Have you eaten yet? Sorry for keeping you hungry with this late #FoodFri post.
I was watching Rurouni Kenshin (good show by the way) and returned home late. I also had a cupcake before I writing this post so that took up another 5 minutes.
Let’s get the show started.
Today’s #FoodFri is the famous chicken rice from Chatterbox. It’s not your regular hawker center chicken rice, but a S$28 set served in beautiful ceramic (I can’t tell my plates) on a Japanese lacquer wood-like tray.
Featuring a spread of local heritage cuisines, Chatterbox was the first hotel restaurant that made local food famous both locally and worldwide. Feast on the legendary Mandarin Chicken Rice, which has become a household name around the world and remains as one of the most desired Singaporean dish among celebrities, ministers and connoisseurs for 40 years.
Chatterbox chicken rice
While the dish was too pricey, the drumstick which I ordered was smooth and tender. It was like biting into soft boiled chicken (not the tough breast meat).
The bowl which the chicken was served in was deep and the yummy soy sauce was left down the bowl. I had to set the chicken aside before I could scoop the soy sauce to go with the rice.
The soup wasn’t the regular clear water with a drop of sesame oil and some scallion. Instead, it tasted faintly of peanut.
The rice wasn’t very fluffy and felt like it was slightly undercooked. Despite these little faults (aggravated by my high expectations), I finished every thing in my plate except the raw cucumbers. Eek.
Well, now that I’ve tried the world famous Chatterbox chicken rice and ticked an item off my bucket list, I don’t think I will return to have it for a second round. I do prefer having 10 plates of $2.50 chicken rice to this one set.
Disclosure: I had this meal during a business lunch. I try not to take photos of the food served at business lunches but this was just too good not to miss.
Singapore’s not the most budget friendly destination in Southeast Asia. But it’s one of the most popular transit points so it means that you, as a traveler, might need to spend a bit of time here.
If you want to save money in Singapore so that you can stretch your penny in Thailand/Vietnam/Laos, look no futher. I’ll be featuring a few cheap meals that can save you money while in Singapore.
For today, I recommend the S$2.50 breakfast set from McDonald’s.
McDonald Sausage McMuffin $2.50
The set includes a Sausage McMuffin without the egg and a coffee or tea. If you are eating in, there’s free refill at the corner where they put the sugar.
Whenever I have morning duty which requires me to reach the office around 8am, I usually buy the set. It’s quite filling. The coffee also gives quite a good jolt for the morning.
But beware that the set is only available on weekdays, until the end of breakfast hours which is 11am.
Stay tuned for #FoodFri next week where I feature another cheap breakfast in Singapore
I feel like I do not write enough about Singapore so here’s an introduction of a nice cafe in the peaceful neighborhood of Tiong Bahru–Drips Bakery Cafe.
I found out about the place from J who has impeccable taste when it comes to nice food.
My breakfast platter #2 (S$15.80++) was gigantic. I especially love the buttered toast. The bread was sweet and the butter salty but creamy.
The sausage was a little unfortunate though. It was limp and the sausage skin was too tough to saw off with my knife. :( Drips Cafe brunch
The caffè latte was normal and it wasn’t burnt, which to my untrained palate is good enough. Drips Cafe caffè latte
Setting
Enough about the food (Wait a minute, is this not #FoodFri?), I want to show you the rest of the cafe. Interior of Drips Cafe
The cafe is on the ground floor of a shophouse. In the front are the counters for food and drinks, the middle is where the table and chairs are while deeper inside there are couches. View from inside Drips Cafe
At the coffee section, there was a sign saying: “TRAVEL”. I was wondering why it was there. I think it’s because the romance of travelling. Drips Cafe–Travel
The walls were decorated with paintings that were available for sale. Most of them were semi-abstract and priced too high for me to support the artist. Paintings for sale at Drips Cafe
Bonus tourist attraction
Temple of the Monkey King
There’s a temple dedicated to the Monkey God from the Chinese classic Journey to the West at the corner of the road.
I wasn’t sure why Sun Wu Kong would be deified since he’s a made up character. At the altar, there were figurines of the Monkey God.
Directions: Drips Bakery Cafe is at 82 Tiong Poh Road, #01-05, S(160082).
The nearest MRT is at Outram Station (green line) and it’s just a short walk away. Checkout gothere.sg’s map.
