Ampang Yong Tau Foo - A different kind of flavour altogether.

Eating Ampang Yong Tau Foo reminds me of eating Ngoh Hiang or Wu Xiang as they call it in mandarin. You get to select your own ingredients, then its re-fried and served. Only this time with the yong tau foo, its generously drenched with a starchy sauce and served with their special sauce.

Ampang Yong Tau Foo is much raved about, but it failed to impress me. I've tasted it twice, yet I still feel that its not nice. Maybe I prefer the normal yong tau foo that we are familiar with, the not all fried ingredients and soupy kind.



The plate of yong tau foo was for sharing that night, and so I had a kway chap store found there. I didn't see any store name, so I presume its owned under the same family? Maybe not, but the bowl of kway was pretty good. It was served with a herbal soup base, unlike the ones that I've eaten so far - served with braised sauce.



The pig innards, tau pok, lor bak, braised egg and tau kwa were okay. Decent but nothing there left an impression on me.

'In Malaysia, the Ampang region of Kuala Lumpur is particularly famous for this dish.' (source from Wiki)I wouldn't discount the original Ampang Yong Tau Foo to be bad just because I don't like the one in Singapore. Will definitely head there to try the original version of it if I ever have the chance.

So, do you prefer the usual, more familiar, ubiquitous yong tau foo we all know? Or do you like this Ampang yong tau foo more?

Yam Bean with Pork and Dried Squid - The 'stock' gets sweeter when its leftover!

Yam bean may sound strange and unfamiliar to many but mang guang, in hokkien, might just ring a bell in you. Yes, its flesh is white in colour, sweet and commonly used in our rojak, popiah and kueh pie tee.

This is another one of my grandma's recipe and I've been wanting to learn this for a long time. It surprised me to be really quick and easy to prepare and cook yet it taste so good! The frying of garlic and dried squid imparts loads of flavour into this dish so be sure to go get them if you need to!



Goes down really well with rice and one thing I've discovered : leftovers might not be recommended by doctors but reheating this dish after a day or two, the whole dish just seem sweeter and nicer. Its true, try it out yourself.

Yam Bean with Pork and Dried Squid

800g of pork (parts of the pig that are known to be tender will be good)
3 medium sized yam bean, skinned and shredded
5-7 cloves of garlic, smashed
5 rice bowls of water
some soy sauce and salt, to taste
2-3 tbsp dark soy sauce, for colouring
2 dried squid - washed and cut into pieces

1. Fry the garlic with the dried squid. Add the pork and cook till its half cooked before adding in the shredded yam bean.

2. Add in the dark soy sauce and toss everything together before transferring into a pot. Pour the 5 rice bowls of water and let it boil, over medium heat, for 30mins.

3. Check, and add salt and soy sauce to taste. Let it boil for another 20-30 mins till the yam bean shreds are soft and have soaked up the juices. Serve hot, shiok.

Bak Chang (Rice Dumpling) - Grandma's Recipe

Rice Dumpling Festival, or traditionally known as Duan Wu Jie in mandarin, is celebrated annually on the 5th day of the 5th month in accordance to the Chinese lunar calender.

Which fell on 6 June this year. Its over already. However there's no reason for panic, bak chang used to be available only during the rice dumpling festival period, but ever since it is commercialized, bak chang are now available all year round. You just need to keep your eyes peeled to spot a store near you selling them and you can get a taste of them, or do it the more satisfying way (harder too), make them yourself.



The history of Du Wu Jie, this is one of the moments where reading my chinese textbook passages helps other than studying for spelling tests, originates a Chinese scholar named Qu Yuan.

Legend has it that during the Warring States Period in China, another country tried to take over Qu Yuan's country - state of Chu - the enemy poisoned the emperor's mind and Qu Yuan being a wise adviser to the emperor was deemed as traitor. Thus, leading to Qu Yuan being sent to exile and being a very patriotic citizen of his state, he couldn't bear seeing his country falling into the hands of the enemy thus he jumped into the river. Upon learning of his death in the river, villagers came up with the idea of wrapping rice dumplings then throwing them in the river in a bid to save his body from being eaten by the fishes in the river. Thereafter, the Rice Dumpling Festival is born.



