Little Cravings (112 Katong)

When craving, indulge!

We were stuffed from Mother's Day lunch at Canton Paradise (which, for the record, has this century egg with wasabi mayo dim sum that's outta this world) but craving something sweet. We chanced upon Little Cravings, this small brightly lit cafe which serves kopi and nonya desserts, and decided to check it out. 

They serve nian gao! Yes, Chinese New Year came early!

I absolutely adore fried nian gao. It's super unhealthy I know but I'd hit the gym more often just to get my fix. Little cravings serves two versions: the normal fried ones my mum makes every CNY, as well as this "special" fried nian gao in popiah skin. Ever the greedy one, I proclaim to my Sis: "Let's order both!"

Very well-fried. I personally preferred the traditional version, though the crunch of the popiah skin was nice. The cafe also serves up some savoury dishes such as nonya curry and nasi lemak but we didn't try those. B also ordered the ice kachang drenched in gula melaka with mango (or you can choose avocado or durian). Not Jonker walk standard but good enough, I suppose. 

A great find in the east. Oooh that fried nian gao!

Marmalade Pantry

It's been a while since I had an "eggy" weekend brunch (we've been prowling the hawker centres a bit) and what better occasion to indulge in a leisurely chi-chi brunch than with my girlfriends Dee, Bev and Sue. It's nice to have an occasion to wear a new dress *grin*

Marmalade Pantry's been around a long time and shame on me for never checking it out. The not-so-new location at Ion is nice - open, perfect for people watching and gossiping the afternoon away.

I've read a lot of glowing reviews about the crabmeat linguine pasta and had high expectations. Dangerous. Luckily, the dish did not disappoint. I loved it! Lovely spicy tomato based sauce generously loaded with crab meat, perfect al dente pasta and pine nuts for an added crunch factor. Definitely a dish I'll return for.

The sticky date pudding held its own too. I heart the creamy vanilla ice cream - complemented the pudding perfectly. 

It's been a while since I had a girly catch-up with the girls.  Everyone's busy and with Sue in Hanoi and all, it's almost impossible to find a good timing. I'm glad we managed to. Thanks for a lovely afternoon!

I Want to be a Domesticated Goddess (Part 3)

Happy anniversary and another successful culinary experiment! As part of our austerity drive, I suggested cooking for B at home, rather than going out and splurging on a fancy dinner.

"What would you like to have?" I asked. "Vongole", he said.

Erm.. ok, new dish. So in the spirit of Bobby Fray, I went online in (re)search of the "perfect vongole" recipe and tada, this was what I cooked for my darling on this special occasion. Looks good, doesn't it, if I dare (shamelessly) say so myself?

Here's the recipe:

Serves 2

1 kg clams (we used manila clams)

1/2 Onion, Chopped

1.5 Cloves Garlic, Minced

1.5 Tablespoons Olive Oil

1/4 Cup Fish Stock (I couldn’t find clam juice)

1/2 Cup Dry White Wine

1 Cup Cherry Tomatoes

500g Chopped Dry Spicy Italian Sausage

1/4 Cup Chopped Clean Parsley

One Tablespoon Unsalted Butter

Salt & Cracked Black Pepper

1/2 chili padi finely chopped

Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet. Add the onion and sausage. Saute slowly until the sausage begins to brown and caramelize slightly on the surface, cook onion until soft and translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes (allow garlic to soften without browning).

Turn heat up slightly and add the fish stock, wine, chili and tomatoes (allow wine to simmer and deglaze the pan) and cook until reduced to about 2 cups. Season with salt and pepper. Add the clams, cover and cook for about 5 minutes or until the clams have opened. Discard any clams that do not open. Add the bits of butter and new parsley and stir well into the mixture.

Serve immediately with pasta.

Birthday at Labrador Seafood

Birthdays are great excuses to pig out and this year, turning 34, was no exception. Sure, there was that voice in the head nagging “watch it, you and your metabolism ain’t no spring chickens no more” but I hushed it. The diet can wait – I shall remain “fabulously tam chiak!” – to quote my friends.

Labrador Park is one of those places I have never been and you definitely need to drive/cab to get there. K had recommended to try Labrador Seafood so there we were, 12 of my “bear” (and extended) family. It was a bit ulu but kinda surreal, almost as if we were not in Singapore. It was a great location on a cool, breezy Friday evening – super chillax.

Many lovely photographs of the night, thanks to an excellent camera-man.

More than a few flushed faces, thanks to a pre-arranged waiver of corkage for our big group.

For starters, we ordered some cold cucumbers, topshell and grilled squid to go with our (copious bottles of ) white wine while waiting for the rest of the food to arrive.

The squid came highly recommended, B was a happy man, he liked the squid and the topshell (another order please, he said). Promising start to the meal!

We held nothing back and ended up ordering a ton of other dishes, mostly recommended by the staff. There was the signature salted egg crab “must-order” – which was very good indeed.

Being greedy, we also ordered the black pepper crab. I’m glad we did, because that was my favorite dish of the night – love the full flavor of black pepper and oh so juicy!

