Lunar New Year 2024

I've finished the pictures for this year's Lunar New Year. 

Finally. 

It's been too long- five months actually, I'm heartily embarrassed to say- and whilst this long delay is not something I'm proud of, the good thing about this super long time lapse is that you get to be absolutely sure what it is your first impressions were, and what stays with you the most.

Food seems to have taken precedence over everything else this year. 

Not sure if that's a good thing especially when you consider I have had for many years immersed myself in the atmosphere of Lunar New Year, whether it be in the 'hood or at the OG of Lunar New Year bazaars in Chinatown. 

But life sometimes overwhelms, and better it is that I capture what is of significance to me than of scenes that speak nothing to me thereafter.

One of the first things about this year's celebration that I remember- even till now- is this box of fresh persimmons that I'd gotten from a stall at the Lunar New Year bazaar in Chinatown. 

Unlike the preserved ones coated with a dusting of white powder (sugar?) which I used to get, these ones had to be kept in the fridge and the man said they could last a few months.

Which was good. 

I intended to remember this Lunar New Year for a long time to come. 

There was, too, a collection of cookies and snacks on the top of the storage fridge that we had this year. 

Simple they might appear to be, but pineapple tarts made out of solid butter, and buttery, salty sugee cookies are a staple for us and blessed are we to be able to have them year after year after year. 

Doesn't matter if pay good dollars to the confectionery shop opposite Hong Lim Market in Chinatown. 

Doesn't matter too if we carry back this huge heavy jar of cookies plus other bunch of stuff either. 

We've made it to another year. 

I was thankful this year to have the addition of a red bean sachima snack that a loved one had brought over all the way from Taiwan, as well as a box of salted caramel sachima, which, I have to say, made really great snacks for a sugar-managed diet like mine. 

I had thought they might be hard, or sticky on the teeth.

But no, they were incredibly soft, easy to eat, and best of all, individually wrapped, which made them so easy to bring around. 

It wasn't only the snacks that I smile at the memory this year.

There was, no doubt, the food. 

We had two buffets, thank God, and whilst I'd love to write about them (again) maybe it's better that I just put the pictures and we appreciate all the food that we had this year. 

At one buffet I had a lot of prawns prepared in different styles. 

At the other I had quite a bit of fresh oysters and seafood and had to remind myself to save room for dessert. 

After that there was this one evening where we went to Marina Bay Sands for Peking Duck, and shall I say that the fat, the crisp of the skin and the tender chew of the meat made it one of the nicest roast ducks I've ever had?

Their signature sauce plays a part too. 

Of course, it wasn't just hotel buffets and Peking Duck from contemporary restaurant Mott 32 that we had this year. 

On New Year's Eve, or was it the eve before, we went down the traditional, homecooked route with dinner at Beng Hiang in Jurong East Central. 

Now, I may not be familiar with Hokkien cuisine, I may also not have grown up with these dishes around the table, but even till now I've not forgotten the soft, melty, savory taste of kong bak pork belly in the bao.

Neither have I forgotten the chew of (exotic) sea cucumber served with tender fall-off-the-bone braised duck in a gravy containing Five Spices seasoning and more. 

What with it being a surprise, a last minute reservation even, let's just say that it did make for one of the more memorable meals to be had this Lunar New Year.

Despite all the great snacks and the great meals we had, it wasn't all only about the food, I'm glad to say. 

We had the decor.

And because we had a vase that had been (painstakingly) brought to Steppyhouse this year, we went full color with the pussy willows, lugged them back on the bus, and they're now on the balcony. 

IRODORI's Japanese

A friend of mine told me about this Japanese restaurant he had newly discovered, said it had a sort of ongoing daily buffet kind of thing, with a fairly extensive menu, asked me if I wanted go try. 

As it so happened I had been (quietly) missing one of my favorite Japanese buffets in the Shenton Way area, and since this place looked enticing, I was glad to try. 

There really is a difference between an authentic Japanese restaurant, and a restaurant serving Japanese food to patrons whom they think don't know what quality cuisine, and service is. 

