My first Krispy Kreme doughnut
Labels:
# American,
+ Philippines,
doughnuts
Yes, finally. The famous original glazed doughnut. Can't believe it took this long for me to try Krispy Kreme. I never thought it would be in Manila (well, I didn't want to join the queue in Shinjuku years ago).
I have to say I understand why people love it. It's amazingly soft and satisfying, as you sink your teeth into it. I like that gorgeous glaze that's so crinkly light. On the whole, it's a tad too sweet for me, but yeah, I'd eat it again.
Fried Nian Gao with Crispy Batter
Are you eating this today? If you have leftover or hardened nian gao (glutinous rice cake), as we often do after Chinese New Year, there's no better way to revive them than giving them a coat of batter and frying them up! A crispy coat on the outside, and gooey sweetness on the inside. Best way to have nian gao, I say!
It's just a simple coat of batter, but I never realised there were so many variations! I found one post that tested 5 different batter recipes.
I just used this:
- 40-50g flour (all-purpose should be fine, I just used cake flour since I had some open)
- 1 egg
- half teaspoon baking powder (this makes it extra crispy!)
- half teaspoon salt (optional)
- 2 ice cubes (stir until almost melted, but make sure batter remains cold)
So it's a bit like a tempura batter. Stays crispy for a bit longer after frying too.
Here's wishing everyone 年年有余! May you all have abundance year after year.
Happy Chinese New Year!
Labels:
Chinese New Year,
Jolie,
Nadine
Here's wishing everyone a fantastic lunar new year! I have a feeling the Year of the Dragon is going to be absolutely roaring. Just that it's a water Dragon, and looks like it is already making a splashing entry, creating ponding situations all over Singapore.
Nonetheless, I hope everyone is enjoying the festivities, reunion with family and visiting with friends. We are over in Malaysia, where the kids are visiting grandpa.
Some time ago, Mr Brown posted about the difficulties of photographing for passport purposes his kid Faith (who has autism). I know exactly what he is talking about. We had to take Nadine's photo because her passport had expired (my gosh, it's been five years already since she did hers as a baby).
Nadine doesn't have autism; she has Down Syndrome. But the difficulty in getting her to pose properly is not due to her special needs condition. It's just because she's an imp!
She understands the instructions perfectly. Because for a mini split second, she complies. But then she finds it heck of a lot more interesting to do something else.
And here's Jolie. We took like one shot.
Too bad she's not the one needing her passport renewed.
Speaking of passports and traveling, I must apologise for my Hong Kong and Manila posts being hijacked and interrupted. But now that I've cleared all the CNY-related stuff, I'll be back posting about them. Looking forward to that!
Bengawan Solo - An Inside Look
There is an old school Bengawan Solo shop in my Marine Terrace neighbourhood that is just different from the rest that are located in the malls. Someone told me that is the very first outlet, so they have always kept it.
And recently, my friend Joanna introduced me to the Liew family that owns Bengawan Solo, and they confirmed the story. Bengawan Solo opened here in 1979, which makes them as old as Red Star Restaurant down at Chin Swee Road.
The founder Anastasia Liew, now in her 60s, still runs the business with tremendous passion, energy and attention to detail. Her son, Henry Liew, is also working with her, as are five other family members.
Now Singaporeans are all very familiar with the brand and the kuehs, cakes and cookies they make. These are so readily available (44 outlets all over Singapore), and so uniformly consistent, that we sometimes tend to dismiss them as "mass-produced" goods. But did you know that some of the items are still handmade?
Yes, there is a central factory up in Woodlands, supplying the outlets. But as the Liews showed us, it's not all machines at work, because there are some things machines just cannot do. And they refuse to compromise the quality of the products, so some things are still painstakingly done by hand.
Their ondeh-ondeh, for example, are rolled and cooked individually - all 11,900 of them per day every day! To do this by machine would require a less desirable texture for the dough, so that was unacceptable.
