This week, our spotlight falls on delicious Teochew-style braised duck. Find out which stalls put us in a fowl mood!

Part of the reason is because this post was such a fond memory. This year’s gathering wasn’t as big as the previous year’s, but this meant we could have more cosy interaction.

Sundried tomato bread served with hummus, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil

The event was meticulously organized by Ivan, who had taken the trouble to do a prior taste-test and put together a special menu for us. Thank you, Ivan!

Kicking off dinner was homemade tomato bread. With crackly crust and warm, fluffy insides, the artisan bread was really addictive. I’m sure we polished off at least two large baskets of bread! [Thanks so much for being my beautiful hand model, Eevon! ]

Crabmeat Cake with Avocado top with Mesclun Salad, Beetroot Paint & Balsamic Reduction

The crabcake — delightfully thick, juicy, bouncy, and bursting with savoury, umami goodness — was a unanimous crowd-pleaser.

Short Tube Pasta with chunks of Tuna in Homemade Tomato Sauce with Capers, Olives, Chili, Garlic, Basil, White Wine & rich Fish Broth

Next up was pasta. This was indeed a very luxurious pasta course. See how superbly fresh and pink those thick chunks of fresh tuna were! Loved the rich tomato sauce which had great complexity of flavors.

Sea bream blanket with crispy Brick Phyllo on Butternut Pumpkin Puree top with Tomato Salsa

Main course was a choice between fish or veal. Most of us picked veal. But when we stole bites off the plates of the fish-eaters, we regretted our choice.

Breaded Veal Scallopine pan fried in Butter glace with Veal Jus, Cherry Tomato Salsa & Lemon Wedge

The breaded veal was well-executed. But flavor-wise, the entire dish was a tad rich and gamey for my liking.

Pistachio Financier with Strawberry Salsa & Mint

By the time dessert came, we were already very stuffed. The previous courses were rather hearty in size (especially the pasta), so ending off the meal with this dense financier meant we weren’t able to give it due appreciation. Most of us also commented that it was very sweet.

Miss Tam Chiak in action!

Besides the bloggers, we had two guests from Pantry Pursuits, who very generously sponsored some prizes for a lucky draw!

Great food, but even more wonderful was the company we had. I was really happy to see old faces – some whom I’ve not seen for ages – as well as new ones. We should do this again more often, peeps!

Some bloggers have already put up their posts. Check them out (I’ll add on to the list when other blogs are updated):

1. Miss Tam Chiak
2. The Dirty Stall

Michaelangelo’s
Blk 44 Jalan Merah Saga
#01-60 Chip Bee Gardens
Singapore
Tel: +65 6475 9069
URL: www.michaelangelos.com.sg

Who’s hungry for murtabak? Click here to see where to go for your murtabak fix!

If you *heart* mango sago as much as I do, check out this taste test to find out where (and where not) to go for your fix of mango sago!

Luscious tomato + apple baked ham + herb focaccia = Simple but very nice sandwich!

What a wholesome start to a sunny weekend! This delicious breakfast sandwich was assembled in a flash. Here’s what I did:

1. Split focaccia into halves. Toast lightly on both sides using a non-stick frying pan (use a griddle if you want grill marks).
2. While waiting, slice tomato. If necessary, cut ham into appropriate size.
3. Spread butter on inner sides of focaccia. Layer on ham and tomato.
4. Enjoy with hot coffee or tea!

Clockwise from left: Big pork bun (S$1.50), mini char siew bao (S$0.70 each), siew mai (S$0.60 each)

Yesterday, I was waiting for SBS bus service 16 in Joo Chiat Road when I saw D’Bun just behind the bus-stop. Ah, let’s buy some 包 (bao / Chinese steamed bun) for hubby’s breakfast, I thought to myself. They have the usual selection of handmade bao and dimsum, available for takeaway only.

Beginning with the siew mai, the meat was smooth and bouncy, but not particularly tasty. Not bad, but neither was it spectacular.