I love chinese festivals. They always seemingly come paired with some sort of food meant for that specific festival. This rice dumpling that my grandma makes is the nyonya type I think, since its fillings contains pork and is sweet. Personally I feel putting more fillings into each dumpling would certain make one very happy becuase the fillings are so good that I believe they can make up a dish on their own!

But its true, I should learn to be thankful that my grandma makes them and is willing to show me a live demo of it. My grandma had a by-pass a few years back so she isn't as strong as she was before anymore. She stopped wrapping bak changs 2 years back I think so I haven't had hers for awhile already, and there was actually no plans to wrap bak changs this year too till my request to learn, which my grandma swiftly acceded to. 'Thank you grandma!'

*Feel free to add in more ingredients that you like and test them out. I'm thinking chestnuts, peanuts and etc.

Grandma's Bak Chang

1kg pork thigh meat
300g chinese mushrooms, pre soaked then snipped into halves with stock removed.
6 shallots, sliced and divided equally in 2 bowls
2kg glutinous rice
100g candied winter melon, chopped
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp five spice powder
pinch of pepper
150g of dried scallops, contained in a small pot.
30 dried bamboo leaves, soaked until soft and wiped dry
1-2 bundle hemp strings, soaked

For the glutinous rice:

1. Wash rice and strain.
2. Brown 1 bowl of shallots in oil till their aroma is liberated. Scoop up half of the shallots, leaving the oil and the remaining shallots in the pan. Note: don't throw away, sprinkle them on your dishes or porridge.
3. Fry the rice in the pan till its half cooked. Put the half cooked rice in a big bowl and set aside.

For the fillings:

1. Fry 1 bowl of shallots till their amora is liberated. Add in the mushrooms and continue frying.
2. Add in pork after a minute or so, followed by the candied winter melon.
3. Before the pork is done, add in soy sauce, five spice powder and pepper to taste. *Add in more seasoning based on personal preferences. Scoop up into a small pot.

Boil wrapped dumplings for an hour or so then you're done.

Makes around 20 dumplings

Wrapped and assembling of the dumpling will be explained by the following video:

Xiu Ji Ikan Bilis Yong Tau Fu - The Noodles Stole The Limelight!

It was Chinatown Complex Food Centre for breakfast again. This time round, I managed to try the Xiu Ji Ikan Bilis Yong Tau Fu stall that was closed the other time I was there.

Before I begin this review/write up, I must confess that the quality of the previous few posts were lacking. Lacking in terms of the heart and soul of a true foodie and it was evident in my reluctance to update my blog as frequently as I did before.

I was losing the heart to update this blog, its not easy but the passion for cooking and the love of food was the reason I started this blog and still is the driving force behind all the food photos and posts. I was getting too concerned about this blog's traffic and envying other bloggers' invite, etc. It removed the fun and simple motive for blogging : to let others know where good food are available at. But I have since sorted out my thoughts and shall keep at blogging because I know someone out there might just be having a headache over his/her meal and I could be of great help. (:

So there you have it, my confession of a foodie. Now, back to our review.

It was quite a long wait before I finally got my bowl of dry kway teow and 7 pieces of yong tau foo as a queue was already formed when I got there. The queue was seemingly endless with patrons replacing each other as one left, another came.

Oh, and the photos are still not up to standard yet becuase I'm still learning how to use my compact camera, dreams of getting a DSLR!

There's only a choice between 7 pieces of yong tau foo with bee hoon/noodles or 9 pieces of yong tau foo for $3. You can't choose your yau tau foo items at this stall, its all fixed and if you add any additional items, there will be a charge.

The yong tau foo items are handmade everyday and it is very evident as they have 2 stalls next to each other with one side preparing the items and the other cooking and serving them.

