KennethT

Most SG hawker center drink vendors don't do fresh sugar cane juice - most just sell beer, other prebottled drinks, plus fruit drinks typically made from concentrate. The best vendors make some of their own, in addition to selling the prebottled stuff. There's a great vendor in the Hong Lim Food Centre who does fresh sugar cane and his lime juice is fresh squeezed as well. Everything in SG is premise based - no vendors have been allowed on the street for decades. I saw a guy on a corner in Beijing with a portable cane juicer. Not to mention a small army of mobile orange juicers scattered around.

The next day was transit day. On to Indonesia!!! Our flight was at 9:30AM and since we wanted to minimize our indoor time, we decided to forego breakfast at the hotel and eat at the airport where you are definitely not short of options and there would be (hopefully) spaces where we could eat without many people around. We decided on some nasi lemak to get us in the mood, even though it's more a Malay thing than Indonesia... with chicken curry (ikan bilis at the top left, sambal at the top right). I think they started to cook this chicken the week before and left it cooking all the way up until when I ordered it. So dry, so so dry. However, the curry was tasty so all in all I'll call it a draw. Fish fillet which was more like a McDonalds Filet-o-Fish... not bad, but not what we were expecting... we thought it would be more like an otak - fish turned into a paste with curry paste then grilled or steamed. Lime juice (from concentrate). The upside was that yes, we were able to find a table in a far away corner, at least 15 feet from anyone else, so probably as safe as can be while indoors. Once we landed in Manado we still had a bit of a journey to get to our hotel which was on a small island off the coast of the peninsula. It was over an hour's drive to get to the dock, and then maybe a 20 minute boat ride after that. The drive to the dock was interesting as it passed a lot of rural village life. Roadside vendor selling all sorts of things including shallots, green onion, bananas, fruit of all kinds plus tons of packaged stuff which I have no idea what it was. I would have loved to be able to stop and look around.... Another roadside shop selling fruit and various poultry products. Small neighborhood fish farm... The next phase of the journey - the small boat on the left. Don't ask how they got the luggage from the tall dock on the right down to that little boat. It was hard enough getting me down there and I have legs! Nice clear water - should make for some great visibility. This hotel was interesting. It turns out that it caters mostly to Europeans, and then within that, mostly to Germans. Since their peak season didn't start for another couple weeks (starting around mid July through September), there were only 2 other couples in the whole place sharing it with us (both German). We wound up having some nice conversations with both of them. Welcome drink during reception - freshly opened coconut. The property has many coconut trees, each laden with coconuts. So many so that they felt the need to warn us to be careful while walking around as sometimes the coconuts fall from the tree. They were debating providing hard hats (like those used in construction) to guests to use while walking around. They also said that if we ever wanted another coconut drink to just ask - they always have tons of coconuts around. It's a good thing that we had something to eat on the plane since we didn't get to the hotel until around 3:30 or so. Since it's a relatively remote island (there is actually a small village on the island though), all meals are included the hotel room rate. The hotel tries to tread the line between offering local food and providing Western options. Typically, as a rule, lunches were Western and dinners were local Indonesian, although they never called things using their local name. I'm also glad I brushed up on my Indonesian since, while many hotel employees spoke fantastic English, some were basically taught a handful of phrases and if you didn't say what they were expecting to hear, they had no idea what you were talking about. First dinner: The menu when you walk in the restaurant. When taking your order, you had to order each course, so we opted out of the salad. An example of the language issue, when getting to order the dessert, if you said "I'd like the sliced fruit" you got the quizzical look - you needed to say "Fresh Fruits Sliced" as it appeared on the menu to get understanding. But I liked to practice my Indonesian, so that was met with a totally different kind of quizzical look - like, what the hell was that? White guy speaking Bahasa??? One of them assumed that we lived in Jakarta... she couldn't believe we lived in NY and I learned via CD and phone app. Garlic bread with tapenade. I found this hilarious since, even though dinner is local, they couldn't use a local type sambal with krupuk? The bread was sweet and had a texture more cakey than bready. Had a great garlic flavor though. The tapenade was also really garlicy. Yum. Fish ball soup. This was good, but made better when I requested some sambal to go with it, accompanied by more quizzical looks. But seriously, what Indonesian would eat ANYTHING without adding sambal? But with the chopped chilli and some lime, it was amazing. BBQ seafood - although I think the shrimp were actually deep fried (the heads were nice and crunchy) and the squid (cut off in the photo) looked plancha'd. Hiding underneath the shrimp was a piece of grilled fish - some kind of large fish but I couldn't get the answer as to what it was. The previously requested sambal above - a dish of chopped chilli (holy crap that was hot!!!), chilli sauce and a dish of kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) plus a dish with a couple lime pieces. We must have opted out of the fruit - we were exhausted since dinner starts at 7PM and we were still crazy jetlagged.

