Singapore Eats, Day 1... am i prepared??

Something is suddenly very evident. Andre and his lab has it in their minds that they will kill us will food. i mean what a glorious way to die but still, will this kingdom state of the Merlion be my place of demise?

The day started with a round of meet and greet and me walking generally around with my jaw dragging on the floor. The institute here at the Biopolis is such a well equip set of labs. The toys they have to play with and the innovative proteomics that they are doing is shocking, i spent most of the day feeling slightly envious and completely jealous of the work that is being done and the techniques that are being brought to bare on questions i've been troubled by in the field of protein based biology/biomarker discovery for years. My brain was a firework of ideas and temporarily, the heat and the humidity was forgotten. The talk went well, i think. The thing with speaking to a largely Asian crowd is that they will never show that they don't care for your talk. However, there were some questions asked, so they weren't all asleep. Now i only have to worry about the lab work and not embarrassing myself with my usual brand of incompetence and general stupidity.

But, on to the important stuff. The stuff i am good at! Eating!! Notice i didn't say photography... and certainly not cell phone photography. So, many apologies if the photos are a bit lacking. i'd drag out my DSLR but it is rather large and well, conspicuous.

fish cracklings... like crack!

The first stop of the day was the Cantonese Paradise Teahouse in the Star Vista (home of one of the largest concert halls in the region, the Star Performing Arts Centre, where i see Tegan and Sara will be performing on July 29th and Kenny Rogers' "Final World Tour" will be traipsing through on August 6th) for a bit of dim sum with the lab folks involved in the CanFel project. We left the ordering to the experts from Singapore and what arrived was a feast indeed. The food started off with what is essentially fish cracklings... fish skin (not sure what fish) dredged in salted duck egg and fried. This was followed up by their version of baked bbq pork buns with a top that is reminiscent of chinese pineapple buns (i have inserted a photo from their website as it shows the delicious filling within... i have a photo of the complete bao but was too focused on the eating to remember to take a photo of the filling).

Pork bun goodness!

Next came an assortment of classic dim sum items, shrimp dumplings (har gao), shumei, pork spare ribs, and spicy wontons (of which i had the presence of mind to shoot only the har gao... but be assured, they all tasted wonderfully and many can be spotted on the background to other dishes... sigh... Then there was the presentation of pork two ways. The first being the suckling pig, beautiful white meat topped with a lovely layer of fat and an oh so crispy skin. The second way was the bbq pork (found diced in the buns) in the native pork loin form. The loin is seductively dark and glistening with the Chinese cha-shu glaze. The flavor was intense and the discreet pockets of fat giving off bursts of porky goodness.

Pork, two ways

Pekin duck in an egg crepe topped with cilantro

Then, out of the corner of my eyes, a whole "peking duck" was being carved by a more senior floor staff. She deftly sliced up the skin and underlying fat and then i was distracted by conversation and food until her completed art work was presented. "Peking duck" with hoisin sauce wrapped in a gossamer thin egg crepe. i've never seen it in an egg crepe like this. It adds a certain richness when hot, but cools stiffly loosing a bit of the eggy flavor. i am still at odds as to which i prefer, the egg crepe served here or the traditional thin flour crepe (the buns i like the least, though i would never tell it so to its face, it is, after all, also delicious, just not so when compared to the crepe-y siblings in the Peking Duck family). The skinless duck was also served for our dining enjoyment with a lovely plum sauce. Often, the duck is done three ways, skin with wrapper/bun, meat in a fried rice or noodles, and bones in a soup. The service of the skinless duck is a good illustration why the meat is oft used as a component in a stir fry, it can often be a wee dry. Not that it is not also delicious, one just have to help it along with sauces, chili or plum or a mix i like to call chili-plum. So, that was the noon meal, with many photos missing.

Baby Octopus... so good... so very good

 

"Chicken of the sea"? Squid with chicken skin 8)

Thus, when dinner rolled around, i strived to be a lot more diligent. i almost succeeded absolutely. i certainly succeeded mostly. Dinner was to be at Jumbo Seafood in the Dempsey area. Andre tells us that Dempsey used to be a Singapore military installation, in fact, it was where he reported for his physicals and registration when he turned 18 and was conscripted. He never served in the Dempsey camp, but had visited as part of his first induction into the military rank and file. After the Singaporean military left it, it was left empty for sometime before developers repurposed it and turned it into a now very trendy collection of shops, restaurants and walks. It is tucked away in the woods, giving it a very lovely rural feel but for the high priced sedans rolling through. The Jumbo Seafood restaurant (one of many in Singapore) has both indoor and outdoor seating with the indoor seating being the more limiting. The outdoor seating has a retractable roof and side panels in case of rain and the entire area is cooled by many powerful oscillating fans. Jumbo is renown for its Singaporean chili crab, made with sri lanka crabs and i was very much looking forward to this though, i must confess, not entirely starving after the large dim sum lunch a mere 5 hours prior. The dinner begun with a number of rather exciting dishes. The first being the most crispy, crunchy, fried baby octopus (dredged in a sweet and spicy sauce) that i've ever had the pleasure of eating. i can imagine how well this will go with a pitcher or two of beer in this tropical climate! And yes, someone forgot tot take a photo before digging in. The next dish was billed as the "Phoenix Chicken". It was, in fact, cooked squid paste shaped to look like white meat chicken and topped with a deliciously browned chicken skin. The flavor of the squid paste and the chicken worked together rather beautifully and the entire thing was surprising and delicious!

Braised tofu with seaweed and mushrooms

Scallops in a fried taro nest.

The next course was a twist on a classic soy braised soft fried tofu dish. In this case they topped the tofu with a slip of seaweed and then covered the entire thing with a mushroom gravy. It, along with the decorative broccoli, represented the vegetable for the dinner service. This was quite wonderful. The next dish was a scallop nesting in a fried taro root embrace. It combined the exterior of on of my all time favourite dim sum dishes with a perfectly cooked silver dollar sized scallop. An absolute treat!.Then, was is to appear other than the star of the meal? Well, one of the twin stars i should say. As Andre decided we need to have a taste test between the famed Chili Crab and the also famous cousin, the Jumbo Black Pepper Crab. So, for the six of us, two crabs of around 1.4kg in size (3lb ish). The Sri Lankan crabs are a lot tougher than the Dungeness crabs i am used to. Thicker shells that defy my human jaw and teeth (now kids, don't do what uncle Vonbek did... it is not good for your teeth and your dentist will love you because of the new boat you would have helped him buy)... and no, i didn't really try to bite through the shell, one look at the cross section and i knew it was futile, but i was aweful tempted. The chili crab was delightful. The sauce perfect for dipping a bun into or pouring over rice or noodles or just drinking. The sauce was spicy and sweet but not cloyingly so. Quite well balanced The spice is there, but not sensation killing. In the tropical temps, it was actually quite pleasant indeed! The black pepper crab arrived next, a dark red crab poised menacingly on its platter. The spice on the black pepper crab was actually much more intense than the chili crab. The heat more lingering... yet, dipping the black pepper crab meat into the chili crab sauce was yet another fabulous sensation.

The Chili Crab!

An interloper also appeared on the scene during the presentation of the two crabs. A Singaporean "Cereal Prawn". Literally jumbo prawns, coated in a local Singaporean cereal drink mix (it is oat meal, but not the heavy stuff of Europe and the US, a much thinner, flakier, lighter and sweater version that paired surprisingly well with prawns! a recipe can be found here. The flavors were subtle and the prawns were succulent and delicious, and, like the black pepper crab, paired well with the Chili Crab sauce 8).

The Black Pepper Crab!

The crew that survived

Cereal Prawns!