meal for one

There is a fine art of cooking for one person. Did you know you can stir fry bulbs of fennel? They are actually quite delicious when combined with soy sauce with a bit of sugar to produce a syrupy result. The ingredients are simple - start with 2 cloves of garlic, onions (sliced length ways), the sliced fennel and if you can stand it, 2 bird's eye chillies, and fry in about 2 or 3 teaspoons of oil. Once the onions start to go translucent, add slice courgettes. Cover with a lid over your frying pan and allow to cook for about 2-3 min. When the courgettes have slightly browned, add the sliced chicken or turkey. Cover again with the lid for about 2-3 min. The pan will get really hot at this point and you can start the stir-fry. Add soy sauce and a touch of sweetness or even balsamic vinegar. If you have leftover sweet corn, whether fresh or canned or frozen, you can add to the pan. Cook for another 2 mins on high heat, switch off the heat with lid on and let the meat naturally cook for another 2 min. The meat should be tender. (To ensure tenderness of chicken or turkey slices, you can pre-seasoned with soy sauce, sesame oil, white pepper and a bit of corn starch). Serve with rice or if you are too lazy to cook rice for 1 person (or don't want left-over rice the next day after cooking rice for 2), then you can also have with bread - the sauce goes well with it. For me, I am having the muesli bread i bought yesterday morning with my stir-fried turkey with fennel. I feel so healthy!

By the way, I was cooking my dinner, talking to my friend Dexin in Singapore and ordering 2 pairs of snazzy shoes from Swear in Carnaby Street for him online. Talk about multi-tasking!

cha cha moon, carnaby street

My friend Pak Sen was visiting London over the weekend and we managed to catch-up on Sunday (the day after Eurovision in case you need some context). I knew Pak Sen from when I was living in Singapore back in 2000 when we lived in Club St, near Chinatown in Singapore. Pak Sen now lives in Sydney so it is difficult to take him to a place to eat, when where he comes from has some of the best food. Pak Sen tells me that Wagammama is hugely popular in Sydney. In his opinion, the food is better in the London branches.


So I thought I would take him to Cha Cha Moon, the most recent enterprise of Alan Yau. I have not been to Cha Cha Moon for awhile - prices used to be as low as 3.50 quid per plate. Now you are hard-pressed to find something for 5 quid. I ordered the Seafood Ho Fun, Pak Sen ordered the Beef Ho Fun, we shared choi sum and the mooli (carrot cake style). I must admit the quality is disappointing - both ho funs were too oily, and the mooli was acceptable only. Perhaps I have been to Cha Cha Moon too many times now?

euphoria over euphorium bakery, hampstead

I am mildly euphoric over the fresh bread and cakes at euphorium bakery in hampstead (www.euphoriumbakery.com/). It is a drive by infatuation, since i pass the shop each morning after walking the dogs on hampstead. I drive up to parliament hill and park next to the house where George Orwell used to live, right by hampstead. After the dogs are exhausted sniffing for rabbits, squirrels and god knows what else, we (dogs and I) are starving. This is a contributory factor to my attraction to euphorium. The photos speak volumes. The bread selection is authentic with french style baguettes, muesli bread, sour dough, etc. For this particular morning, I choose the muesli bread. At the same time, I spot there are only a few pain au chocolates left and a fresh batch of carrot cake. The midday cakes are still baking in the oven - i smell banana cake in the kitchen. Damn I am early for banana cake. In the end, I left with muesli bread, pain au chocolate and carrot cake. I am a happy boy! Life is good...

Princi Bakery, Wardour St

i mentioned Princi in my last post, it is only fair to post a few photos of the venue - oddly enough, on the day i visit (last week), there was a security guard standing by the entrance - never seen him before, and not really in keeping with the venue and theme.

it is a great idea to feature the oven used to bake all those lovely cakes, bread and pizzas - as a cook myself, i really like to see where my food comes from - it is like a geeky cook thing...

London: Four Seasons Duck Specialist

Back in London and in the first 24 hours, my first meal is roast duck! I did not have any roast duck in Singapore. Why? Because roast duck tastes so much better in London. My favourite restaurant to eat roast duck is Four Seasons - they have two branches, Gerrard St (i.e. Chinatown) and in Bayswater. Today is Sunday on a bank holiday weekend, and i am at the Chinatown branch of Four Seasons with Aaron. The place is humming and packed with a variety of punters, all eating roast duck. Don't bother with a quarter duck, just get the half or whole duck. And don't bother with the boneless version, it is much tastier with bones. The duck is juicy, meaty, sweet and a nice hint of aniseed. There is delicious fat between the skin and meat too. This is high grade roast, not possible to replicate in your kitchen. Trust me, I have tried. The only other place where i would rave about roast is Yung Kee in Hong Kong, where it is goose instead of duck.

After lunch, we went to Princi's for dessert. This is yet another Alan Yau creation, this time in league with Milanese bakery of the same name and fame. The seating is classic Alan Yau. The food is laid out in an open glass top counter. You choose what you want, tell the staff and pay. Collect your expresso at a separate counter. It is quite simple. The chocolate tart and amaretto chocolate cake was delicious, and the capuccino's were very authentic. It is a stroke of genius to ensure all of the staff working on premises were Italian. Very authentic.

fish head bee hoon and prawn paste fried chicken

I had dinner at Ka Sou this evening with my friends Swan and Chesper. It is on Amoy Street, on the same street as the well-known Hokkien restaurant and Taiwan porridge.

I make a version of the fish head bee hoon myself. The fish has to be very fresh, and quickly deep-fried so that the flesh is not dry but rather moist. The fish head is chopped into smaller pieces in the Ka Sou version. My own preference is big chunks of fish head rather small. The soup stock was average at best, not what I remembered when i first ate here years ago. Its a shame the quality of the soup stock and fish head has not kept up to the original reputation.

The prawn paste chicken was very crispy and tasty. It is however indistinguishable from any other deep fried chicken - although tasty with the prawn paste, it is not unqie or something you would return again for.

The kang kong fried with cuttlefish is what it is - nothing much else to say. In itself, that speaks volumes about the lack of character of the dish. Overall, the meal does not leave any impression.

kuriya: dinner or lunch? shaw center or great world city?

Today's lunch was my second trip to Kuriya in a few days. With Soh Chin for dinner at Kuriya in Great World City, we ended up spending SGD170 for two persons. SC had chirashi sushi (SGD$42) and I had a sushi platter called "Fuji" (with Uni and Anago) priced at SGD$58. We order two additional dishes to share - assorted tempura and eel/cheese roll. It was good, don't get me wrong, but was it worth the price?

Today with Jeanette and David, we went to Kuriya in Shaw Center. Jeanette has a Wagyu beef set (SGD$35), David had the Lady's set lunch (SGD$28) and I had the Chirashi/Sashimi set lunc (SGD$42). We shared small dishes at SGD$3.50 (?) each - spinach with poached egg, grilled egg and fresh tohu with tuna. Total bill was just under SGD$150. It does not compute. Lunch was far better than dinner. Restaurants truly do not understand the importance of quality and consistency. Asian consumers are far too placid to notice or if noticed, to take action (e.g. vote with your feet). While I enjoyed Kuriya, they need to reconcile their prices for lunch and dinner, and between different outlets before I return again. So there. :)

Damn. I forgot to take a photo of my sushi/chirashi combo meal. I forgot last time to take a photo too. Old age!