I've lost track of how many times we've been to the Singapore Botanical Gardens. But it seems like no matter how many, we always see something new. This time, we stumbled upon a completely new to us area, The Dell, which was actually created in 1886 originally as a fernery since the area was nicely shaded by the surrounding trees and was an area of slightly higher humidity. Unfortunately it's hard to show this place in photos to do it justice, or at least I'm not capable of it, but I would definitely head back to this area again. And since this is not a plant forum, I won't bombard you with tons of plant/flower images. Just a couple.... Who is this guy walking around looking for lunch? Of course, one can't visit the BG without seeing the National Orchid Garden... with the world's largest collection of orchids - it is amazing. Some of my favorites. Also, the SBG has expanded their Cool House - it is so much bigger than it used to be, it's now like a mini Gardens By the Bay Cloud Forest! Also, since it was 31 degrees Celsius with a Reel Feel of 38C, it was soooo nice to be in here. I could have stayed all day... It was getting to be about 5PM and we were getting exhausted. So when we left the Gardens, we headed off to one of my favorite outdoor food areas, the East Coast Lagoon Food Village, which is out of the city proper, and on the waterfront on the way to the airport. It's not the easiest to get to (have to take a taxi - the subway doesn't go there) but I think it's worth it. We were hoping that since it was still pretty early that it wouldn't be that crowded yet, but we were wrong and really wrong. It was packed! I knew lots of people went there after spending the day at the waterfront park, but it was mid-week. Maybe it was some kind of holiday I didn't know about? In any case, some of the best vendors had really long lines so we were there a lot longer than we had anticipated. By the end, we were falling off our feet - but that didn't stop us from having some great stuff. This is a drink vendor who also makes their own sugarcane juice. I missed it so! Also got a couple of lime juices but they were mostly from concentrate. Sugarcane on the right, lime juice on the left. First up, Ah Hwee BBQ chicken wings. Perfectly slow roasted over charcoal the traditional way. Look at that color!!! And it was so juicy.... drool.... This food centre has a good satay club - a bunch of different satay vendors lined up right next to each other. The best one (according to a multitude of blogs) is Haron Satay. Grilling the satay Grilling in action chicken and mutton satay served with their awesome curry sauce. It's also typically served with rice cakes but I told them not to add them since we already had so much food and I wanted to save room. Next up was some seafood - Sambal Stingray... Oh, so good... one of the things that makes this place great is that they add the sambal while the stingray cooks - many places just add it on top at the end. So juicy and gelatinous with tons of flavor. We also got from them: Sambal kang kong. My favorite vegetable. The sambal has chillies, shallot, garlic, lots of dried shrimp and a ton of belacan - fermented shrimp paste. So savory.... so good.... By this time we were exhausted. The nap before was great and allowed us to enjoy a full day, but it was time for bed! Luckily, we passed the last vendor I had wanted to hit on the way out... Blogs abound singing this place's curry puff praises. I was skeptical... but I am now a believer. Best. Curry. Puff. Ever. The pastry is light, flaky and buttery. The interior has chunks of perfectly cooked curried potato and chicken - most places just have use some kind of paste. I'm not usually a fan of standing around while eating, but this place was right by the exit we used and I devoured it while we were standing around waiting for our taxi. I didn't get to take an interior photo as I was engrossed in eating it, plus my hands were bit greasy and I didn't want to give it to my wife to hold so I could wipe my hands for fear that it would be gone by the time I got it back!!!

Damn that looks good.... that is right up my alley.

