Jellied pork trotters and shark meat from Lao Liang

Hey, this stuff was pretty good. Lao Liang (Jalan Berseh Food Centre, #02-37, 166 Jalan Besar, S208877), a Teochew stall serves a chilled (plus that handful of crushed ice bits), gelatinous and possibly collagen rich pork trotters in jelly. The flavour was light and even refreshing when accompanied by their home made plum sauce with crushed peanuts that they provided. Subtle taste of pork coupled with a firm jelly texture together with some soft crunch from what looked like pig's skin. We also had some shark meat that tasted like freshly boiled fish. Pretty good with and without their chilli sauce.

Ordered some kuey chup assortments which were pretty competent as well. Those included a broth drenched mixture of stuff like pig's skin, tau pok, eggs, sliced pork belly and tau kwa. We got ourselves the small portions - which were really pretty small but the food was enjoyable. The only gripes I had was that mild, yet perceivable coriander flavour in the gravy that they ladled over the rice. Which I would rather do without. That and there was additional charges for extra servings of that plum sauce if you wanted more.

Vada Pav from Maakan Mumbai

I've only learnt about this Indian street snack recently. It was a type of vegetarian burger known as vada pav or wada pav. Apparently quite popular as a snack in India. There seemed to be another stall down at Lau Pa Sat that also sold this but I got this from Maakan Mumbai (18 Raffles Quay, Stall 60, Lau Pa Sat Festival Market) based also on a recommendation. After some sniffing around, the bun didn't quite turn out to be what I expected. It was cold and the dry bread wasn't even heated up. Certainly didn't look like it was pan fried in butter and sprinkled chilli powder. The deep fried spiced potato patty tasted sweet instead of savoury (in my mind, i was imagining something like a begedil ). Is that how they're suppose to be like?

Hainan Chicken Rice Ball, Jalan Besar

I've been waiting to try out these chicken rice balls for ages despite being told that there was nothing much to them apart from being shaped into balls. I'd like to think sometimes that experience is the best teacher in life and nothing replaces the experience of actually eating them. I just had to come down to this stall in the coffeeshop at the end of Dickson Road (Boon Hwa Food Centre, 43 Jalan Besar). How was it? I wasn't impressed by the taste nor the portions which were quite small for $3.60. Two balls of rice were a little puny for my appetite. The dryish chicken drizzled with dark soy sauce wasn't anything much to be writing about. Heh! I had also imagined the rice to be more firm, akin to ketupat instead of crumbling apart when I dug my spoon into them. The chilli however was pleasantly filled with a spicy kick and the meal came with a bowl of herbal ba kut teh soup(?). Any better players for these stuff?

 

Dracula Romanian Food, Alexandra Village

I was repressing a silent snigger as I saw this place (Blk 127, Bukit Merah Lane 1 # 01-230, Alexandra Village, tel: 6270 5464) at first glance. Not sure if I had actually smirked. In my mind I had ominously envisioned the Joker and Vlad the Impaler standing side by side since this store was located just next door to Funny Lasagna. In the end, there was nothing really sinister looking about this Dracula place as it was not comical in any sense for their neighbour.

Romanian food was something I've never had before and didn't think I would experience here. The food did look pretty rustic and I imagined them as dishes that might have originated from the poor back in the day. Anyone who's in the the know, please enlighten.

We started off with some sour Romanian meatball soup (is that ciorbă de perişoare?) of sorts and home made sausages.


The sour soup tasted much like borsch minus the ruddy hues that one commonly associates with them. In the broth were a bunch of potatoes, carrots and enough chopped parsley for their flavoor to be quite pronounced. Along some other herbs which I couldn't identify. The meatballs were quite generously portioned. Of a make that one can associate to food of perhaps peasants of history where meat could have been expensive and starch fillers were used. In this case, there was rice in the peppery tasting meatballs. Dracula must have made it rain tonight for me to enjoy this stuff. Ahem!

The home made sausages were pretty good. Greasy, salty and filled with grits and bits of unidentifiable stuff. These sausages weren't packed that tightly and the cases were also not snappy. The stuffings fell apart and spilt as I tried to cut them. Notable mention goes to the flatbread (it tasted more like Turkish bread actually) which the sausage was served with. This stuff was definitely freshly made as evident from the taste.