Have you ever had fresh and warm ondeh ondeh? It's like coddling a sweet piece of heaven in your mouth.
The kueh dadar is also made by hand. You can see the saucepans with the crepes or green skin being made, and once these are ready, they add the coconut filling and roll them up.
Hand-made. Every one of them.
The lapis sagu has many thin layers. They've got a clever way to make this. Trays and trays of it go around on a conveyor belt being steamed as they go, and a new layer is freshly poured on with each loop. Very efficient.
And guess what - each of these are hand-cut too. Seriously, there is a guy here that specialises in cutting the lapis sagu, and I saw how he chopped each one of them into uniform pieces with practiced precision. The sagu is too soft for machines to handle, and so they would rather do this by hand, than make lapis sagu that's less delightful to chew.
The premium (round ones) pineapple tarts are also finished by hand.
Yummy.
Well, attention goes not just into the preparation, but also ingredients. Bengawan Solo insists on using freshly pressed coconut milk instead of pre-packed ones, and real pandan juice instead of essence. For their cakes, they mix an Australian premium butter with a certain Dutch butter that costs four times as much but has incredible buttery aroma and taste.
But the most fun part of the factory has got to be the icing room.
See all the Disney cakes come to life!
It's like an art studio in here, with so many fun colours! Edible colours!
Only freshly baked sponge cakes are used. Unlike many places, they don't use cakes that are not baked on the very same day.
Ever wonder how they get the likeness down pat for the cartoon characters? They use this thing like an overhead projector to project the image onto a cake and frost the outlines. But even so, it's still not an easy job. Trust me, you still need some skill to do this, and do it quickly.
There are also the "printed" cakes. Much easier to make, and madly popular. Some little girl called Chloe is getting this one.
And another lucky boy has got this coming for him. Who doesn't like Toy Story?
Look at this 3D airplane cake! Yes, they are now making 3D cakes as well.
Their ever popular kueh lapis is also made by hand, using a similar conveyor belt system - a smart way of saving a lot of effort! Instead of opening and closing ovens all the time to pour in each new layer, the cake makers have a whole line of cakes on the move. They add a new layer, send it off to be grilled, and work on the next, and repeat until the cake is completed (takes about 2-3 hours).
There's a prune lapis as well. And they've introduced a cranberry lapis too, which doesn't use any spices, but is fragrantly buttery. I love it! See it in the second photo (the row in the middle of the platter).
One of my family's perennial favourites is their walnut cake. It's just one of those simple pleasures in life.
Nadine and Jolie always run into the Marine Terrace Bengawan Solo shop, yelling, "Cake!"
It's the only shop in the neighbourhood they instinctively love dashing in to.
For Chinese New Year, they have an airconditioned tent outside the factory at 23 Woodlands Link (take shuttle bus 964 from Admiralty MRT or Woodlands interchange), selling CNY goodies at a 10% discount. Visitors have been thronging there for to buy stuff in bulk. They also have festive hampers you can pick up. Interestingly, Bengawan Solo does not raise their prices for the festive season, except for the last two days before Chinese New Year.
It's ironic that they don't make as much profits during Chinese New Year, despite the increased sales. That's because they have to pay a lot of overtime for workers to cope with the orders.
But anyway, here's what we bought.
Fish keropok (ball-shaped) using fish from Bangka (near Palembang) where Anastasia was born. The fish there is particularly sweet, it seems.
Casava Cheese Cookies. These were new to us, and had a most unusual taste. I can't quite describe it, but has a delicate savoury touch from the cheese.
The "hae bee hiam" spicy dried shrimp mini-rolls. So tedious to make, but so easy to eat.
If you like belinjo crackers, you will love these "Emping Manis" or sweet crackers. They're made from the same fruit.
It was a very enlightening visit, and I now have a new appreciation for Bengawan Solo and the way they are such sticklers for quality. Philip, Serene and I were very pleased to meet Anastasia and Henry Liew. They are wonderful folks. I'll be back hopefully to do a personality profile on Anastasia.
