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Beebs

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Posts posted by Beebs

  1. I used to get leftover Chinese food sandwiches - stir-fry tofu, stir-fry pork, braised beef.  I don't remember being teased about it in school, but I recall I was embarrassed about it all the same. The fillings didn't stay in the bread.  The sandwiches didn't taste bad, they're just weird. 

     

    Hubby recently told me about the PB & cheddar sandwiches he used to get for lunch and loved. It sounded gross so he made me one, turned out pretty tasty. I've been having it for breakfast the last couple weeks.

    • Like 1
  2. I like cooking and baking as long as I have the time to do it, and do it well. I dislike cooking as a chore, which is most weeknights after a long work day. I dislike grocery shopping and meal planning after work as well, but I can't get my sh*t together enough to plan it out on the weekend.  Otherwise, cooking is great.

     

    My mom is the main cook in the family. She used to cook exclusively Chinese, with some "western" dishes every now and then (spaghetti & meat sauce, chicken/pork cutlets, etc). Until dad became an italophile (italianphile??) in the early 90's. Then she started cooking more Italian dishes - more pastas, ossobuco, stuff with pesto & tomato....  Now mom cooks quite a wide variety of things.

     

    I started cooking more for myself when I moved out for uni with my sister. I don't like eating the same things day after day, and could only eat so much packaged ramen. Spending money to eat out all the time was out of the question. So began cooking for ourselves out of necessity.

    • Like 5
  3. Beebs, do you remember the names of the stalls you particularly enjoyed? As of this last trip, S'pore has quickly become one of my favorite places on Earth.

    I love how it is a modern, metropolitan city, dropped into a beautiful tropical garden. I love how clean, orderly and safe it is without compromising ethnic diversity or personality.

    But, I am concerned for the future... most of the younger generation are highly educated, and do not want to follow in running shophouse restaurants or hawker stalls. I can't say I blame them, either. It is hard work - 6-7 days/week, with long, hard, hot days on your feet. And it definitely doesn't pay nearly as well as finance or other industries where the younger people are trending to... I mean, how much income can a person make selling food for $3 a plate?

    So, according to locals, it is getting harder and harder to find the really good food that is not made in a central kitchen and reheated onsite, or part of a chain with 30 locations.

    I hope they're able to find a middle ground somewhere.

     

    I wish I'd done a better job of jotting down stall names - but, alas, no idea what any of the stalls were.  We actually didn't do any research into which particular stalls to eat at, just eat whatever looks good and appealed to us at the time. Singapore was tacked to the end of a trip to Taiwan and our family had fed us so much, while we weren't tired of eating (is that even a thing?!), we probably didn't do justice to all the amazing food in S'pore - we certainly missed out on some things.  

     

    My most memorable meal - met up with DH's college friend & his wife, they took us to Newton Centre, where we had lots of satay, fried skate & too many Tiger beers.... Followed by durian at a durian stand.  Drunk durian-ing is quite an experience....

     

    From what our friend told us, hawker centres, food courts, etc. are heavily subsidized by the government at very low rents, which makes food incredibly cheap compared to stand-alone restaurants.  All the same, it is unfortunate that this model might not be sustainable in the future for lack of younger folk willing to keep it up.

  4. Oh wow - loving this blog!

     

    My DH & I were in Singapore last year in the summer for our anniversary, and it was absolutely the most amazing trip. The food was incredible, we ate as many different things as we could possibly squeeze into a week-long trip, but there was so much more we could have had (which is a good reason to go back, hopefully in the next couple years).  We purposely picked a hotel near the Maxwell Hawkers Centre, Chinatown Market, & Hong Lim Centre, so most of our meals were at food courts and hawkers centres.  We didn't spend much time in the restaurants, so we'll have to check out some of the places you've described next trip.

  5. I fully intended to set aside some of the grilled balsamic figs from dinner last night to have with vanilla ice cream for dessert. But they were too delicious & we ate them all for dinner.  Which reminds me, a few days ago, I stuffed fresh figs with ricotta, EVOO, s&p for an appetizer, but they could have done just as well as a dessert with a dash of cinnamon or grated chocolate or something.

    • Like 1
  6. Don't know if a cheese plate qualifies....  Technically speaking, we'd have it as the hors d'oeurves before the dinner, and then whip it out again for dessert.

     

    I haven't done this, but biscuits for during dinner, then turn it into strawberry shortcakes for dessert.

    • Like 3
  7. I love savoury filled buns!   :wub: 

     

    Ham & cheese croissants, spinach feta brioche, those Chinese buns filled with all sorts of stuff - curry beef, bbq pork, yummmm!  This morning for breakfast I had a Chinese bun with green onions & pork floss, and I've got a pack of steamed pork buns in the fridge too.  

     

    My grandmother used to make lovely steamed pork buns.  I remember once when I was really little she left the formed buns to proof, and for whatever reason the yeast was super-active that day.  Grandma got a bit of a shock when she went to check on them, and the ginormous buns were practically overflowing out of the pan!  Delicious all the same.

     

    The most unusual filled bun I've ever had was vegemite & cheese from a neighbourhood bakery - surprisingly tasty.

     

    I will also never turn down an almond croissant!

    • Like 1
  8. Thai red curry paste + coconut milk + pumpkin/butternut squash/sweet potato/carrot is one of my favourite soup combinations. With extra fish sauce.

     

    Or try laksa!  There's lots of different kinds, but the ones I've had were Malaysian (more yellow curry-ish) and Singaporean (more coconut milky).  Both are delicious.  Sorry, I don't have a recipe, but googling brings up lots. I'm lazy, so I will use a package of laksa paste.  Or go out for it.

    • Like 2
  9. Horse tartar - it was delicious.

     

    Fish milt/sperm - also tasty.

     

    Stinky tofu - yummm....

     

    Sea cucumbers - meh. It's pretty common here at the upscale Cantonese restaurants, so not particularly exotic in the hard-to-find sense. Didn't realize sea cucumbers = sea slugs till I was quite a few yrs older.

     

    Korean canned marinated silkworm larvae - it was vile.  Not sure if it was the preparation method or the larvae itself that made it vile.

  10. I LOVE squab!  

     

    I've mostly ever had it Cantonese-style, usually available here and often as part of a banquet course. The whole bird is presented though - including the head (no thanks) - and served with seasoned salt.  Not sure how it's cooked, I think frying is part of the process to get a really crisp-flaky skin, like Peking duck. The thigh part is my favourite - all that delicious, delicious fat!

    :wub:

  11. Nissin all the way.  And not the cup noodles - it must be the package ones that you need to cook.  Growing up, my mom would feed us Nissin for breakfast or lunch.  Now it's comfort food.

     

    My go-to flavour is tonkatsu, and there's a black garlic flavour that's tasty too.  They used to carry laksa and tom yung flavours, both really good, but I think they might be discontinued.

     

    And I also like the cartoon kid on the package!

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