Italy day 6: Florence Food Tour and David’s bum [YQrtw Day 32 May 9]

Location: Florence, Italy

Today was the day for my Florence Food Tour, something I’ve been waiting excitedly for. Taking Google Map’s direction advice, I took the C3 bus, hoping to drop near the office.

The bus that came was very crowded. I stuffed myself in the front but more people came on. I was stuck between the legs of one lady and the arm of an older lady, (Lady! Why do you need to hold on to the handle when you are already sitting? Why?!)

As the bus turned, I balanced myself on my feet, afraid that I might crush the brittle arm of the old lady. I decided to get off at the next stop because the old lady seemed to be quite pissed with my bum being on her arm.

The next bus that came was rather empty but I still missed my stop. I hopped off at the next stop and started walking to the office with Google Map’s help.

The problem with Google Map was that it listed the office at the other end of the street. It took me a while before I actually reached the correct spot.

Our guide was Angela, a Sicilian. The other tour members were a young Iranian couple from the US and an older couple from Holland.

I’ll give you a quick summary of what we have, the full post will come next Friday. [Disclosure: Italy Segway Tour which operates the food tour gave me a complimentary tour in exchange for a blog post.]

Our stop included coffee, wine, truffles, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, bread, pasta and gelato. Everyone on the tour was stuffed to the brim before our last gelato stop. Of course we still managed to wolf down our gelato since desserts are processed in our other stomach.

Halfway through the tour, my digital camera suddenly grew a wound-like slash in its lens. Every photo came out with a blotch. I thought this was the end of my camera but luckily it went back to normal later in the day.

I did a whirldwind tour of the Medici chapel and the Palazzo Medici Riccardi with my Firenze Card. The chapel’s fresco were really impressive but we couldn’t take photos so it wasn’t that exciting.

Seeing Michelangelo’s David in the marble

Next stop was Michelangelo’s David. When I got to the Accademia Gallery, there were two lines for those with reserved tickets. (Firenze Card holders count as reserved ticket folks.) Instead of queuing at the second line, I visited the Archaeological Museum to pass time.

The museum had a rather impressive collection of mummies. The mummies didn’t look very appetizing and made me worry about the day when they would arise from the dead.

After about an hour of the museum, I headed back to see David. The line was much shorter and I got in quite soon.

The marble statue of David is rather impressive. It is really tall (14 feet plus the pedestal) and carved very finely.

Since we could not take photos of David (many people still do), I drew a few sketches for you. Of course I wasn’t born a drawing genius, nor was I trained in drawing, so just be happy about what you see here and don’t complain too much please.

In case you are wondering, the second photo is David’s bum, not a picture of the Elephant Man.

I listened to Rick Steve’s audio tour for the Accademia and David. It’s good enough if you (like me), do not want to spend money on the official audio guides.

After looking at the rest of David’s companions in the Accademia, I headed back to the square to my favorite cafe for a cappucino and tiramisu.

It was about 6:00pm when I was done with my cake. I looked at my map and realized that I need to check off a lot more places today with my Firenze Card so I have more time tomorrow.

I had the crazy idea to climb the bell tower of the Santa Maria delle Fiore church. It was 414 steps, divided into five or so spiralling staircases. I was very out of breath by the time I reached the top.

The view was very nice from the top but I didn’t think it was worth 414 steps. If the Firenze Card didn’t cover this site and I’ve paid cold hard cash, I think I would have found all the stair climbing a refreshing exercise.

The sky was still light by the time I walked back at about 7:30pm. I dropped in the restaurant next to my hostel and ate a humungous plate of seafood pasta.

That was all for the day. If you haven’t added me on Twitter, please add @yqtravelling. I usually spam that account since it’s less intrusive compared to spamming Facebook or the blog.

Ciao.

#FoodFri Sneak peek of cruise food

Hello all, I’m still be floating on the sea today so I’m giving you a sneak peek of my post next Friday’s Glutton on a Cruise.