It’s Friday again. TGIF! And Fridays are special days here as it’s #FoodFri, a day when I share a food-related post with you. Today, we will visit Cabbages & Condoms in Thailand.
Tell me, how can you not visit a restaurant with a name like “Cabbages & Condoms” especially when its tagline is “Our food is guaranteed not to cause pregnancy”. That is hilarious.
Before you go around thinking this is a kinky place where people eat salad after some naughty exercises, let me explain the name. Cabbages & Condoms the restaurant is run by the Population and Community Development Association (PDA) which helps with family planning. Someone who’s involved in PDA and C&Cwanted condoms to be as ubiquitous as cabbages, therefore the name.
When I found out that Cabbages & Condoms is really near Tune Hotel, I added it into my itinerary even though guide books warned that the food is mediocre for its price.
After checking in Tune Hotel on my first day in Bangkok, I walked to Soi 12 where the restaurant is located.
It’s hidden inside the alley, after one suspicious “club” and a posh-looking massage center. 30m to Cabbages & Condoms
Welcome to Cabbages & Condoms
After walking on the shady path, I came across a souvenir shop but didn’t go in.
Condoms, condoms everywhere
The place used condoms (not to be confused with condoms that were used) for decoration.
Exhibit A: Condom lampshade Condom lampshade
Exhibit B: Condom fashion Condom fashion
Exhibit C: Condom clothes Condom “clothes”
‘Romantic’ lighting
Being Southeast Asia, I chose to lunch inside the airconditioned restaurant instead of hanging out at the alfresco area with the sun shining on me.
The interior is a bit dark. The walls were decorated with condoms from other countries. Interior deco
My table was next to a wall with less racy deco. “Cabbages & Condoms” is trademarked in Japan
There were a few news paper clipping in Japanese about the restaurant and a certificate of trademark.
While waiting for the food
I ordered a Tom Kah Kai and a coffee. While waiting for my drink and food, I found out that they have a recipe on the table mat. I wonder how many people actually copy it down to make a dish. Recipe table mat
I also discovered that the utensils were branded with the name of the restaurant. Plate with restaurant’s name
Coffee glass
Recipe table mat
I listened in to a table nearby of businessmen who were discussing companies in the networking industry. I was kind of disappointed that I didn’t hear any trade secrets which I could have used as scoops.
My chicken in coconut milk soup
My soup and rice came after a while. The coconut milk curdled in my sourish soup. Coconut milk soup chicken
It was a large serving which was probably meant to be share among a table of friends. Instead, all of the soup and rice went into my stomach, making me really bloated but also help me stave off hunger for the rest of the day.
The food wasn’t the best thing I’ve tasted on earth and was just “meh”. There wasn’t enough salt and felt like drinking lemongrass soup with hints of coconut.
The unsaltiness made my tongue confused. Was this supposed to be dessert or a main meal?
At the end of the meal, I asked for the bill. As expected, instead of a mint, there was a condom with my bill. I not-so-secretly slipped it into my bag before paying up. This came with my bill
At the exit, the restaurant cheekily had two separate boxes for condoms: Republican size and Democrat size. I peeped in and found out that they were the same size. Sorry, We have no mints.
Review: Cabbages & Condoms, Bangkok, Thailand
Location: Sukhumvit Soi 12
Food: So so taste
Price: $$
Pro: Fun theme and for a good cause
Cons: So so food than regular Thai places
It looks like a jelly made out of squid ink. It tastes like bitter Chinese medicine, even when you drown it with the sweet syrup shops provide.
The only consolation is that it’s good for your health. In Chinese tradiotional medicine speak: It is good for “cooling” the body.
I didn’t like Guīlínggāo when I was a kid. It was too bitter. But now that I’ve grown up, I quite enjoy the bitterness and its contrast with the honey-sweet syrup.
If you are ever in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China, try a bowl. Go on.
What is the Singapore Wine Fiesta? It’s an open air wine fair organized by the Straits Wine Company.
Entrance fee is S$38 but more expensive if you purchase it at the doors.
Luckily, I won two tickets to the wine fair through a Facebook contest organized by MyDestination Singapore or else I don’t think I would have ever gone to one.
Singapore Wine Fiesta tix
This year’s Wine Fiesta’s held at the Customs House which is just opposite of Marina Bay Sands.