Pity for those restaurants, because there are some really good ones out there, and Irodori (like the one at Shenton Way) is one of them. 

One of the first things we ordered this evening was the Sashimi Moriawase. 

If you don't know what it is, well, it's really a plate of mix sashimi that's got Salmon, Tuna, Yellowtail, Swordfish, and Octopus, and can I say that I quite liked the yellowtail and the tuna but the swordfish and octopus not so much? 

There'll be those amongst us who will take to octopus with gusto- a friend of mine used to just chomp off the heads- but oy, for someone who doesn't even take calamari or grilled octopus on a regular basis, it takes time to get used to the raw version, which for some reason is significantly different from the Salmon, my go-to, and my favorite. 

We tried a lot of different foods after that, but somehow we still came back to the Salmon, and afterwards, the Tuna. 

That's not to say that the other foods were no good. 

Of course not. 

It would have been lovely had we had enough space for the Irodori Maki, the Futo Maki or the Shake Maki which is really a Salmon Mayo Roll. 

But we decided to go for the ToriKaarage, the Ebi Tempura, the Renkon Tempura, the Age Gyoza, the Nasu Tempura, and the Tamanegi Tempura.

Out of this all can I say that I had my favorites?

That even though I appreciated the well fried prawn and the well fried gyozas with mayonnaise, it was the Renkon Tempura, the Nasu Tempura and the Tamanegi Tempura that I liked best. 

It isn't because I prefer vegetable tempura over everything and anything but it's just that the Renkon lotus roots were remarkably crispy, the Tamanegi big onion had that wee bit of onion juice mixed with the crisp of tempura batter, and I have a special love for Nasu, which is eggplant. 

What I liked best was just how crisp and tasty the batter was. 

And even though I got somewhat carried away by the big onion- so much so that I ordered portions 2 and 3- it was delightful to just nibble on the Renkon, and the Nasu, feeling the crisp and the crunch of the batter over the soft, mushy veggie.

Then I had thought we were done. 

But then the wait staff brought over a plate of Half Lobsters with Mentaiko Sauce on the house which by no means looked like an afterthought but was huge, fresh, and which had a most generous slather of sauce on top.

I take a fancy to lobster.

I also take a fancy to Mentaiko sauce. 

So there it was- one for me and one for my friend.

Too bad there was only one half for each person.

I could have had two.

Right after the lobster came the Yaki Mono and the Teppanyaki.

I can't remember what it is of the Teppanyaki we got- it might have been the Teriyaki Salmon or, maybe the scallops- but there was, definitely, from the Yaki Mono menu- the Cocktail Bacon Maki. 

I liked the bacon.

The sausage, well, not so much.

Perhaps I'm not so good with salty, processed food these days. 

By this time we were beginning to feel sort of full (sashimi really does fill you up) and I was starting to worry if there'd be leftovers- not so nice lar- but then I didn't want to just let it be without attempting, so I decided a bowl of ramen in soup might help me nibble up the food quicker. 

I ordered, the ramen came, I savored it slowly with the soup, and, it worked!

I'm going to be back here at Irodori for their buffet next time. 

I'm sure of it. 

This time however I'll probably cut back on the Tamanegi Tempura (six onions are a tad too much) but I'll try their Temaki hand rolls, especially the soft shell crab one, and I'll want to have the Yaki Udon.

Hey, I like noodles.

And I try to have them on the days I can, whenever I can.

The CANTON PARADISE Yum Cha

Those who know me will know that I have a special penchant for dim sum- and not necessarily at yum cha time. 

Dim sum is, after all, one of those foods that can fit into the category of formal sit down meal, casual-formal sit down meal, casual eatery cha chaan teng meal, or snack street food style that you wolf down as you walk, or in the car. 

Before frozen dim sum was a thing I used to crave for siew mais (back then they were expensive) or have char siew bao only once a week in the car.

Things are however slightly different now where if I want to I can get a pack of frozen siew mais from the supermarket, and if I want to, I can go have a sit down meal at a restaurant. 