This is a medium rare steak I got at the Romeo and Juliet Restaurant on Legend of the Seas. It was OK since the meat was a bit…clingy.

I’ll see you the next time I have internet in Italy. Ciao!

Glutton in Dubai

I have to confess: I didn’t eat three meals a day while in Dubai. I was either too lazy to get out for food or too stuffed from tea time.

Still, I did eat some lovely food.

I love you chicken shawarma

I fell in love with the grilled meat and bread combination while in Dubai. It’s just so yummy!

What got me started was a chicken shawarma set from IKEA. The plate had a few sides and even french fries in the bread. The chicken was tender and seasoned so well. Drool. [28 dirhams]

I had a cheaper shawarma from the roadside stall near where I stayed. It was good too but the pickles were urgh. [10 dirhams]

At Mom’s Cafe, shawarma wasn’t served yet so I got the taco version with grilled chicken. [16 dirhams for two of this.]

Tea time

I had a coffee break everyday while in Dubai since I was mostly in shopping malls. It was also the best time to use the cafe’s Wi-Fi to send my mom and sister snapshots of my day. (By the time I reach my accommodation, it’s 12 midnight for them so not a very good time to send stuff.)

Water

It’s very rare that water gets an entry of its own in the Glutton Series. But water in Dubai is more expensive than other places so it gets a special place.

The most expensive water I bought was a 2 dirham bottle of 500ml water at the Pinoy restaurant. The size is usually only 75 cents in supermarkets.

Lesson learned: Don’t buy water at restaurants.

Surprisingly, there’s also free water around too. I was surprised to find water fountains at Dubai Mall. I repeatedly filled my water bottle while walking aimlessly.

Cheap breakfast from supermarket

Cobbling together pre-made food from supermarket is a trick that works in other countries as well. I bought a butter croissant and a bottle of milk from the supermarket before the tour at Jumeriah Mosque.

Milk fills up the stomach really easily so it’s something I like to buy for breakfast when travelling.

Do you have a favorite food in Dubai? Share them in the comment section below.

Glutton in Sri Lanka

It’s Glutton time again! Each time I visit a new place, I share with you the yummies (or not) that I ate. Previous editions include Indonesia, east coast of Malaysia, Singapore.

Last week I’ve shared the wonderful rice and curries of Sri Lanka so today I want to show you other food!

Chicken kothu

My friend M left a comment in my past post that I need to try kohtu roti. I wasn’t really sure what it was but I ordered one anyway when I got back into Colombo.

It turned out to be my favorite dish during the entire trip. Maybe I was really hungry when I ate it but every bite tasted like chicken heaven.

Kohtu is sort of like stir fried noodles but with prata instead of noodles. This gives the dish an interesting texture.

Egg hopper

The hopper is a thin batter cooked on a little bowl shaped hot plate. The batter has toddy (palm wine) in it so there is a sourness.

I didn’t like my egg hopper as much as the kohtu. Despite the abundant pepper on my hopper, the taste was still a little flat.

Unknown noodle dish. I went back to the hotel where I had the hopper and kohtu, hoping to get the same for breakfast.

Unfortunately, it was too early so the shop only had this unnamed noodle dish. I ate the noodle with a serving of daahl and some chicken innards.

It was alright.

Drinks!

Can you believe I didn’t have any tea in Ceylon until my fourth day? Even then, the tea was from tea bags.

When I got into Colombo, I ordered a milk tea to go with my kohtu and hopper. The drink turned out to be too fabulous for words.

Sweet with no hint of tannin as other red tea do.

Despite my love for tea, my favorite drink in Sri Lanka has to be ginger beer. I was introduced the drink at my last lunch in Sri Lanka. The brand EGB claims that they are the only ones who use real ginger in their drink. In any case, I love the mix of gas and sweet ginger.

New year munchies!

These new year goodies were prepared by the hostel in Kandy. I’m grateful that I was able to have a taste of traditional Sri Lanka new year food.