I asked D along to the fiesta since she’s my drinking buddy.
No, we don’t go out drinking but we buy back a bottle of wine sometimes and have a glass or two to celebrate the weekend.
I guess it’s also a wine shopping trip for us. Le venue
Entering the Wine Fiesta
The tickets allowed us to visit the Wine Fiesta on one of the three days. I picked Saturday, just in case we have a hangover that we need to sleep off on Sunday.
After showing our tickets, we were given a pink tag. Then we collected a wine glass by handing over a S$10 deposit and was given a yellow tag. Tag, you’re it!
Even though it was a paid event and it was about 3pm, it was really crowded.
The venue itself is tiny and a lot of people would stand in the middle of the already crowded path to chat about the qualities of the wine they had.
Being a non wine connoisseur, my comments usually are: “It’s nice.” “I don’t like it.” “It’s so dry.” “Yummy!” and so on. Busy busy
There were 65 different brands, according to the booklet. That is a lot of wine!
We mostly tried out Moscato since I do not like dry or tannin wines.
Since it was wine “tasting”, the amount doled out is usually enough for two sips. However, sometimes, one sip of a terrible drink is half a sip too much.
Nice finds
One really fun wine was Chocolate Wine by Rubis. The dark red liquid smelled like chocolate. It was sweet and smooth. But I didn’t like the high alcohol content (15 percent) as it made me dizzy just from the few sips.
Another cool wine was Little Miss Collet Moscato 2012 by Australian winery Woodstock Estace. It was named after the daughter of the winery owner. It smelled like mangoes! Imagine that, a mango-scented wine.
There was a booth with Japanese white wine from Grace Winery. It was too dry for my liking.
My haul
I’ve tasted a bit more than 10 different bottles of wine and ended up with a the Rosso Brachetto N.V. (S$27) from Villa M while D bought the Bianco Moscato.
It was the best tasting wine among the rest of the drier wines. Ok, I admit that I was attracted to its price too. There is no way I will spend more on a bottle of liquid.
Take lots of breaks
In the beginning, we went in search of only Moscatos.
After a few 1/8 glasses, we were starting to feel a little woozy so we took a break. We took a lot of breaks afterward too. view of MBS
Marina Bay Sands was just opposite so everyone who wasn’t drunk had a nice view.
After some tasting, I wasn’t too drunk but I was starting to space out too much. One of my daydream was living in a vineyard (or a house next to a vineyard) and sneaking out to eat the plump grapes. Mmm…
One reason I didn’t as much as a lot of the red-faced visitors there was because I haven’t been trained to down copious amount of alcohol.
I used to break out in hives when I drink wine. So at the start of my Venerdì Vino (which I hope translates as “Wine Friday”), I had hives and rashes.
After a while, I stopped getting bad rashes. Now I’m more used to alcohol so having a little is fine but I get rashes if I drink too much.
Thoughts about the Wine Fiesta
Payment and walk in fridge
Honestly, I would not pay to join such an event.
Despite the high entrance fee (I could have bought another Rosso Brachetto N.V. and a meal to go with it for S$38 ticket.), the event was really crowded.
It’s not pleasant trying to elbow your way to the table for two sips of wine. It wasn’t fun waiting for the person in front to finish flirting with the wine guy before I could actually hand my glass over for some tasting.
Plus, a lot of people were flushed and looked drunk. You would think that this is a posh event where people float around in clouds of fabric and take delicate sips of wine instead of the huge gulps.
With that entrance fee, I wish the organizer could find a bigger venue. There were too many times, the crowd couldn’t move because everyone was stuck.
Have you visited a wine fair? How was the experience?
Hello, it’s #FoodFri again. I came back from a trip to North Malaysia last weekend. It ended a bit badly, I’ll share more in another post but at least the food was great.
After checking in our hotel in Alor Setar (before 10 a.m.!), we went out looking for food. The lady manning the small stall at the hotel/recreation center/swimming pool didn’t give very good directions so we had to hunt around.
Luckily, just one ditch away, a kopitiam was open. Yippee! (Wikipedia has a nice entry on what a kopitiam is.) Kafe Y Y Hao, Alor Setar
Even though there were a lot of people, we found an empty table and settled down. There were two stalls selling soupy dishes. At the back, a man was standing behind a huge firey wok and making stirfry. Interesting!