We indulged in garlic scallops and bamboo clams too. Hard to go wrong with  these dishes. I liked the drunken prawns most, if you do order remember  to ask them to add more Chinese wine for that added kick.

For meats, we had the grilled lamb chops. Mmb and Chong loved these, as did my carnivore boyfriend. I thought it was a bit fatty but I have a low threshold for lard – and I suppose it was necessary to give the lamb chops that nice juiciness.

No meal is complete without carbs and the punggol mee goreng hit the spot for many of my friends. I preferred the beef hor fun though – nice wok hei – eat while hot.    

A dish which surprised me was the chilli kang kong. I dare say it’s one of the better ones I’ve had. See, I’m very low maintenance right – give me a plate of well-cooked vegetables and I’m a happy girl! (B: no need to comment).

The restaurant gave us a complimentary platter of fruits, nice touch.

All in all, it was a lovely night. I feel truly blessed to have all my “families” – mum/sis, bears and let’s not forget the Shanghai family come together to celebrate my birthday. And of course, there's you, B..

Big meal with bears, home-cooked meal by Shanghai family, mummy Tan’s indulgent feast, intimate (pricey but super-memorable) Jap omakase with B – here’s to more food adventures this year!

I hope you’ll join me in eating my way through Singapore (and beyond). Thanks for reading.

Long Phung Vietnamese Restaurant

Labor day hols and we set off in search of a late lunch after sleeping off the decadence of the night before. "How about checking out Little Vietnam at Joo Chiat?" I suggested. So off we went, for some authentic Vietnamese fare and if we were lucky, some "action" on the sleazy front. 

Long Phung was packed at 3pm (No surprises, I guess the clientele keeps late night too hehehe). Besides a large proportion of Vietnamese local girls, we noticed a fair number of tables with foreigners too. A tourist attraction in itself? 

Whatever the business model, my oh my the food was fantastic! As a starter, we shared the summer spring rolls - the roll was a bit thick but the accompanying peanut/ chilli/ sweet sauce was absolutely delish. Satisfyingly spicy - tasted even better after we added asome lime juice to give it some zest.

Next came the pho. I had the special beef pho which had an egg cracked in, and B had the rare beef pho. I have to say, this is the best pho I've had in Singapore so far! Fantastic soup base, not too heavy but oh so flavorful. They didn't stinge on the beef either.

Our roving eyes landed on the steamed clams the next table were having. B unbashedly said "I want that too." Good call - the clams were succulent and the broth was fragrant and comforting.

The bill came up to less $30 for the 2 of us, including 2 coconuts and an iced viet coffee. Now, THIS, is what I call excellent value.

Mei Xiang Black & White Fish Soup

I love fish soup. My usual haunt is Han Kee at Amoy but B and I have been trying to check out alternative places for our fish soup fix. I was on leave that afternoon, so with time (minus stress) in my favor, we decided to check at Mei Xiang Black & White fish soup at Jalan Besar market. They are only open from Mon to Fri and closed weekends and public holidays, so..

We got there at 11.50am, just before the snaking queue formed - scores!

This fish soup stall is quite quirky. There's a huge clock hung up to show that they are open at EXACTLY 11.12am everyday. Interesting how there were these huge black fans against the otherwise white stall decor too. They are famous for the mix of fresh ("white") and fried ("black") fish slices soup mix. I asked if I could only have "white" and they flatly said no. Hmph.

Food nazist aside, the fish soup was indeed good! Fish and prawns were fresh and the soup was very flavorful. A tad oily and not the most healthy around but we slurped our bowls dry. Yummy!

Would I return? Yes, probably. But it's a bit out of the way though, so perhaps on the next day off.   

7Adam

Friday night - the end of a long tedious work week and time to reward myself with a nice dinner. 7Adam was a relatively new place so we decided to go check it out.

My review in a nutshell – some winners but overall a tad over-priced and mediocre food. The bottle of Angove Clare Valley Riesling ($80) was ok-priced for a restaurant table wine but steer clear of the house red – Oldenwood Cabernet Savignon – it’s pretty nasty.

As per earlier reviews we read online, we also ordered the trio of appetizers ($27) to share – Foie gras, crab cake and seared tuna. Portions are shown above. I thought the crab cake was very tasty and B liked the foie gras too. The seared tuna was just so-so.  Presentation of this dish was nice though.

We were looking forward to the mains but they were rather underwhelming, for the prices. They weren’t BAD bad, I guess we had high expectations and they fell short of them. I had the king prawn with sake sauce ($32) which came highly recommended and sounded good on the menu - I love mango chutney. Sadly, whilst the prawns were fresh, they were a bit overcooked and I could neither taste mango chutney or sake. I had to season with lots of salt and pepper.

B had the lamb shank ($40), which again, came highly recommended. This was cooked nicely but unfortunately, the sauce was way too salty (and I have a high threshold for salt).

Dinner for two including the above as well as a shared fondant dessert came close to $250. For that price, I can think of many other better restaurants we could have gone to. To be fair, the surroundings and ambience of 7Adam was very nice. I love the idea of combining dining and art. It’d be good if they can improve the execution of the food though.