What is your favorite Sri Lankan dish?

#FoodFriday: The many rice and curries of Sri Lanka

[I know it’s Saturday now (and probably Sunday where you live), but I had mild heatstroke on Friday so the post is only up now. Bon apetit!]

When I first heard of Sri Lanka’s rice and curry, I thought it was a plate of rice accompanied by a bowl of thick curry (like Chinese curries in Malaysia).

Even after looking at pictures of rice and curry online, I still had the same old impression.

So I was kind of surprised when I was served my first rice and curry at a hotel (a “simple restaurant” in Sri Lanka, not the usual definition of hotel) next to Colombo Fort train station. It looked very much like a regular rice and side dishes served at Chinese places back in Singapore and Malaysia.

The vegetarian rice and curry I had in Colombo had a huge heap of rice with four sides: chickpeas, fibrous vegetable, dhaal and another veggie.

The rice was not the usual Thai rice I have back home, but small barley-like grain that were round and fun to chew. (Later I found out that other rice were also used in different places.)

The best rice and curry I had was in Anuradhapura. It’s a small shop called “Highland Cold Spot” (or is it Cold Station) that gets its packets of rice and curry from another vendor. The best part about the place was that the rice and curry along with a glass of papaya juice cost only 160 rupees (~S$1.60).

Other rice and I curries I have cost less than 250 rupees and every one of them had too much rice. I wonder how the locals manage to keep all that rice in their stomachs. I usually can’t move after having one. (Maybe because I also drink while I eat and this expands my stomach by a lot.)

Ii’ve made it a point to have one rice and curry dish each day but I have a feeling I have had too much of it and my stomach does not want any more.

While we’re at the topic of food, I am ashamed to say that I have not tried a hopper yet. Uh oh… It’s just that I’ve only seen pre-made hoppers at a food counter and that didn’t look too appealing.

Anyone knows where I can get hoppers in Colombo or Kandy?

What other food should I eat in Sri Lanka?

#FoodFriday Samsui Ginger Chicken in Singapore

My favorite meat is chicken so I want to introduce a chicken dish for today’s Food Friday: Samsui Ginger Chicken.

The chicken is served cold (versus steaming hot). You can wrap the chicken inside a sheet of cabbage, dip it into ginger sauce before eating it. (I would prefer inhaling the whole large plate of chicken.)

The chicken is slightly oily but very soft. The chicken skin melts in your mouth too.

Samsui Ginger Chicken from Singapore's Soup Restaurant — Samsui Ginger Chicken from Singapore’s Soup Restaurant

Soup Restaurant explains what is Samsui Ginger Chicken:

A traditional Samsui dish consumed by the Samsui women in Chinatown. Due to their low income, the Samsui Ginger Chicken was only consumed once a year, during the Chinese New Year. Chicken was steamed without much seasoning after which, dipped in ginger sauce before consumption. The ginger sauce is a fragrant and tasty compliment to the chicken. Ginger and sesame oil, as believed by the Chinese, removes excess wind from the body. You may wrap the chicken in lettuce to achieve that crunch when you bite into the popular Samsui Ginger Chicken.

I suspect this dish was an invention, and not really a Samsui dish. Or it could that the restaurant hyped up the dish.

The price of Samsui Ginger Chicken at Soup Restaurant is a little expensive for what is simply steamed chicken.

Do note that the Samsui women were real people in history and they played important role in the literal “building of Singapore”. The wiki for Samsui Women has a very good explanation of who they were.

Glutton in east coast of Peninsula Malaysia

Food in east coast Peninsula Malaysia keropok lekor, tapai, nasi kerabu, patin

D and I visited the east coast of Peninsula Malaysia during a 5-day trip in March. We crossed out Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan (again) off our list of 13 Malaysian states.

Five days is a lot of food so I will only be highlighting some of the best yummies we had.