OK - we're back at it again. I'm here to lay on you some amazing food stuffs and regale you with more tales of getting sick while being half way around the world. I swear, it seems like the more careful we are, the more assured we are of getting sick while traveling. Prior to our trip, we basically quarantined for 3 weeks. Yes, I still went to work, but I wore a major N95 mask pretty much any time I was around people (and I still kept my distance as well!) or in an area where people had been a half hour before. My mask never came off at the airport except for very brief stints when security demanded it. And I finally removed it on the plane once we had been in the air for about 20 minutes when the air filtration system has "supposedly" reached the optimal point where it changes the air in the plane every 2-3 minutes. And I put the mask back on whenever I had to leave my seat to go to the bathroom or the snack area! So, enough of my tale of woe (for now) and let's start getting into the fun stuff. North Sulawesi is a fascinating section of Indonesia (not that it's all not interesting). Unlike most of Indonesia, the vast majority of people are Christian, not Muslim, as Dutch missionaries brought Christianity there a long time ago. The area is a peninsula, surrounded by water on 3 sides which means that fish/seafood are very important. The interior is mountainous and traditionally, the local villages there have little access to the ocean and are in the middle of a large rainforest - so the traditional diet of the Minahasa people (the local people of the interior highlands) has a history of using any meat source available: dog, monkey, bat, snake, etc. They also have created tons of small areas for fish farming - usually taking up the majority of a person's yard area. There are usually at least a few people per village who have small fish farms at their house and they sell their fish to their village. But before we get there, we had to spend a day in Singapore - oh the horror! If you've read any of my stuff before (or see what I post in RecipEgullet or the dinner section) you'll probably know that I love Singapore, so having to spend the day there is certainly not a hardship. This time we had to spend an overnight there since the flight from SIN to Manado (the main city of North Sulawesi) only goes 4 or 5 times a week and it just so happened that there was no flight the day our flight from NY landed. We landed around 5:30AM and true to form of the efficiency there, we were checked into our hotel in the middle of the city in just under an hour after the plane arrived at the gate - that includes the time to get off the plane and we were in the rear 2/3 of the plane! Since we had sent our immigration info in beforehand (using Singapore's immigration app) we were able to use their automated immigration lanes which is super speedy, but even still, our bags were waiting for us on the baggage claim belt when we got there. One of the reasons I love Singapore is all of the tropical plants. It's like the whole city is dropped into the middle of a giant garden. This feeling starts at the airport: The immigration hall Baggage claim (obviously). Once checked into the hotel, we took a nap for a few hours, then headed out for lunch. A while back, I had realized that in all our time in Singapore, we had never had fish head curry!!! How is this possible? It's one of their national dishes! One of the most famous places to get it (and supposedly the inventor of the dish) is Samy's Curry Restaurant, located in the lushly green Dempsey Hill neighborhood. One of our requirements for dining in Singapore on this trip was that we had to be able to eat outside, as we wanted to take all precautions against getting sick since our first few days in North Sulawesi was dedicated to scuba diving and we wanted to make sure we were completely healthy for that. So that means N95 mask in the short taxi ride (the driver was masked also) and doing all outdoor activities. A few weeks before, I had made a reservation for lunch and requested an outside table. Unfortunately, when we got there, they couldn't find our reservation - basically because I had made it for the wrong day!!! Arrgghhhh.... but they were super helpful and with only a 10-15 minute wait, they were able to seat us outside anyway. This restaurant started as a standard South Indian style restaurant - which means that your plate is a banana leaf where they pile rice and a few sides (included) and then you add whatever else it is you ordered. I didn't take photos of the whole menu, but here's most of it: All prices are in SGD, where 1 USD = 1.35 SGD at the current rate of exchange. I didn't know if just the fish head would be enough food for us, so I also ordered the Masala chicken which also looked really good. The portion that arrived was a LOT larger than pictured in the menu and we barely made a dent in it - but it was really good. The masala is typical of South India with mustard seeds and curry leaves. I definitely have to make this at home! My plate with rice, some type of onion/cauliflower side (on the left) and masala potatoes on the right. More mustard seeds. Note to self, must order more mustard seeds. Another guy comes around with two vats of sauces and asks if we're having fish or chicken. Since the fish head curry was to be the main event, I said fish and he put a ladle full of fish curry sauce on my rice (with a piece of okra). Homemade pappadum (included), just in case there isn't enough food... And of course, when in Singapore, a pitcher of lime juice: This is how the main event arrives: There is a ton of meat on this fish head, and it is perfectly cooked. The curry also contained some small green eggplant and okra. The curry sauce is really good - tons of spices and slightly sour from tamarind. So aromatic. A complete plate. And yes, we used utensils. Many of the South Indian patrons there ate traditionally, using the fingers on their right hand, but we don't have experience doing that yet and didn't feel like that day was a good day to start. Holy crap, that meal was good. We were stuffed to the gills. So, what better way to work it off than by walking around the Singapore Botanical Gardens? ...

Edit: Sorry - I'm crazy exhausted/jetlagged... I don't read so good right now!