Interestingly, everyone was having rice and plates of side dishes for breakfast. RICE FOR BREAKFAST!
I guess I will have to explain. Even though we are overseas Chinese folks, we usually eat lighter stuff such as fried rice, noodles, bread, nasi lemak and that sort for breakfast. It’s only during lunch or dinner that we actually order plates of side dishes to go with our rice.
Things were very different in Alor Setar.
Another different thing was my ability to communicate with the locals. I grew up speaking my unique blend of KK accent Mandarin which I am sure is understandable by other Malaysian Chinese speakers.
But things were different in Alor Setar. The teenage boy could not tell me clearly what they served. Instead he said they didn’t do noodles. (We found out on Sunday that there was fried noodles.)
When the lady took our orders, I asked that they serve a larger portion of vegetables. She said they could not make the portions larger as the orders depend on the number of people there were.
Fine, I asked her to make a 3-person portion for only vegetable. I wasn’t sure how or why she misheard it as “There will be three people.” and made corrections to her pad.
I gave up asking for a bigger portion of vegetables and asked her to serve the two-person portion.
Everyone at the kopitiam ordered steamed fish, so I asked for one too. Without my prompt, she said they had silver pomfret. Since they only had one type of fish, I expected her to scribble down the fish in her order.
But she didn’t write on the pad so I asked if there were other types since it looked like she was expecting me to say something. She replied that there was only silver pomfret.
Well…I guess we will take silver pomfret. Thankyouverymuch.
I had communication problems with the tea girl as well. I asked what sort of Chinese tea they had.
She mumbled a reply. I asked if they had Xiangpian. She shook her head and mumbled the two brands they had. I gave up and repeated the last name that she said.
When the tea came, it tasted just like Xiangpian. Chinese tea
P.S. The Chinese tea we usually have in Sabah are low-grade tea leaves mix and comes in plastic glasses. This tea pot and dainty cups means Alor Setarians take things seriously.
It was the strangest meal I’ve ever had.
Chicken and fish in Alor Setar
Despite the weirdness going on, the food was delicious. Herbal chicken
Herbal chicken was the only chicken dish they had so we got half a chicken on the first day.
Instead of an overcooked tough bird, the meat of the chicken was tender and the skin translucent.
The chicken juices tasted like good chicken soup and went very well with the rice.
Steam fish covered in fried garlic
Steam fish is a specialty of the shop as literally everyone had one on their table.
The silver pomfret came buried under an avalanche of fried garlic. It was an OK dish since I’m more of a chicken person.
Misc side dishes
We don’t really get to eat piping hot veg dishes in Singapore so we vacuumed these dishes rather quickly. dou miao
Tofu and vegFried eggs with onion
Best kopi in Malaysia
The coffee that we had on our first day was indisputably THE BEST KOPI IN MALAYSIA. It had a caramel taste, according to D. I could only tell that it was delicious. Best kopi in Malaysia
Have you been to Alor Setar? What do you recommend eating there?
I’ve never been to Thailand before my trip a few weeks ago. I’ve always thought of Thai food as hot, spicy and sour.
Problem is, I can’t do hot or spicy. The last time I accidentally had a bite of chilli curry, my lips were swollen for half a day–not in an Angelina Jolie sexy lip way but a literal bee stung lip way.
So I was a little bit worried that I could only eat the desserts of Bangkok. Not that that’s a bad thing.
Turns out I got my food stereotype wrong and I had great non-hot meals during my 24 hours in Bangkok.
Day 1 in Bangkok
I only had one meal on Day 1. I skipped dinner because I was in a 1.5 hours queue for a 2.5 hours-long my Thai massage.
Tom kha kai
My first dish was a slightly overpriced tom kha kai (Thai chicken soup in coconut milk) from Cabbages & Condoms. I shouldn’t complain about the price because I’ve read about how the restaurant a bit pricey for the quality of the food. (A review of the place will come soon).
Tom kha kai was one of the few non-spicy dishes on the menu. It was an interesting soup. Slightly sour from lemongrass, it had an overpowering coconut taste. The coconut milk had curdled.
I supposed it was meant to be shared because by the time I had my last bowl of soup, my stomach felt like bursting.
Strawberry smoothie
I picked up a glass of strawberry syrup with ice from a stall set up for the vegetarian festival.
The drink was ok but the strawberry tasted a bit off.