Glutton in Kuantan, Pahang

We visited only Kuantan while in Pahang. On our first day, we visited the famous Akob Patin House which was (almost) right behind our hotel.

The Malay eatery is a medium standalone stall/house. It serves ready-cooked food for customers to scoop into their own plates.

The most famous dish there is their patin fish. I got a small piece cooked in tempoyak (fermented durian). The fish melted in my mouth but the fermented durian tasted strange (sort of like stinky tofu in Taiwan).

D found something strange in her plate of mixed rice. The strange food looked like a sliced cucumber but was mushy. Then D discovered that it was green durian cooked in curry. BANANA COOKED IN ITS SKIN!!

For dessert, there was tapai which was sticky glutinous rice wrapped in leaf. Sticky liquid dripped out. It turned out to be rice wine which was really strong and hit me in the head. BAM.

Find Akob Patin House: Tapak PCCL Jalan Besar 25000 Kuantan Pahang

Glutton in Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu

In Chinatown of Kuala Terengganu, Madam Bee’s Kitchen serves peranakan food. D and I head there for a late lunch and tea on different days.

Some of the items on the menu were not available that day (watch out for the orange round sticker!)

The food was tasty but very down-to-earth. The menu did not have fancy peranakan food such as buah keluak or kong ba pao.

Find Madam Bee’s Kitchen: 177 Jalan Kampung Cina, Kuala Terengganu 21100, Malaysia

D and I stumbled upon Warung Pak Aziz while looking for breakfast in Kuala Terengganu. (McDonalds was not open until 9am!)

This little stall was in the middle of a carpark, next to office buildings. All the patrons looked like office people and we were the odd one out.

The best food here was the keropok lekor which was a deep fried fish cake. (I usually think of keropok as being thin.)

The owner, Pak Aziz, was delighted that D wanted to have another serving of keropok lekor. (Yes, I ate a lot of them too.)

Warung Pak Aziz address on Foursquare: Parking Kotitab

Glutton in Kota Bahru, Kelantan

Right opposite our hotel in Kota Bahru was a 24-hour hawker center. For our late-late-lunch, we had martabak and nasi air.

Martabak is a pancake-like dish with great filling. I had beef with mine.

Nasi air was a new discovery for D and I. It’s an interesting porridge-like bowl of rice and soup. The rice always seem to be in an interesting lump, instead of the watery grains found in Chinese cooking.

Have you had any of these dishes?

Glutton in Singapore

Best iced kopi I've had in Singapore. At Koufu Sengkang Sculpture Park

It’s funny how I’ve been in Singapore for so long but I have not had a Glutton post on the food here.

Since I’m leaving Singapore next week for the world, I thought it would be apt to have a post on food in Singapore, especially food that I love.

To be honest, food in Malaysia (especially those served at dingy restaurants) are a lot tastier than food in Singapore.

In Singapore, I usually eat at food courts where the cook is someone hired to put everything together and get it out of the stove as quickly as possible. This leads to disappointing meals.

Why don’t I go to nice places with nice food? Well, I don’t have a car and I don’t want to pay too much money for nice food. However, I have been having a lot of nice food this week as part of my many farewell parties.

Anyway, here are a few dishes and food places which I will miss if I leave Singapore:

Chicken rice

When my friends were organizing a farewell party, one asked what food I would miss from Singapore. It took me a while to think about which dish but in the end, I chose “chicken rice”.

When I was a kid, there was a chicken rice branch called Singapore Chicken Rice. I loved that place. The chicken was tender and the soup that they served always had bits of chicken feet and vegetables.

While there are famous chicken rice stalls in Singapore, most of the time I just have it at a regular food court. The chicken rice comes with a bowl of rice decanted onto the plate and a few bits of chicken. That said, it’s one of the cheaper (less than $4) dishes around so I go for it frequently.

Kopi

I love coffee. Even though local coffee in Singapore and Malaysia are served similarly with condensed milk, I like how easy it is to just get a papercup of kopi to go.

