Dinner at home

Uncle Sim's curry chicken

This was pretty good stuff coming from the claypot curry stall (Whampoa Drive Blk 90, #01-66) which is just a few units away from the cooked food stall of the same name. I was just a little bit concerned when it arrived at the table bubbling at the surface exuberance. Fortunately, there wasn't any accidents involving burstings of hot fluid. 

What I liked about this curry beside the curry itself were the chicken wings which were cooked to the point that you could easily remove the meat from the bones, making them relatively easy to manage with utensils. This curry had a good amount of coconut for a rich flavour and a decent amount of spice. While this wasn't the thickest of curries that I've had, it was sufficiently flavourful and the creaminess came across. I'm sure you can imagine what it would be like to slather this over a plate of steaming rice. Which is why there we also had an accompanying plate of said rice with some vegetables for a balanced diet. Lol. Couldn't get past their minced meat ladened steamed egg with bits of century/salted egg.

 

Steeples Deli, Tanglin Shopping Centre

Beside the old school charm of a deli, I didn't think much of the sandwiches Steeples Deli (19 Tanglin Road, #02-25 Tanglin Shopping Centre, tel: 6737 0701). These folks from what I've heard were the very first deli in business in this country. I might not mind eating here occasionally if I were living or working in the vicinity but I just didn't think the food was good enough for a special trip down. Not to mention that we were faced with the grumpy lady proprietor who looked like she had a perpetual scowl etched in her face or the two Chinese guys in the kitchen that behaved like they were only interested in putting each other of out of their miseries. These two persons had given me the impression that making sandwiches were a just job for them and it also looked to me that they have probably never eaten what they've made before.

The deli had actually run out of pastrami and corned beef was used as substitute for the Reuben sandwich. A stringy corned beef it was with portions that could do with a lot more generosity. It was just strange that the sandwich maker actually took pinches of the meat and placed them on a weighing scale to determine that tiny amount he wanted to put into the sandwich. Their sauerkraut looked as yellowed and stale as the lettuce on the side that I almost forgot that it was actually sauerkraut. It appeared desiccated like old shredded cabbage and wasn't good at all. And then, just about enough of the thinly sliced cheese to cover the beef.

The portions for the food wasn't large. The steak sandwich did come with a nice sized piece of meat, but it wasn't satisfying at all. I was disappointed at the lack of beefiness from the marinated meat which tasted mostly of salt and basil. Seriously, onions don't cost so much so what's with those portions? The most enjoyable thing we had was the chocolate peanut butter shake which could do with a bit more viscosity.

Butterhead in a juice

I came upon this in Marketplace at Raffles City and was quite intrigued by it since lettuce wasn't something you normally found in juices. To quell my curiosity, I bought it for a go at this interesting drink. The first scent that hit me was a quite overpowering "green" smell from the lettuce. I remember crinkled noses. After taking my first few gulps of the thick greenish fluid, I found that this wasn't too bad at all. The lime flavour was predominant followed by a very recognizeable lettuce taste. Couldn't detect the kiwi at all. It turned out quite invigorating. The down side was that, it wasn't really thirst quenching.

The BBC pork chop rice

It has been about 10 years since I was first introduced by a friend to this particular stall which was then located in an air conditioned coffeeshop just beside Allson Hotel. Since then, it had moved to the food court in Shaw Leisure Gallery and now currently resides in another food court at Bras Brasah Complex (Coffee Express 2000 Food Court). As far as consistency went, nothing much has changed since the first time I've had these pork chops which are fried on order. Which was incidentally the thing that make them good. No cooled grease nor soggy batter on the pieces of meat. It's all fried upon order.

They're $3.30 a plate and if my memory served, it has been going at that price for a very long time too. There is nothing very fancy to their plate. A tasty piece of pork chop with rice, some cooked (probably frozen) corn/carrot/peas and salted vegetables. The eggs cost extra if you want and they're actually pretty good for hard boiled eggs. Notice that the colour of the braising sauce seeped into the egg whites from all the simmering. The egg was flavoured rather than just coloured from the sauce. I like to mix the vegetables and the rice together with the chilli. Makes everything more appetizing.

Botak Jones, Yishun

Seems that Botak Jones has yet opened another outlet (Blk 732, Yishun Ave 5) recently so I thought I'd drop by and grab a bite for a very late lunch so as to avoid the crowd. Picked up a gammon ham and cheese sandwich with a side of jalapeños which turned out to be pretty good as the pickled chilli worked its spicy kick on the salty ham and cheese. Hmmmm......Does anyone else do a ham sandwich like this? The heartiness of it won me over more than anything else. I also decided to try a small serving of their whoppass chili con carne to see what it was about. Apparently, it just a spicy ground beef bolognese which came with whole jalapeños inside. Similar to most other chili. This stuff was not too bad as a stew.

added 27/07/2008

Encouraged by the previous visit above, I dropped by for another late lunch. This time it was for the chili dawg.

The dog turned out to be quite large and slathered with a generous portion of the chili con carne and chopped onions. Was pretty good. Not something that you could actually eat with your hands considering all the mess from the sauce and that you'd probably need to have a rather large mouth to fit the dog and the buns. Probably one of the better tasting dogs I've had but then again, it would have been nicer if I could eat this with my hands.