Canton Paradise falls into what I call the casual-formal category when it comes to afternoon dim sum at 30% discount. 

It very much depends on the outlet you go, I think, and although I can't recollect exactly which outlet it was that we were at- it might have been Bedok, it might have been Parkway Parade or Paya Lebar- but it was, I'm pretty sure, a casual-formal one. 

I remember the light, I remember the ambience, I remember the staff and I remember the crowd. 

That doesn't mean that I have no inkling about the food. 

Of course not. 

You don't forget meat dumplings done spicy in some sort of mala oil. 

They were so good. 

Then again, neither do you forget paus (two kinds!), cheong fun and a bowl of porridge done thick in the Cantonese style. 

It's a wonder how something simple (almost ordinary) like a char siew pau can make you feel this cherished, and this full. 

I loved how the soft and fluffy paus were filled almost to the brim with little melty chunks of Char Siew in their sweet, redder than red, delicious sauce.

I loved how satisfied one pau (and one pau only) made me feel even though there were three in the basket, and there were another three more on the other plate. 

It had to be that either the filling was very solid, or that the flour of the pau was. 

We split the third char siew pau into two, my friend and I, half half each, and we did the same for the plate of salted egg lava buns as well. 

I would be lying if I said that lava buns haven't become my new favorite dim sum in recent years. 

There is, after all, something charming about biting into each bun carefully, and seeing the salted egg sauce ooze its way out. 

Doesn't mean that I eat it this way with my hands all the time though. 

There're occasions where I use chopsticks, and they're pretty convenient. All I need to do is to twist a little bit of the bun out, pick it up with chopsticks and spoon, then slowly suck the salted egg lava out.

This afternoon I decided to have these buns using my hands. 

There was no time (nor patience) for the chopsticks. 

Especially since the rest of our food had already arrived. 

I took a fancy to everything on the table. 

Like the cheong fun, which was char siew, and whose rice rolls, I must say, were thicker and chewier and rounder than the factory-made chee cheong fun that I'm mostly used to. 

It's always nice to have a good chew of rice roll when it comes to things like cheong fun. 

Somehow it makes the dish feel more solid, more appetizing, more comforting, just like how dim sum is supposed to be. 

Same it was with the pork porridge too, where, as anticipated, it was the smooth, silky Cantonese style kind that slid its way onto your tongue from the spoon and flowed all around your mouth, giving you that immediate, instant sense of warmth like all good porridges will do. 

I can't say which of all these dishes were our favorites but the dumplings in mala- those we particularly liked. 

There was something surprisingly wholesome about it, something unexpectedly warm.

It might have been the size of the dumplings itself.

It might also have been how they'd been done, where, different from wanton dumplings, these here were larger- almost siew mai size- and where the smooth skin texture wrapped around carefully boiled teeny weeny balls of little minced meat let you pop one straight into your mouth, giving you a burst of warm, meaty flavors with silky skin, plus that slightly spicy taste of mala that titillated your taste buds but (unlike other dishes) didn't overwhelm your tongue with the spice. 

So, despite the fact that we were really rather full, we ordered another bowl.

And so we had two. 

Afternoon Tea @ TSUTA

My first reaction to a friend's invitation for afternoon tea at 313 Somerset was a 'No'. 

It wasn't because I didn't like high tea.

It wasn't because I was busy.

It was that I felt underdressed for such and such a meal, and I would rather wait for another time than to have a high tea session sans makeup and accessories. 

But the afternoon tea wasn't at any fancy place, my friend explained, it was at TSUTA- on the ground floor of 313 Somerset facing the MRT entrance and the 24-hour walkway, so I agreed. 

You know how it is that most afternoon tea places tend to cater to the female/feminine crowd? 

Not so here at TSUTA, which, I'm glad to say, seems to lean towards the gender neutral side.

How do I know it?

Ambience, and Menu. 

TSUTA is not one of those places where you get pristine white tablecloths, elegant, fine crockery, armchairs with carved armrests to prop your elbows on, or prettily painted plates of porcelain.