In Malaysia where I live, I usually have kopi when I am out at the kopitiam, not as a pick me up in the late afternoon.

Mee hoon kueh

A stall at Compass Point serves really good mee hoon kueh. It’s a noodle dish where the noodles are flat and squarish.

Ayam Penyet or ayam anything!

Near my old workplace, there was a Malay stall which served ayam penyet (fried chicken hammered flat and served with rice) every Tuesday and Thursday. I loved that place but having fried chicken almost every week wasn’t such a good idea.

Eateries I will miss:

Saizeriya

Saizeriya is a Japanese-Italian family restaurant. The food is quite cheap for a restaurant environment. If you pay a few dollars extra, you can have unlimited drinks from the drink bar. I love drinking non-alcoholic drinks as much as eating.

I usually go to Saizeriya with friends and we chat over our glasses and glasses of cordial orange. I don’t have a favorite dish there but I do like their seaweed.

Check out the list of Saizeriya branches.

Botak Jones

Botak Jones have branches serving affordable Southern US food. When I was in university (that was 4 years ago?), their portions were crazy large (or what is considered normal-sized in the US) with fries that spill over the table if you accidentally bumped into a plate.

Now, the size has shrunk but I do like their cajun chicken. I had a Botak Jones branch near my old workplace and I usually pick that spot for online dates (less walking for me).

What is your favorite food in Singapore? Share them in the comments below.

Cheap eats: Changi Airport Staff Canteen (Terminal 1)

It’s Food Friday here at YQ Travelling. Today, I will share where you can find the staff canteen at Changi Airport Terminal 1.

Usually, food at airport is expensive. However, among all the airports that I have been, Singapore’s Changi Airport has the relatively cheapest food.

If you don’t fancy fast food or restaurants at Changi Airport, I suggest visiting the staff canteen. Today, I will introduce the staff canteen at Terminal 1 because this is where I usually leave when I take AirAsia.

I find that the canteen can only be accessed from the second floor’s lift. Somehow, I could not find the elevator on the first floor.

Look for the toilet nearest to the AirAsia counter. Around the corner, there is a set of elevators to the basement. Head to Basement 1.

You will reach a large staff canteen such as this.

I find it surprising that many Indonesian tourists know of this relatively secret hideout for cheap eats. Every time I go, I see a table of tourists from Indonesians with their large luggage.

The food in the canteen is very similar to what you can find at normal hawker centers.

For example, this bowl of duck porridge is S$4. The same price as at the food court.

A normal cup of kopi (local coffee)

Have you been to the staff canteen at Changi Airport? Which is your favorite stall?

Disappointing all-you-can-eat dinner at Garuda Padang Cuisine

[While researching for this article (i.e. checking out the website), I found out that the Far East Square branch of Garuda Padang Cuisine no longer has dinner.]

I love all-you-can-eat places especially if the prices are good.

When D and I were at Far East Square, we found out that Garuda Padang Cuisine had daily dinner all-you-can-eat promo. Two diners only need to pay for one person. I think it was S$30++ for two.

One night, we decided to try out the place. D called to make a booking but was told that no booking was required.

When we got to the place, we found out that it was order-all-you-want and not a buffet line of food.

Oh well, we ordered some dishes which came in really tiny plates.

While food in Indonesia is generally awesome, Garuda Padang Cuisine’s all-you-can-eat was disappointing.

The food had been out for a while so they were cold. Some of them tasted like they had been reheated one too many times.

The only thing I really enjoyed was the all-you-can-drink lime juice. It helped wash away some of the spice.

I guess it’s no wonder that they cancelled dinner at that branch.

More info Garuda Padang Cuisine:

Website: http://www.garudapadang.com
Branch: Garuda Padang – Far East Square
Far East Square #01-01
7-8 Amoy Street
Singapore 049949

Opening hours: 11:30AM – 3:00PM (Last order: 2:30PM) (Closed on Saturdays and Sundays)