Day 2 in Bangkok
I wasn’t very hungry in the morning from yesterday’s lunch. But I made myself have some food since I know that the Grand Palace is pretty huge.
I chose one of the hole in the wall which is on the way to the palace from the jetty.
Duck horfun
I didn’t know what was on the menu. The lady of the shop asked, “Noodle? Rice?” I asked for noodles and said “yes” to duck.
My dish of duck horfun noodles came with shallow soup and a duck drumstick. It smelled good and tasted amazing.
The horfun was smooth and the duck tender. Even the soup was good.
I paid 60 baht for the bowl, since I think it was the most expensive dish on the menu.
After my breakfast, I went to two shops down for a breakfast dessert. The spicy ginger soup seduced me into the shop. There was another large pot with white beancurd.
I pointed at the big pot of soup outside, and signalled “1” with my index finger and said “no” to the croutons.
Tao huai nam khing
I later found out that the dish is called tao huai nam khing. Bean curd served with ginger syrup.
The ginger syrup was both hot temperature-wise and gingery-hot-wise. I choked on the spicy ginger taste a couple of times but I finished the bowl because I learned that ginger is good for health.
The beancurd didn’t have the usual soybean taste. Instead, it had a hint of peanuts. I couldn’t figure out if they used peanuts or if their soybean just tastes different.
The little shop seems to be famous. There were newspaper clippings and photographs of the owner with a celebrity with a bowl cut.
Pad Thai
I had the first pad thai of my life at the small restaurant in the compound of the National Museum.
I initially thought pad thai was just like char kway teo and was surprised to find the rather pale-looking dish with peanut grounds.
It was sour and oily but still yummy. I believe it was only 30 baht.
McDonald’s at the airport
OK, I broke the Number 1 Rule of Eating in a Foreign Country: Do not eat globalized fast food.
My excuse was that it was the only affordable meal in the airport. I didn’t want to go hungry on my 2 hours and 45 minutes plane ride back and end up eating Popeyes when I reach around 10pm.
The food tasted exactly like it does in Singapore and Malaysia. But my drink seemed to be upsized.
Since I broke the rule of travel-eating, here is a photo of a Thai Ronald McDonald who is greeting passers by in a Thai way.
Cendol is probably my second favorite Malaysian dessert. (The first being “bubur pulut hitam” which is black glutinous rice soup with coconut milk.)
The best cendol I’ve ever had was in Georgetown, Penang.
I usually like my cendol icy with lumps of teeth numbing ice so I was very disappointed when I got a warm-ish bowl of cendol from the “Penang Most Famous Teochew Chendul” (Yes, that’s its name!).
But after a sip of the coconut milk, I was hooked.
Even L, who was repulsed by the florescent green cendol in Singapore, enjoyed the Penang dish very much. She admitted that the mild green cendol looks more edible than the artificial coloring added in Singapore’s dessert.
L and I visited this stall for all three days we were there (or was it two out of the three days?)
The green worm-like cendol was soft and had real pandan flavor. The sweet red bean gave the pale milk a hint of rouge.
Even though the melting lump of shaved ice didn’t help much with making the bowl cooler, it helped cooled me down in the hot weather.
I found out about the stall from a work acquaintance. I bumped into her on my way home on the train. She said she visits Penang a lot for work and recommended the “cendol stall opposite the police station”.
She told me that there are stalls selling cendol on the same street. The acquaintance said I need to pick the stall with blue bowls. It’s also closer to the junction and doesn’t have chairs.
When people ask me what food I miss most from home. I can rarely give an answer.
Saying “Seafood” is too easy. Who doesn’t love cheap seafood?
So instead of a real answer, I will show you one of my favorite dishes from home.
This noodle dish is called “ban mian” which roughly translates as “plank noodles”. I think the “ban” or “plank” signifies how the dough is chunky…I think.
A regular bowl of banmian (which is available in Singapore as well) has a pork-based stock, doughy noodles, pork, salted anchovies and some vegetable.
But not all banmian are good. It depends on the stock and the noodles. Some soup are so bland that my tears are probably tastier. Some noodles are undercooked or overcooked.
At my favorite banmian shop, everything is mixed in perfect harmony. The soup is tongue-scaldingly hot and the noodles chewy. The meat that accompanies it is always tender.
YQtravelling 