Food Hunting

What is a happy ending? It means different things to different people. In some of my food columns some time back, I have warned about the the dearth of good food that will lead to the death of good food in Singapore. For whom the bell tolls. The death of good food concerns all of us.

Any food places, be they hawkers or restaurants, whenever they shut, give up and close for good break our hearts especially the very good ones and those that have faithfully fed a nation for many years. I decided to have a few friends together to go on a food hunt and hope to continue to do this from time to time. This is in a way the bucket list. The bucket list refers to things to do before one kicks the bucket. This one is slightly different in that these are the good places to eat before they kick the bucket and decide to call it a day, the death of good food.

Mong Hing Teochew Restaurant 

From Ellenborough Market to Outram and finally Key Point, they have been around for 58 years and I have patronised all the different outlets. You must have read in the papers that they are giving up for good due to manpower problems, rising rental costs and they haven't had a holiday. I hope that they change their mind later. 

Surely we must not miss the Sambal Crayfish here. A must have whenever you visit. Great amount of onions with egg fried with the crayfish. My wallet is like an onion. Whenever I open it I cry.

It is so good you can just have a plate all by yourself.

I like the fish maw soup. It tastes almost like shark fins' soup.

Pork Jelly, something that not everyone would like. The older generation would.

Braised Goose meat is a Teochew must have. Even the tau kwa is very good. Look at how fast the pair of chopsticks went into action.

Oyster Omelette fried with chili. A very simple dish.

This is the clincher. Steamed Promfret. It was our most expensive dish for the day. Steaming requires superb timing and right temperatures plus a very good fresh fish. It was superb. You must slurp up the soup too!

Spinach stir-fried with mushroom and pieces of "tee-poh" (deep fried sole fish). Even vegetable haters would make peace.

Of course, we had several other favourites like "heh-cho" but normally a good meal is often washed down with sweet desserts. In this case, a teochew favourite "Or-Nee" or Yam paste with pumpkin and gingko nuts. Here the or-nee is especially good as it is not too sweet. Then in another week, we moved on to:

 


















Orchid Live Seafood

I featured Orchid Live Seafood and Master Chef Steven Chua in April 2011:

http://gforce-guru.blogspot.sg/2011/04/live-to-eat.html

This time we must have 7-8 dishes but I will share a few here. All time favourite deep fried chicken which is so good the chef named it after himself - "Steven Chicken". A definite must have when you come here. The chicken flesh are all cut and rolled up so you can just hold the bone and just bite and chew. Yummy!

Of course, everyone was left clamouring for more when the "Lobster Porridge" was served (please see other blog link). Everybody loves lobster but truly it is the broth and very heavenly tasting soup that takes the cake. A few had a couple of bowls and kept asking for more soup.

A very good and special dish here for me is the "tua-tow" in chili. It is too good to miss. You will clamour for more!

We had cold crab and stir-fried mixed vegetables, etc. All good food with "wok-hei" (breath of the wok) and of course the steamed patin fish was fabulous. So too wasabi prawns. All of them who came were eating here the first time. They love it! And they didn't such good food existed in a tiny street in tiny Singapore. The guys needed some exercise so we moved on to:

 








OCC

We came over to OCC. A few are seasoned golfers, a couple of beginners enjoyed ourselves at the driving range. Later, a few of us adjourned to the bar to chill out. It was overlooking one of the greens.

We were enjoying our conversation over some jugs of beer on a hot day. They were thirst quencher.

Though air-conditioned, the ceiling fans were helpless but it is a nice bar with very reasonably priced beers.

The ultimate was when the three piece resident band consisting of two guitars and a bass called "Mix And Match" came a calling. I only remembered the name Din, not bad under the influence of alcohol. The music and singing was so good we had to have more golden liquid. 

They gave us:

My Way - Frank Sinatra:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E2hYDIFDIU

and belted out Hokkien songs like:

Wo Wen Tian (Mandarin) or Wa Men Ti (Hokkien):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KuZ-JB8Cqs

Na Si Wa Woo Ji Pa Ban (Hokkien):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoNTPsbxYKk

followed by:

Bailamos (Enrique Iglesias):

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31rec2bzmAs

You should come listen to them. I asked if they could to Santa Esmeralda's You're My Everything so that I could consider bringing wifey there some day and I can serenade with the band. They started playing and I sang along. When I sing, two things can happen. Either you love me or you may throw eggs at me. If you throw eggs, it means you are jealous.

You're My Everything (Santa Esmeralda):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NahS_qrW7Bo

Now I am considering to relive my teenage years of forming a rock band!

To Din and the team of Mix and Match, I'll be back.