The noodles, or kway teow in this case, stole the limelight, surprisingly. The noodles are served with onion oil and fried ikan bilis. These two items greatly enhanced the flavorless noodles into something delightful and flavorsome. I'm pretty sure I could take 2 bowls of it if I knew it was so good!



The yong tau foo was okay, the handmade items did not stand out like I thought they would though I must commend the soup for being nice, light and flavorsome.

Overall, I think it would be great if they would improve on their yong tau foo items but definitely, keep serving that bowl of dried noodles!

Xiu Ji Ikan Bilis Yong Tau Fu

Blk 335 Smith Street
#02-87/88 Chinatown Complex Food Centre
Singapore
Opening Hours: Daily 5.45am – 3pm

Thai Honey Mango - It truly lives up to its name!

Thai Honey Mangoes are not ordinarily sweet, they are saccharine. I'm pretty certain if fruit doctors existed, they would have diagnosed this type of mangoes with diabetes. And it runs in the blood, or in this case the flesh of the mangoes!

Most importantly, you and I love it because it's this sweet.

I'm not sure if it's the season for thai honey mangoes yet, but when they're brought over specially from the country of origin are sure to be good. However, I did not go over to thailand for a holiday, neither did my family.

To cut a long story short, my dad has a client in Thailand where business dealings have since blossomed into friendship. So one of the employees came over to Singapore and brought a dozen of them over, including some green mangoes - I'm truly blessed because this happens a few times a year. Therefore, I decided to share the joy with everyone with this post.

A famous thai dessert made with this type of mango is the mango with sticky rice dessert - where they place thick slices of mango with a portion of glutinous rice, topped with a little coconut cream. Heavenly.

The mangoes have since been devoured by my family. So what are you waiting for? Go get a couple of these mangoes if you happen to see them!

Saybons - A Friend's Birthday

Saybons opened a new brunch at Bishan recently. Its main brunch at Plaza Singapura is a rather prominent shop near the entrance of Dhoby Ghaut MRT. I've been wanting to try it ever since someone mentioned that their crepes and escargots are good.

This birthday lunch treat was a promise a few weeks back, but we were having our exams then, hence the late birthday treat. I decided on Saybons since both of us have been wanted to try it.



I ordered the Smoked Salmon, Cheese and Onion crepe while my friend had the Bacon, Egg and Cheese crepe(first picture). These two were the recommended crepes on the menu.

I didn't try his crepe, but mine was pretty decent. The saltiness of the smoke salmon together with the crisp of the onion and melted cheese went well with the crepe. The crepe was of just the right thickiness, neither too thick nor too thin.



We ordered a set each which came with a soup and a side of your choice. We had the Wild Mushroom Soup and Seafood Bisque. I would recommend the Seafood Bisque although there's an extra 50cent charge. The mushroom soup tasted a little diluted with the cream taste. A more concentrated mushroom flavour would make the soup real good.

The Seafood Bisque tasted like the ocean - it was rich with sweet flavours of the crabs and prawns shells, lacked the oomph though. I suggest drinking the soups without addition of any pepper or salt because I added a little pepper halfway through and the peppery taste was a little overpowering.



The Sundried Tomato Butter Focaccia Bread for my side was a let down. The bread lacked of even the slightest tomato taste, it was just essentially bread pan fried with butter.



The Garlic Herb Escargots were the last to arrive as it requires a 10mins bake time. They were not too bad, carried a strong garlicky and buttery taste. However, I don't think I would pay $8 to eat half a dozen of them, too costly.

All in all, their crepes were the best. I will be back to try their dessert crepe on another occasion.

Saybons

Junction 8

9 Bishan Place #02-27A (above McDonalds)
Singapore 579837
Tel: 62583138
Open 9am to 10pm daily
Nearest MRT station: Bishan

Plaza Singapura

68 Orchard Road #B2-30/31/32 ( near Carls' Junior)
Singapore 238839
Tel: 6884 9018
Open 9am to 10pm (Mon-Fri)
Open 10am to 10pm (Sat & Sun)
Nearest MRT station: Dhoby Ghaut Station