Nasi Goreng Pattaya for Ayam Plenyet

The quest was actually to try Ayam Plenyet in Lucky Plaza. But, alas, the place was closed for renovation. They said they will open again next month. They also mentioned that now there is a new branch in Joo Chiat. Well, the chicken weren't that alluring for us to go extra mile to Joo Chiat. So, we looked for other thing to eat in basement food court.

Found this Nasi Goreng Pattaya in the Nasi Padang stall in Lucky Plaza basement food court. Weird ya? Nasi Padang stall serves Thai dish... Anyway, it was yellow fried rice hidden inside fried egg. Then they put sweet chili sauce on top. Don't know how they made the rice be yellow, probably similar yellowing-ingredient used in pineapple fried rice. The taste is ok, nuthing special though. But it is quite cheap and fulfilling!

Xiaolongbao @ Crystal Jade

At last I ate at Crystal Jade. We went to Crystal Jade Hu Cui at Ngee Ann City. Crystal Jade is a very popular restaurant. Just pick any Crystal Jade, during pick hours there is always a queue, waiting for empty table. Since I am not really keen on queuing with hungry stomach, we need to be there at odd hour. So we came around 11, and as we expected there was no queue in front of the restaurant.

The restaurant itself looks really nice and expensive, but after browsing the menu, the price is reasonable. We ordered their famous menu: xiaolongbao -minced pork dumpling. Plus pork ribs la mien and wonton with chili oil. The xiaolongbao was definitely a to-die-for-dish. Wonton were marvelous, the chili oil was spicy. Which made us remember one incident back in Jakarta involving a couple, lots of dumplings, chili oil, zoo & gindara... But I believe they were not traumatized with the incident and definitely will love these lovely wontons!

The la mien was a bit disappointing. For us the soup wasn't warm enough, but in overall it was still yummy. And total damage was around $25. Absolutely satisfying! No wonder the queue was so long.

Happy Year of Dog!

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy New Year!
Well, we are not really celebrating CNY, but we're always welcome a good break. So, while majority of peeps in this island were busy visiting their relatives, exchanging oranges, or collecting ang pao from their grand parents, we just sit back at home, enjoying the long (long!) week end.
Again, happy new year!

Opium & Spirit Farm

Do you know that St Joseph school received donation from Opium & Spirit Farm? Sounds weird, ya? It sounds like drug lords in nice suit and fancy long limo giving donations to town's best school so that their kids can enroll in. It also probably one way to do clean and easy money laundry. And the name: Opium and Spirit Farm. You can imagine how high your spirit will be after smoking pot. Well, probably I watched too many Hollywood movies...

But I guess this is a different case. Ages ago during the colonial time this opium business actually legal in some part of Asia. And looking at the amount of donation made (written in there on teh top of the list), the image of the rich drug mob suddenly vanished...

Today the school has been relocated in 1987 and after restoration the building is used as Art Museum, but you can find this benefactor's tables in the main entrace. And Semarang's taukee Oei Tiong Ham is listed as one of the heavy contributors, donating thousands of dollars.

Yu Sheng(鱼生): The Good Luck Salad

This is our first CNY in this island and we've just learned the local CNY tradition. In stores and eating house we saw colourful preserved veggies packed in small plastic cups. This is what they called Yu Sheng. Beside exchanging oranges and pineapples, people usually eat yu sheng as the part of CNY tradition. Yu Sheng consists of ingredients like sliced raw fish, shredded lettuce, carrots, finely grated vegetables, candied melon and lime, red and white pickled ginger, pomelo sacs, sesame seeds, jellyfish and peanuts all tossed in a dressing.

Based on couple of sites, at the beginning yu sheng was eaten few days after CNY, at the celebration of man's birthday to be exact; which falls at the 7th day of the new year. But now the dish is available even couple of days before CNY. Before the feast begins there are several ceremonial steps to be followed. Everytime one salad ingredient is added in to the mixing bowl we need to say something, wishing for good luck and prosperity. Then all of us have to mix the salad by tossing it jointly with our chopsticks shouting ‘lo hei’ (“toss up”) and making a wish for the new year before eating it. Oh ya, and actually yu sheng is a local Singapore's tradition.

We're quite lucky to be invited in such dinner so we can experience this unique local tradition. And we hoped by tossing up the salad all of our wishes will come true!

Nasi Bali? Tiiiiipu!

Actually it wasn't me who found this so-called nasi bali. It was my wifey. She was strolling in Tampines Mall during lunch time and then she saw this Malay/Indonesian stall in the basement area.

Besides Laksa and Mee Siam, the stall offers Nasi Bali. Woah! Nasi Bali? In this island? Unbelieveble! Just like finding Holy Grail! But hang on, is it really the Nasi Bali? Is it really the steam rice served with lawar -chopped veggie & chilli, shredded chicken, and satay? Without further delay, she ordered one. Then she waited, with high expectation... Thinking of how I will be surprised on this finding. How Tampines will be the numro uno destination this week end. How the delicious taste of sambal bali. Hmmm!

But alas! It was a fraud. Yep, A HOAX! It turned out to be Nasi Lemak (see pic)! Nasi Lemak, complete with kacang & ikan teri, chicken wings and sambal blacan. And they named it as Nasi Bali. What a hoax! And it wasn't funny.