Cross-section of big bao

Hubby and I share-shared the big bao. The interior had a decent amount of meat and egg. The pork filling was tasty, but not juicy enough.

Cross-section of char siew bao

No such issue with the char siew bao. The filling was most luscious! The char siew was deliciously sweet and sticky, with a faint fragrance of oyster sauce.

Because this was made into a mini-sized bun, the dough was thin, sufficiently soft and delicate. In terms of satisfaction, the char siew bao beats the big bao, hands down!

Nearly as small as siew mai, these dainty char siew bao are rather pricey, considering they’re half the size of a regular-sized one. But they’d be great for a tea party or dimsum spread where you don’t want to fill up so quickly or you wanna reserve tummy space for other goodies.

D’Bun
358 Joo Chiat Road
Singapore 427603
Tel: +65 6345 8220
URL: www.dbun.com.sg

Open daily: 8am – 10pm

My mom used to make her own fishballs and fish cakes at home. She still does, but not as often, due to age and declining health.

Sometimes, she’d set aside some fish paste to make yong tau foo, and I’d help her to stuff them. Taupok was the easiest. The trickiest? Bittergourd rings!

These days, many yong tau foo stalls in hawker centres and food courts “short-cut” by getting their supplies from external sources. Hence, their yong tau foo lacks that home-made quality which I miss so much.

Thankfully, there are still a handful of vendors who continue to make their own yong tau foo, including processing their own fish paste from scratch. Read this story to find out where you can find these dedicated yong tau foo masters!

MIL hinted that she’d like Indonesian food, so we made reservations at Tambuah Mas. This was our first time at the Paragon outlet; previously, we used to go to Tanglin Shopping Centre, which we remember as being good and consistent.

Tahu Telor, S$8.00

First to arrive, the dish that everyone orders at Tambuah Mas: their signature tahu telor. It didn’t disappoint.

Tahu=beancurd, telor=egg. Very simple ingredients indeed, but in the hands of a master, they can be transformed into a magical dish.

Some places have a tendency to over-fry or make this dish too oily, but Tambuah Mas’s version was relatively light. The egg batter was crispy and airy, while the large tofu cubes remained warm and soft. A light drizzle of kecap manis (dark sweet soy) added sweetness without being too cloying.

Sate Ayam (1/2 dozen), S$10.90

Another crowd-pleaser was the chicken satay. Loved the tender meat (they used chicken leg) and the spice marinade that was aromatic without being overwhelming. The accompanying peanut dip was deliciously rich and nutty.

Kepala Ikan Istimewa (1/2 fish head), S$22.90

I never fail to order this at Tambuah Mas — fish head simmered in sweet-spicy-tangy assam gravy. The gravy is very distinctive, with exceedingly well-balanced flavors. Somehow, that piquantly wicked gravy just whets your appetite for more. The fish head was fresh and meaty with no hint of fishiness.

Perkadel Ayam, S$6.00 (2 pieces)

So far, the main stars were impressive. What about the supporting cast?

Perkadel aka bergedil aka potato croquette with minced chicken. Nice, but not particularly memorable. Rather pricey too, but then, each croquette was nearly as big as a fist!

Sayur Lodeh, S$6.00

The sayur lodeh (cabbage, long bean, and beancurd simmered in coconut gravy) got the thumbs up from MIL for its gentle scent and mildness. The aromatics were warm and fragrant, while the gravy wasn’t too lemak (coconutty), resulting in a light and pleasant vegetable curry.

Kailan in oyster sauce, S$8.00

Another vegetable dish, cos it’s good to eat more greens! This stir-fry is actually more Chinese than Indonesian.

Ayam Goreng (1/2 chicken), S$10.90

Hmm, we really regretted ordering the ayam goreng (fried chicken). The meat was SO dry and tough! It was a very small serving, but even then, we couldn’t finish it. So hard to chew!