Here you'll be seated at a wooden rectangular table on benches similarly made of wood in a booth-like style. 

Very casual, very fun, very unladylike. 

But they've got a Menu, and they've got food. 

Which, I must tell you, are of an offering a far cry from your regular expectations of an afternoon tea menu. 

This is a place to not expect scones, jam, and clotted cream.

Instead, be prepared to face a Menu that brings you a variety of Mazesobas, Dons, Gyozas and Makis. 

We were surprised to see that amongst the variety of Dons available, there were Kakiage Don, Soboro Don, Wagyu Don, Salmon Don and Teriyaki Chicken Don. 

Not just that, from the Mazesobas, there were Onsen Egg, Mala, Kurobishio, Teriyaki Chicken, and Vegetable. 

It was hard to decide but eventually my friend got a Wagyu Don and I decided on a Mazesoba Kurobishio. 

Then, because this meal was becoming more like a dinner than a high tea, we ordered an ala carte Salmon Don as well. 

It wasn't just the Savory that appealed to us. 

The Bites too were just as good. 

Two types of gyozas, eight types of makis and some other little dishes like Salmon Carpaccio and Ebi Fry made for a most challenging choice. 

I wanted the Maki- the Negitoro Nami Maki and Avocado Ebi Nami Maki sounded really good- but then there on the Menu there was this Aburi Niku, this Teriyaki Chicken Bao, and this Ebi Fry, all of which seemed just as good.

So we took the Chicken Kaarage, the Aburi Niku and the Teriyaki Chicken Bao.

All of our orders came together at the same time, including the desserts of Black Sesame Bavaro and Matcha Bavaro.

The meal was good. 

I enjoyed everything on the table this late afternoon at TSUTA. 

But can I say that out of everything it were the Teriyaki Chicken Bao that left a deep impression on me?

At first I'd thought it might have been the typical dim sum char siew bao kind of bao. 

But, no, what we got instead was the Kong Bak Bao kind of bao, where, instead of a piece of braised pork belly that you stuffed inside the puppet-mouth shaped bun, you got a chonky piece of tender grilled chicken, and a leaf of lettuce that you stuffed in the same way.

It is a creative (almost kosher) spin on a familiar, homecooked dish that TSUTA has done. 

And somehow I think their team has done it rather well the same way how they've done it with the Mazesoba Kurobishio.

A person acquainted with mazesoba and kurobishio would know precisely just what the standards of this dish are.

But I don't.

And so I'm just going to say that it was a bowl of 'soba dry style mixed with loads and loads of Black Garlic Oil' that reminded me of bak chor mee.

But as much as this is, technically, pork noodle, it isn't quite either, and honestly, it doesn't really matter at all. 

Let's just say that this was my first time having Black Garlic oil with noodles, and, guess what, it's not going to be my last. 

I had a lovely time savoring my soba with all the tiny little bits of meat. 

I had an even better time mixing everything up with the oil at the bottom of the bowl, reminding myself to eat it as slow as I could. 

Sometimes life isn't so much about dressing up, being seated on a comfortable cushioned armchair having little cakes, cucumber sandwiches, tarts, scones, sipping on a cup of coffee or tea.

But it is, always, a time to appreciate the moment, to appreciate the company you are with, and to appreciate quality food prepared with creativity, sincerity and heart. 

An Ellenborough Market Birthday

A pleasant surprise it was when a friend suggested we have dinner at this place in Swissotel Merchant Court Hotel. 

I say it a surprise because I'd actually heard much about the lunch buffet and the afternoon tea of Ellenborough Market Cafe, with most of the reviews saying that the food was good. 

Perhaps it is one of the more interesting restaurants this side of Clarke Quay where you can bring your grandmother and grandfather and the seniors for a family-type meal without having to worry about thumping Techno or growling Deep Bass Hip Hop from the clubs close by. 

Also, no need to worry about half-drunk party revelers stumbling into your toddler cousin or wheelchaired great-grandmother. 