This dish is described as fried meat with polenta and cheese (is this sărmăluţe cu mămăligă?). You know what's the irony? Cornmeal isn't expensive and this was probably the largest serving of polenta I've ever had. Ever. It was hearty. It was good. The salty meats in the middle were chicken and some other minced meat which I couldn't identify. Could have been pork. All slathered in some light creamy cheese that tasted like yoghurt.


This dish looked dubious initially since they had a templated dish of various meats that looked suspiciously like the local Hainanese styled westerns. To digress, there was even a Romanian steak of sorts. When inquired about, the server merely said "the chef's Romanian, the boss is Romanian and hence, the steak is Romanian". Lol. In any case, this lamb was surprisingly quite good in spite of the fact that it was a almost well done. The meat retained tenderness and had a nice amount of fat. The natural flavour of the meat was definitely there despite being covered in that peppery mushroom sauce. I saw the chef peeling a truckload of potatoes back in the kitchen which were to be cooked and mashed for servings. Nothing came with fries and you know where your mashed spuds are from.

I'm certainly not adversed to trying more of their food another time.

Singapore Zam Zam Restaurant, North Bridge Road

mutton murtabak

Zam Zam is an Indian Muslim shop (697 North Bridge Road, tel: 6298 6320) with a history that was longer that that of this nation. I shall concede to the assumption that the 100 year old establishment definitely knows a great deal or three about their murtabaks and briyanis than most. The former I've personally found to be one of the better, if not best that I've had. The crowd in the restaurant as I had expected was nothing short of vibrant. I don't recall having eating here before. Might have had take aways previously but it's as good as a clean slate for me.

What's quite unique about Zam Zam's murtabak were the additional layer of prata dough that's folded over an inner layer. The outside piece is coated with egg, blanketed with a generous topping of ground mutton which were then pan fried to a crisp - giving it the granular texture. So that murtabak would be crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. The onions were lightly cooked that there was still a mild crunch. Not under nor overdone in my opinion. Stuffings were also in a good space between being too loose and overly compact. I suppose that moderation must have appealed plenty to the masses.

beef murtabak

We managed 2 murtabaks for sharing. Between the beef and the mutton, the latter was definitely the superior in terms of taste. There was a stronger aroma coming from the ground mutton. While their curry wasn't too spicy and had pre-requisite saltiness, I felt that it was a little flat tasting. We ordered some fried chicken on the side which weren't even dignified with a heat up.


I hear that their neighbour, Victory is a close rival to this place so maybe, I could just pop over another day and see if which one would win in a shootout.

A Bintan resort lunch

I'm not sure what's the status of this place, but it is one of those pseudo kelong built along some rock outcroppings close to the shoreline connected to the beach via a bridge kind of place. Half the structure was probably concrete. There wasn't much options for eating out from the resort since the closest location for a food place (Melayu Square) was a 45 minute drive out of Bintan Beach & Agro Spa Resorts. It was definitely a place opened by the resort itself and the only live seafood available were crabs.


The food was passable with a pretty regular stir fried kailan, a fairly spicy tom yum soup that was heavy on tomato & lemongrass and a rather well done sambal kang kong which was crunchy and had a robust hit of dried shrimps. Of worthy mention, there was a sun and moon fried rice (woah!) and a butter oat squid.


The mentioned sun and moon fried rice was stir fried with coconut milk. That was probably the most distinctive thing about it, evident from the taste that was certainly more flavourful (and rich as well) than the the regular seafood counterpart which became quite boring by comparison. Speaking of seafood, there was barely anything beyond some small chopped pieces of shrimp in the rice. I had definitely expected better. Frutti di mare aside, the damp rice was quite enjoyable. Those butter oat squids were similar to cereal-ed seafoods that one can find easily in our local restaurants. The main difference was the use of quite a bit of eggs in the mix with the oats that formed the batter of the squids. And this is the first time I'm eating these cereal seafood done on squid. Nutty, sweet and mildly spicy, this was actually quite good.

Also, I now know that I can give their local beer a pass the next time.