Nyam-nyam nang Paris

Wanna know about what's yummy in Paris? Or wanna know what kind of amusing food Bu Indriyati encountered this week? Check out this blog then: www.arumanisparis.blogspot.com. Or you can save the trouble of typing the site address just by clicking underlined title on the link section at the right side.

Ayez l'amusement!
(I hope I wrote it right, if not just blamed the SYSTRAN transtator... Ha!)

Raining for Raney

It was her first visit to Spore, and this island gave her a heavy rain as a welcome gift. But this didn't effect her appetite for tasting local delicacies and -of course- shopping!

Blue Stripes Carpet and 10 Meat Balls

Check out our new carpet! Got it yesterday. And it match with our doormats, although the doormats didn't come from ikea. We bought 'em in Geylang market. Probably they were made from carpet's left over materials and sold somewhere else.

And at last we managed to taste the famous swedish meat ball. We have been always told to try this one, but due to long queue and uncompromising hunger we never be patient enough to wait for a table everytime we were there and ended up munching hotdogs instead. But last night we managed to get one. The meat ball itself is not that special, but the gravy sauce is quite nice with mustard and cherry sauce. The chicken wings looked nice, but didn't ordered.

China Town

Last week end we went to Chinatown area. The Chinese New Year market is officially started on 12 Jan, so we wanted to check that out. And since it looked like it won't be raining, so off we go.

The area was packed with people: tourists and locals, well it was week end... so you expect lots of people. All shops and stalls were colored red. Lots of red & gold colored decorations, cards, ang pao envelopes, traditional chinese dress (of course in red), plastic pineapples and oranges. Everything that associated with CNY can be found there on top of the normal stuffs that normally are there.

There were stall selling sweets and mochi. Lots of cakes and cookies. All looked nice and yummy, but we didn't buy any. Too hot and too many people around turned off our shopping mood. Then we walked pass this stall. Huge stall with lots of people in it. Making transaction of course. The stall sold dried goods. Meat, chicken, fish, squid... any kind of dried goods. Lots of chinese sausages hanged (see pic). Chicken wings and feet stuffed in plastic container. And juicy pork thigh. Hmmm! Looks even yummier than those mochi. But again we didn't buy any, just took couple of pics. Oh, one more thing, there were long (really long!) queue in front of Lim Chee Guan -the famous bakwah store.

Today's Lunch

Friend beehoon and bunch of fried-thingy: fish ball, ca-kueh, ngohiang, bakwan and beancurd deep in dark-red-oily-spicy-but-a-bit-sweet sauce.

Chicken Rice Ball

When I browsed through my old pictures, I ran into this one. It was taken couple years ago on our trip to Melaka. Looking at this reminds me on how excited we were (and how hungry we were) that time. Before leaving for Melaka we have been told that we have to eat the Chicken Rice Ball in shop near the bridge in Jonker Street not far from the famous red church. But we've never been told the shop name. I think they probably won't remember it, as we don't recall the name as well.

Just a minute ago I tried my luck by searching it through the net, apparently the shop now has website with cool flash animation. Hmmm...

Umbrella

Alamak! Why should it rain when I have to go to work? And being an absendminded idiot, I have 3 umbrellas sitting nicely in my cubicle and none in my apartment! Always forget to bring 'em back! Dang!

And today I have to think of something to cheat the rain...

The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories

Here is my b'day present from my wifey!
The 'Other Stories' includes:
Stain Boy,
Staring Girl, and
Roy the Toxic Boy
I used to collect Stain Boy animated short movies, where our hero Stain Boy saved the day by capturing dangerous-to-society-villains (which Staring Girl and Roy were two of them). Too bad I've lost them when my hard drive crashed.

So... what a great gift!

Rain & Sambel Goreng

Puff! Today was raining again. The whole afternoon. Actually the weather was like this in the last couple of days. Last Sunday it rained whole day, from morning until midnight. And it wasn't just drizzling, it rained like cats & dogs. I bet if this happened in Jakarta, the city will be flooded. Traffic jam every where.

Anyway, since it rained, so we just stayed at home. And since I looked bored, so my wifey tried to cheer me up by preparing sambal goreng for dinner. No, it is not the sambal goreng ati or kentang, it is sambal goreng with udang. The kind of sambal goreng that you (probably) will find in pesisir Jawa Barat. Oh, and of course complete with the green stinky bean: pete!

The result: it was a satisfying one meal dish!

Star Wars in Jurong East

Today in Jurong East I met Boba Fett, R2D2 and C3PO. Then the great Jabba the Hutt, who was sitting in the couch holding pillows. Storm Tropper and the furry Chewbacca. The brown-hooded Jawa creature was standing next to Chewy. And of course Darth Vader himself. What a day!

Schawarma & Falafel with Lenny Kravitz

L'As du Fallafel was located in Marais area. The place wasn't that big, a diner look a like, but packed with people. That night all tables were full, and several people were queuing outside, including us. This is a sign for good food.

And it was proven. Schawarma and falafel were delicious, absolutely yummy! The 2 sauces were hot and spicy, a bit sour. Deadly combination for weak stomach. Although the falafel was wonderful, for me its schawarma that was really a to-die-for-dish! Surely a must place to visit when you're around.

Oh ya, it was also recommended by Lenny Kravitz.

Deadly Choco Drink

This choco drink is made from thick unsweetened chocolate syrup, milk, tequilla, rum, and tabasco. Plus a spark of dried chili on top of the creame. And the taste was wow! Strong, spicy and definitely warm up your stomach. One of the Schokoladen Museum recommended drink.