Singapore Airlines, SIN - Newark, NJ direct. Both meals booked in advance through their "Book the Cook" feature: Chicken biryani. This has consistently been one of their best options for the last few years. Better than most biryani I can get in NY. Dessert was some kind of pandan cake with coconut. Bun with hazelnut/chocolate paste. Unfortunately, they didn't have the savory sambal ikan bun I liked so much in the past. Another good Book teh Cook option, seafood hor fun. This is a Singaporean sze char classic. Fried fish fillet, fish cake slices and shrimp along with bok choy and wide rice noodles smothered in a seafood sauce. Cheese tortilla wrap

Jokes aside, it's hard to believe getting an undercooked mb noodle in an institutional setting. You can presoak a huge volume of them practically forever, and once drained, they'll stay pliable ready to use for a crazy long time too. Then again, after hearing some of your stories, I guess I'll believe they are capable of screwing up anything.

When I make them at home, I soak in room temp water until pliable, then drain. About 10-20 minutes. They're now ready to use in a stir fry or soup. If I'm adding a lot to soup, I'll rehydrate further by pouring boiling water over them for 30 seconds or so, then drain and add soup. Otherwise the soup becomes paste.

I guess rare is a state of location. It's certainly not rare in Indonesia. But in the NY area it's non-existent. Until now!

That's dried which is a completely different animal, errr, rhizome. Usually the dried stuff is used in TCM - the flavor changes too much to be of any use in the kitchen.

Scoot Manado- Singapore, Black pepper beef which was weirdly too tender. Served with vanilla and blueberry cookies made with freeze dried blueberries.

Scoot Singapore to Manado, Indonesia. Scoot is Singapore Airlines lower cost regional airline. Meals/snacks are for purchase but since our tickets were booked straight through from NYC (sort of), they included a meal/drink. Indonesian style chicken curry with potatoes (in the curry) and rice. Also a cup of chocolate ice cream that was really good. A good dark chocolate.

Singapore Airlines NYC - SIN direct Stir fried pork with black bean sauce. Braised chicken with vegetables and mung bean starch noodles. This was a good choice of noodles as they are almost impossible to overcook. "margherita" pizza. Any relation to real pizza of any kind is more by association than anything else. But tasty. A little too sweet but not bad. It's a shame they didn't have the ikan sambal bun like the last trip, but hopefully they'll have it on tonight's flight home.

I saw that movie! Not when it came out but it popped up on my HBOMax feed. I forgot they used that term also, but now that you mention it, I thought they ripped it off Avatar at the time because I didn't realize when it was released. Now James Cameron's use of it is even worse!

Ha! I give Avatar first credit. Although I will say I was a bit pissed when Cameron named it so. He also could have name it "Wow-this-stuff-is-expensive" or some other ridiculously obvious name.

The only hi-temp cheese I can think of is halloumi. I don't know about Austin, but here in NYC it's available in a standard grocery store with a decent cheese department or a Middle Eastern store.

Months ago, while planning the trip I'm currently on, I had asked one of the hotels I had been corresponding with if they use kencur, aka sand ginger, in the cooking of that specific region and if she thought I'd be able to find it in a local market while there. This stuff, fresh, looks mostly like ginger and tastes kind of like galangal but is definitely not galangal, if that makes sense. In the US, it also might as well be called unobtanium as I have asked EVERY Indonesian grocery in NYC and all I received were longing looks as if the shopkeepers dreamed of being able to have it since being in their homeland. Internet searches didn't prove much better. So you could have knocked me over with a feather when we checked into our room (for only 1 night) and there on the bed was over a pound of it, just waiting for me! What kind of service is this?!? Amazing! Freshly washed in my hotel room sink (it was already clean but I wanted to make sure there wasn't a speck of dirt or a single bug that could cause the USDA to reject it at the airport) and drying on a bath towel.

Does your canteen deliver to NY?

Wow, I am really jealous that you can get that via delivery. You find a lot of things in NY but good quality chuan'r that isn't abhorrently expensive is not one of them.

It's the only reason to eat the quenelle! I think La Cote Basque did them in a nantua sauce. They were fantastic back in the day.

Looks great! But, um.... paprika?

ugghhh... that sucks. sorry to hear it. But, you're certainly not the only one - I think we've all done something similar at some point or another!

I'm a huge proponent of fabric pots. I've been using them for years now (indoors, hydroponically in coco coir) and have never looked back for any of my long term plants. Laurel's heirloom tomato plants are great. I did buy an amazing Goose Creek tomato start from her many years ago and it was incredible, even when grown indoors in my apartment under lights.

Most NYers I know avoid San Gennaro like the plague....