#FoodFri 10 yummy things I ate while travelling in 2012

It’s the last #FoodFri of 2012. Here at YQtravelling, I want to take a trip down memory lane and bring back memories of the best food I’ve eaten this year.

Seafood in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

I’m starting the list with a staple dish when I am back home for the holidays–seafood. In my case, seafood usually means crabs because they are cheaper than prawns and much fleshier than clams.

As for seasoning, I do not have a favorite and will eat crabs anyway it is cooked.

Do you have a special dish for the year 2012? Share it in the comments below.

#FoodFri Chicken rice from Chatterbox, Singapore

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.

From the Meritus Hotel’s website:

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.

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.

Brunch at Drips Cafe, Singapore

TGIF! It’s #FoodFri again on YQtravelling.

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. :(

The caffè latte was normal and it wasn’t burnt, which to my untrained palate is good enough.

Drips Cafe caffe latte — 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.

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.

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.

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.

Bonus tourist attraction

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.

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Visited: Cabbages & Condoms, Bangkok, Thailand

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.

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

Exhibit B: Condom fashion

Exhibit C: 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 of Cabbages & Condoms — 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 from Cabbages & Condoms — Recipe table mat

I also discovered that the utensils were branded with the name of the restaurant.

Plate with restaurant's name from Cabbages & Condoms — Plate with restaurant’s name

Coffee from Cabbages & Condoms — Coffee glass

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 from Cabbages & Condoms — 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.

Condom from Cabbages & Condoms — 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.

Condoms from Cabbages & Condoms — 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

Have you eaten at Cabbages & Condoms?

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#FoodFri Guīlínggāo in Singapore

龟苓膏 Guīlínggāo is an acquired taste.

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.

Have you ever eaten guīlínggāo ?

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Dinner & miscommunication for breakfast in Alor Setar

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.)

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.

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 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 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.

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.

Have you been to Alor Setar? What do you recommend eating there?

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#FoodFri Glutton in Bangkok

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.

What’s your favorite Thai dish?

#FoodFri Penang cendol @ Georgetown

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.

(This site has the map if you are interested in visiting the stall: http://www.onestopmalaysia.com/food-reviews/penang/penang-road-cendol.html)

#FoodFri Banmian from Kota Kinabalu

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.

I do miss my banmian from home.

#FoodFri Omurice at Taimeiken in Tokyo

One of my favorite yoshoku (Japanese-style western food) dish is omurice.

It’s a rather strange dish with an equally strange name. Omu + rice = omelet + rice. An omelet covers a serving of fried rice like a snug blanket and garnished with a dash of ketchup.

Good omurice has a tangy taste. Bad omurice is just fried rice topped with a lazy omelette.

I’ve wanted to try Taimeikan’s omurice ever since I read about the Tampopo Omurice on food blog Just Bento. Maki’s photo of a runny omelet on top of rice makes me hungry every time I look at it.

I had the chance to pop into Taimeiken for lunch during my last day in Tokyo. Even though my stomach was still full from my buffet breakfast, I knew that I needed to try the dish or I would fly back with regret.

The restaurant was a bit difficult to find because I couldn’t find the Exit C5 at Nihombashi station. When I did find the exit, I was confused by the street level buildings as the Taimeiken sign was not there that day.

I eventually figured out the place. I was reached the doors slightly before 1 p.m. and it was strange that the queue was not as long as I expected.

Little did I know the queue would snake out when I left the restaurant.

Queue outside of Taimeiken Restaurant for lunch — The queue after I had my meal

I was soon seated in the crowded restaurant. The place was smaller than I imagined. My elbow was almost touching the lady at the next table’s.

Even though there was a 800 yen lunch set, I ordered the omurice. I was informed that my order was for a normal omurice so I changed it to the famous Tampopo omurice.

The deco was vintage. The chair even had what look like animals.

The pattern was repeated on the serviette.

My 50 yen borscht arrived before my omurice. The serving was larger than I expected. (I imagined a small Chinese bowl of tomato-based soup.)

Soon my omurice came, along with a small serving of ketchup. The dish looked beautiful and I took a while to find the best angle to take a photo of it.

Unfortunately, that extra 30 seconds caused my egg to overcook. Instead of a beautiful waterfall of egg flowing over my rice. Mine looked like a the face of Two Face, a character in Batman.

For 1,850 yen, the taste wasn’t exceptional. It felt like it lacked salt. (Or my friend D likes to say: Too little seasoning.)

I ate every grain of rice because it was expensive. But I didn’t feel satisfied. :( I think I will go for the normal omurice, or even the lunch sets next time.

Directions
Take Exit C5 of Tokyo Metro’s Nihombashi station. Once out of the station, turn to the right and another right at the corner of the street. It’s just down the road.