Ellenborough Market Cafe is as family-friendly as it gets, and yep, the food's pretty good too. 

One thing about the buffet here is that their aesthetics tend to be on the neat side, so if you're someone who likes to look at elaborate sets at the buffet counter when you're taking your food, this place might be too boring for you. 

Not to say that their food isn't a conversation starter though.

On the contrary.

Especially if you like Peranakan-style cuisine. 

Near our table were four dishes of distinct Peranakan-style food. 

What precisely they are, I don't really remember, but there was warm, fluffy white rice stained blue by the dye of the butterfly pea flower, there was babi pongteh, there was sayur lodeh and there as another dish that I think was beef-something. 

I took a portion of blue butterfly pea rice. 

I took a bowl of babi pongteh.

And I took two bowls of sayur lodeh. 

It was lovely just being able to have the babi pongteh and the sayur lodeh.

I don't often have these dishes in my circle, so glad I am that I got to have my favorite vegetable (cabbage) stewed in coconut milk curry- that's sayur lodeh, glad I am to have fragrant butterfly pea rice on the side, and glad I am to have this dish of braised pork in fermented soy bean sauce. 

What I found cute was that whilst the dish doesn't specify which part of the pig is to be served in babi pongteh, here they seemed to be mostly pork belly, which, if you ask me, enhanced the enjoyment of the dish even more. 

Of course there can be no special dinner without freshly shucked oysters (whenever they're available), so between the both of us we got about 5 plates, most of which my friend finished. 

It isn't that I don't like oysters. 

It's just that I don't like to fill myself up with them.

So whilst I like to have them plain or with a dash of lemon, my friend has them with vinegar that he gets from the Chinese cuisine side. 

There was quite a bit of variety at this place, by the way. 

Besides the usual favorites of salad, soup and bread, there was also an offering of pasta- the sauce looked really creamy and rich, there was a whole baked salmon- which was really popular with many of the  diners, then there were cooked mussels in some sort of sauce, and then there was an ice slope with fresh seafood all neatly laid out.

Think that slope included prawns and mussels and maybe scallops. 

At another time I might have helped myself to the prawns and the scallops but I was watching my tummy and so decided to go easy on the seafood this time. 

Over on the Asian/Chinese side, there was a dish of fried rice, there was a dish of sweet sour fish (or perhaps some other dish), and then there were stir-fried vegetables and stir-fried pieces of chicken in sesame oil or some other gravy that I'm afraid I'm not too familiar with. 

Again I didn't go much on the Asian/Chinese side. 

I had to be very specific on what I wanted to eat.

And I had to be very specific on how much I ate. 

So instead of going for fried rice, I went over to the Chinese rojak bowl where I got myself a dish of youtiao and pineapple with the sweet rojak sauce. 

Don't laugh, I'm not really that big a fan of cucumber and radish and all the other vegetables in Chinese rojak. The only things I like are the pineapple and the youtiao and so since this is a free-for-all choice, why not? 

The youtiao (although cut thinly) was very crispy just the way I liked it. 

Going lean for dinner this evening didn't mean that I missed out on other foods that I wanted to eat.

There was sushi and sashimi at the Japanese section and that, I didn't want to miss, so I helped myself to a bit of salmon sashimi, a little bit of cooked, chilled shrimp prepared Japanese style, and four pieces of Aburi Salmon sushi that unfortunately was a little cold and hard by the time I got down to eating them. 

I moved on to dessert after this, where, now on looking back, I'm wondering just why I took so little when I could have had so much more. 

Like what they'd served with the hot food, their dessert range too had so many Peranakan-inspired selections, I tell you. 

There was this three-tiered tray of colorful kueh kueh made from mostly glutinous rice.

There was this huge bowl of smooth, fragrant durian pengat. (Very popular this one)

There was a row of interesting rectangular-shaped cakes sitting pretty in the chiller. 

And there were two pots of hot desserts somewhere in the corner. 

Don't ask me why I skipped out on the kueh kueh.                                                                                                                                                                                    Also don't ask me why I didn't try a cake or their ice cream. 