Soto Ayam, S$5.00

Because the soto ayam (chicken soup) arrived barely warm, it got cold really fast. The broth was fairly tasty, with a mini perkadel and generous amounts of shredded chicken and glass noodle. But once again, the shredded chicken was tough and chewy.

Sweets for my sweetie!

Time for mouthwash! Hehe, that’s what “pencuci mulut” literally means. In Bahasa Indonesian, the term for dessert is “pencuci mulut”, or literally, “mouthwash”. What a colorful saying!

Actually, we were already stuffed, but we couldn’t resist dessert, so we ordered 3 items to share. Can you spot Melissa, our niece, in the background? That was one of the rare moments during the meal when she was very well-behaved. LOL

From left: Es Kachang Cendol, Es Teler, Es Apokat (S$4.90 each)

Thank goodness we didn’t pass on desserts, for they were absolutely fabulous! All three items we tried were all rich without being overly sweet or heavy. The Apokat (avocado shake), which can get rather cloying, was creamy but refreshing.

Restaurant entrance

Our unanimous conclusion: Hits and misses for the main courses, but on the whole, they were decent. I haven’t been back to the Tanglin branch for some years, but I remember standards there were higher.

On the other hand, desserts were awesome. We wanna come back just for the desserts!

Each person was charged S$1.00 for plain rice. Together with miscellaneous charges and taxes, total bill was $125.70 for 5 adults and 1 child.

Tambuah Mas Indonesian Restaurant (Paragon)
290 Orchard Road
#B1-44 Paragon
Singapore 238859
Tel: +65 6733 2220
URL: http://www.tambuahmas.com.sg

Soup Rice with Vegetable & Mushroom, S$5.00

Since she’d been here before, I asked, “What’s good to eat?” Momo replied, “Soup rice!”

Turns out that soup rice is a souped-up version of Teochew porridge. Instead of rice in plain porridge water, it’s rice in tasty soup stock with a choice of meat or veggies.

It was very comforting and, I have to admit, far nicer than I’d imagined.

Stir-fried French bean with pork & chilli, S$8.00

We both love 干煸四季豆, so we unanimously voted to order this classic Sichuan dish! Decently executed, the sweet-salty flavors and slick, crunchy textures paired nicely with our soup rice.

Wanton in hot chilli oil, S$4.80

The wantons were pretty good, but the vinegar-chilli oil dressing seemed rather toned down. Could it be that they automatically reduced the chilli because we had asked them to reduce the chilli for the French bean stir-fry?

Li Bai Drunken Chicken, S$7.00

Big mistake ordering this cold appetizer. The wine was way too strong, to the extent that the chicken tasted bitter. We didn’t like this at all.

Steamed Pork Dumpling, S$3.60

On the other hand, their xiao long bao aka soup dumplings were really good. In fact, we ordered another basket after finishing the first!

Surprisingly, these dumplings held a great deal of soup. The broth was clear and robust in taste. I also liked the fact that they were meaty and not too dainty.

Compared to other established xiao long bao specialists like Din Tai Fung and Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao, Imperial Treasure may not be as well-known, but they can certainly hold their own. To see how five xiao long bao specialists measure up against each other, read this article I wrote for inSing.com.

Total bill was S$40.72, inclusive of charges for tea and taxes.

Imperial Treasure La Mian Xiao Long Bao
6 Raffles Boulevard
#02-138J Marina Square (located at Center Stage, next to Central Atrium)
Singapore 039594
Tel: +65 6338 2212
Open: 11am – 10pm daily

Happy birthday, Singapore! Today, our nation celebrates 45 years of independence. Like many other Singaporean families, we watched the National Day Parade on telly with our extended family at home. How about you?

Xiao long bao aka soup dumplings may not be a local culinary creation, but this famous Shanghai snack is very popular here. In recent years, numerous xiao long bao specialists have sprung up in Singapore. Read this article to find out where to find some of the best xiao long bao!