Meanwhile, enjoy the Lunar New Year festivities! 恭喜发财 in the year of the Dragon!
Photo credit: first and last photo from Bengawan Solo.
Justin Quek Showcases Kagoshima's Finest Produce at Sky on 57
Justin Quek visited the beautiful Kagoshima prefecture in Japan last year and loved it all. He's incorporating some of their best marine and farm produce into his cuisine at Sky on 57 as it goes into its second year of operation at the Marina Bay Sands.
For his support, Chef Justin Quek received a Certification of Recommendation from Kagoshima Governor Yuichiro Ito. This is only the second time such a certificate has been presented (the first one went to a five-star hotel in Hong Kong last year).
To mark this event and to welcome the Chinese New Year (CNY), Chef Quek will be presenting a special five-course menu (S$138++) inspired by the various products from Kagoshima. The menu will be available for from 17 January to 7 Feb 2012.
Some of the produce are real eye-popping wonders, like this enormous Sakurajima Daikon. Sakurajima is an active volcano at Kagoshima Bay. I think it's that mountain in the background of the first picture. Kagoshima is so beautiful, I want to go there too!
The supermodels of produce. Vegetables from Kagoshima.
Various Shochu labels from Kagoshima.
At the press luncheon, we were treated to some dishes that are in the CNY menu.
We started off very well with the Ceviche of 'Buri-OH' marinated in lemon dressing (foreground) and Steamed bamboo Shoots in Truffle Dressing with Micro Greens. Buri is Japanese amberjack, and is refreshingly sweet. The lemon dressing is a perfect match. You'll find a variation of this in the CNY menu - Prosperity Salad with Sliced Buri-oh fillet and jellyfish.
Spring Salad with Kagoshima Vegetables - sweet potato and cheese croquette, snow peas, fava beans, fried leeks and grilled pumpkin. Amazingly fresh and beautiful. I love the croquette. What a lovely combination of cheese and sweet potato, and it wasn't oily at all.
Organic Kagoshima Pumpkin Veloute with Crabmeat Custard - smooth and very savoury. The crabmeat custard is interesting. It almost tastes like very tender half-boiled egg white. Goes well with the breads here, which are excellent, by the way.
The highlight however is the Kurobuta pork. Oh, the wondrous little black pig.
Grean Pea Risotto: Sauteed Kagoshima Kurobuta Confit, Green Pea and Bacon, Natural Meat Jus (extracted from pork bone).
Kagoshima exports some of the world's best kurobuta, and it is very evident here how good it really is. The surface is seared to a gentle crisp, and the juicy fat and tender meat inside is absolutely divine. Sweet and clean-tasting. My last meal on earth - yes, can I have this please?
This dish is in the CNY menu too, as is the wagyu below.
Kagoshima Wagyu: Grilled Minute Steak with Kagoshima Vegetables. Kagoshima also has very good wagyu, and the robust flavours here will thrill your tastebuds almost as much as the kurobuta pork.
Dessert was Chilled Musk Melon and Mousseline and Sauternes Jelly. The natural sweetness of the fruit was allowed to come through in this.
It's not just the food that's pleasing. Feast your eyes on the unbeatable view from the top of Marina Bay Sands. Sky on 57 is very open and spacious, designed with dynamic flowing forms. It's my first visit, but won't be my last, given that Chef Quek will continue to use Kagoshima's produce in his dishes even after the promotion.
SKY ON 57
Sands Skypark
Tower 1, Level 57
Marina Bay Sands
10 Bayfront Avenue
Singapore 018956
Tel: +65 6688 8857 (reservations highly recommended)
Open daily
BREAKFAST: 7AM TO 10.30AM
LUNCH: 12PM TO 2.30PM
DINNER: 6PM TO 10.30PM
BAR: 11AM TO MIDNIGHT
Warmest thanks to the Marina Bay Sands team for inviting me to the press luncheon.
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