I don't know. 

Maybe I was really feeling full by that time to want try this and that and that and this. 

Or maybe I was gotten myself intrigued by the hot desserts more than the cold. 

So I got these.

Two little bowls. one of durian pengat (with coconut milk!), one of yellow mung bean soup or tau suan as we commonly call it in local vernacular. 

I can't say for sure which I liked better, but let's just say the durian pengat was really smooth, very creamy and so fragrant that I felt like I were eating the durian fruit itself. 

CNY Dinner @ Beng Hiang

It was with a sense of nostalgia that we came back here this evening for a dinner.

We had, after all, been to their place at Amoy Street years and years before. 

How the place has changed, whether or not even if the place has changed, I won't know- my memories of them back there on the outskirts of Chinatown are somewhat vague- but what with Beng Hiang being one of the (more) traditional restaurants serving up authentic Hokkien Chinese food, my guess is it wouldn't have changed much. 

We were here for some of the foods which we used to have.

So on the table this evening there were two kinds of soup, a huge dish of braised duck, a dish of pork belly with buns, and hei zhor prawn rolls. 

It's a little interesting but out of all these dishes- besides the sweet corn soup and the fish maw soup- it is the hei zhor that I recollect the most. 

In English they call it the Spiced Sausage and Fried Prawn Ball. 

Maybe because there aren't many places where they do this good, so any place that does it to their standards, well, I like. 

For someone it might be the crisp of the deep fried bean curd wrap that speaks to them.

For me, it is the filling that does it for me. 

Prawns, minced meat, Chinese parsley, water chestnut marinated with Five Spice Powder, everything's wrapped inside the bean curd skin, deep fried, then cut into bite sized rolls easy to pick up with chopsticks. 

The faintly fresh taste of the water chestnut and its distinctive crunch, is what makes it special, and then there's the tiny little roll from the pieces of prawn mixed with the bits of minced meat. 

But if it be the hei zhor that I like, it is the signature dish of 

Yet, even as the deep fried hei zhor is what I remember, it is the signature dish of Braised Duck with Sea Cucumber that Beng Hiang does very well.

I wish I could tell you exactly what it is that makes this dish so unique and so good. 

But other than saying that the meat's so tender it (literally) falls off the bone, I don't know what else. 

Maybe it were the sea cucumbers.

Maybe it were the mushrooms. 

Not merely because I take a fancy to the shiitake kind of mushroom, but also because it reminded me of other dishes that I used to have during Lunar New Year and now no more. 

The star of this braised duck dish, is of course, has to be the gravy.

Rich, thick, full of flavor, almost like a thick broth that I wanted to drink, it reminded me of those specially prepared homecooked meals for those who needed a boost to their constitution.

That being said, liking this braised duck dish didn't mean that the Kong Bak Pao took second place. 

Of course not. 

It's not often that one gets to make a meal out of Five-Spice marinated braised pork belly chonks stuffed into steamed willowy white buns shaped like a cute puppet's mouth. 

I wish I knew more of what this Five Spice is made of. 

It's Chinese cooking magic, I tell you. 

Because whether it be in the hei zhor or in the braised pork belly, the burst of flavors that exploded out with each bite was so good. 

If it didn't bring back a sense of nostalgia, it created a new one. 

This evening I decided that Kong Bak Pao was really best eaten warm. 

A warm bun let the Bak melt smoothly away, let the warm heat of the Pao drift out of the bun, and let it all mush up like a comforting blend of textures and flavors in your mouth. 

So addictive was it that I wish we could have had another order to bring home. 

But Kong Bak Paos are one of those dishes that (whilst edible) don't taste as good once they're packed in a box and heated in a microwave. 

So we decided to dabao the gravy back instead, and a wise choice it turned out to be.

There was, after all, a senior lady in a nursing home who a long time ago used to enjoy the food in this restaurant and we knew would love the taste of (carefully pureed) gravy from both the Braised Duck and the Kong Bak which my friend planned to give her.