairs facing the Indonesian ocean.

The beachfront sun bathing section of Ku De Ta ..........



"Grazing" view from Ku De Ta ..........



Do reserve a table especially if you are in Bali during the peak season.

Ku De Ta is along the Seminyak beach which is a popular surfing stretch where you can oogle at the bikini babes and surf dudes.

Outside the restaurant, you can see the boutique and memorabilia shop ............



The dining area ..............



The following are the food that I would recommend.

APPETISERS :

Salt and Pepper Soft Shell crab ...........



8 hours pork belly .........

MAINS :

Roasted Beef Fillet ..........

Grilled Seafood Platter ...............

Chermoula crusted grouper fillet ..........

Confit duck leg ..........

DESERT :

Brulee 4 ways (orange, coffee, chocolate and vanilla) ..........

Cost : RP 450 000 / person

Address : Jalan Laksmana , No. 9 Seminyak Bali

Tel : +62 361 736969

Country : Bali, Indonesia

Website : http://www.kudeta.net/

Leong Yeow Chicken Rice ............... for Roast chicken rice

Leong Yeow chicken rice stall is one of the stall in the Albert Center Hawker Centre that has a long queue.  Their roast chicken rice is the popular dish. I ordered the roast chicken rice and asked specifically for breast meat. Many chicken rice stall will have dry chicken breast meat for their roast chicken. However, Leong Yeow's roasted chicken meat under the roasted skin is still not dry like in many places. They are quite generous as they even gave me soup in a plastic container for my chicken rice take away.

S$3 worth of roasted chicken rice ................

Address : 160 Queen St #01-63 Albert Center Temporary Market

Opening Hours : 10.30am - 7.00pm

Country : Singapore

Tanglin Halt Western Food ............... for pork and chicken cutlets

Tanglin Halt Western Food has good pork and chicken cutlets. The pork chop is good too! This is one of my favourite budget western food. You have a choice of rice instead of fries. The rice is cooked with ginger to get it more fragrant. Michelle Chia "endorsed" it in one of the Mediacorp food shows.

The variety of cuts that the stall provides .................

S$4.50 pork cutlet with an additional "sunny side up" for S$0.50 ...............

Address : Blk 448 Clementi Ave 3 Clementi Central Market & Food Centre

Country : Singapore

Fu Ming Cooked Food ............... for fried carrot cake

Fu Ming Cooked Food is known for their fried carrot cake. They are given a 5 chopsticks rating by Makansutra and were voter best carrot cake by taxi drivers in a TV food show. Fu Ming make their own carrot cake. Some fried carrot cake have to be mixed well before the dish can taste well. However, Fu Ming's carrot cake is so tasty that you can "even eat it on its own". What I meant was ........ I was picking on the chunks of carrot cake that were not coated by the eggs and they still taste fragrant without the egg coating. Fu Ming still sells S$2 carrot cake.

S$2 white carrot cake ...............

Address : Blk 85 Redhill Lane #01-384L Redhill Market

Opening hours : Mon-Sat 5pm-3am, Sun-Mon 7am-3am, Closed on Thursday

Ya Kun Kaya Toast @ China Street ............... nice place to "la kopi"

Whenever, I have the coffee and toast at Ya Kun, I cannot help but remember my late grandmother during the days when she was a vegetable seller and I was still very small. I recalled that she would buy her "Kopi-O" and the kaya and butter toast when I followed her to the transit market "铁巴刹". The transit market was built during the years that Lau Pa Sat was undergoing major facelift. It was in the transit market when I first eaten Ya Kun's toast and coffee. I think the standards of Ya Kun did not change since then .......... comment only pertaining to the flag ship outlet.

Ya Kun became a big household name when the family business started its branding to bring it up-market. Until now it has a pretty impressive franchise empire. There are even Ya Kun outlets in Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia and The Philippines.

I just like the Ya Kun at the flag ship outlet. The Ya Kun quality is consistent here. The toast good. The half boiled eggs made just right and the kopi-O fragrant.

............... the Ya Kun flag ship shop in a restored shophouse.



................ inside the shophouse where it is clean and spacious. There are some alfresco tables outside the shophouse.



................ the S$3.70 breakfast set.



............... the famouse kaya and butter toast



I find that the other outlets have insconsistency in their quality. Well maybe its the way that I like the toast, the eggs and the coffee made. Taste buds are rather personal to each and eveyone. To me Ya Kun kaya and toast have to be eaten at the china Street outlet.

To add to that, if you ever have the time on a weekday morning, you can see strings of people coming to the outlet or walking by to the office. I'm a people watcher. If you're one like me and have the time ......... this is the place to "la kopi" in the morning. It can add to one's life pleasure especially when you are on leave, sipping your cup of kopi slowly, and seeing people rushing to work.

Address : 18 China Street #01-01 (Flagship shop)

Tel :+65 6438 3638

Website : http://www.yakun.com.sg/