Posts tagged Dinner

Chomp Chomp

Review

Chomp Chomp Hawker Centre is one of the places that I absolutely have to visit when I come back to Singapore. This bustling eatery is just bursting with all sorts of sinful pleasures. The moment I hit the pavement just outside the centre, it hooks it’s fragrant fingers around me and just draw me in like a moth to a flame.

The barbequed stingray (see above) is my favourite, with hot sambal and tangy chinchalok to accompany soft white flesh. If I had to give up all else, this is one thing that I would not be able (or willing to) let go.

At $1 each, these chicken wings are an absolute steal. They are first marinated, then slowly cooked over smoking charcoal. A squeeze of lime gives it a tangy exterior and the chilli packs such a punch that it hits you like a two tonne truck. Heaven.

The fried prawn noodles is another local favourite. A mixture of noodles is fried with a variety of seafood, and served with lime and chilli (not to be confused with the chilli that goes with other dishes). Soft noodles are so full of flavour, and everything just works together to give you an explosion in your mouth.

And satay. As it should be. The meat is marinated in a mixture of spices, including tumeric, and it is served with a peanut sauce on the side. And how to tell that it’s a good sauce? Pineapple pulp sitting smack in the centre, waiting to be stirred in with the peanut sauce. Skewers of chicken, pork or mutton sit merrily on the same plate, waiting to be devoured. Pork’s a personal favourite of mine, but if you’re lard conscious you might want to try the chicken instead.

I so need to get there again soon.

Oh Sushi, my Sushi!

Review

I love me some Japanese food. I’ve always had a fascination with seafood since I was a kid, and am of the firm belief that everything from the sea should be eaten raw. Not that there’s anything wrong with cooked seafood, but there’s nothing that can really compare, IMO, with the sweetness of fresh seafood.

Mel and I went to Itacho over the weekend, and they’re still the best sushi place I’ve ever been to. My wonderful experience there was only tempered by the fact that the staff can be quite…blur, and the hefty price tag. But no biggie, good food like that is worth the price and bumbling staff.

My favourite – Salmon and Salmon Roe roll. Super fresh slices of salmon wrapped delicately around a pinch of rice (that is really just there for the structure) and topped with salmon roe (my little bubbles of absolute joy!). The thick, silky salmon leaves absolutely no aftertaste, and the salty roe is just the perfect match for it. The best things truly come from nature.

The sister dish of the above-mentioned roll, this Salmon mini bowl is basically the same thing, deconstructed. This one gives the eater the opportunity to just have mouthfuls of just the salmon roe, which sometimes is the needed thing.

This Tuna and Crispy beancurd is unfortunately more theatrical in its look than it’s flavour. The crispy texture was a welcome surprise, but the overall flavour was rather bland. It’s really did not do the beancurd anymore justice than other Chinese crispy beancurd dishes out there.

Another mildly disappointing piece is the Foie Gras sushi, as the foie gras did not have the creamy, buttery texture that I’ve come to expect from a piece of fatty goose liver treated right. It was slightly overdone, but not an absolute disaster.

This Crab Miso Gunkan was worth the try. It wasn’t a phenomenally pleasant surprise, but it was a nice surprise nontheless. The crab was soft and light, while the miso packed quite a flavour punch. Not bad.

This Baked Crab was absolutely delightful. Crab shell was filled with a rice and mushroom mixture, and then baked with cheese over the top. Steam immediately escaped upon breaking through the helmet of cheese, and the aromatic mushrooms made their presence felt. Fluffy chunks of crab were carefully woven throughout the dish, and every mouthful was heaven. A must-try.

And who can overlook those delectable slices of raw fish? The fatty salmon was melt-in-your-mouth, but it does happen to leave an oily after-feeling. The dorsal sushi had the same effect, except for a slightly more complex texture. It seemed to have a slight resistance to it before it yielded to the determined eater.

The Hotate was worth every bite, but sadly not the same can be said of the Green Tea Salt. It had a really odd flavour to it, and if anything, undermined the freshness of the scallop and made it seem old and…well, not fresh. Just have the scallop, it’s good enough as it is.

And who can forget the sashimi. As mentioned above, the standard of raw salmon at this joint is beyond reproach. It’s truly the best salmon sashimi I’ve had in my life. The swordfish lived up to the same standard, and melt-in-your mouth texture is the stuff of dreams. And the prawns. Oh my the prawns. The Fairy Prawns have a deep fried head and brings out all the flavour of prawn, and the sweet, succulent body is so delicate, so clean, so pure, that it almost makes me feel like I’m partaking in an act of debauchery by putting it in my mouth.

If you have cash to spare and a reason to celebrate, this is definitely a place that you should visit. Reservations can be made, but there’s a SG$50 per head minimum. Otherwise, there will be a queue for dinner.

Itacho Sushi
Ion Orchard
#B2-18
Singapore
(+65) 6509 8911

Operating Hours:
Sun-Thu: 11am – 10pm
Fri-Sat: 11am – 11pm

Happy munching!

Hung Out to Dry

Recipe 1 Comment

I was flipping through one of Heston Blumenthal’s books where he was talking about the perfect Pasta Bolognese. There were loads on the perfect sauce, but he also discussed the perfect pasta.

Apparently, (and this is backed up by my extensive research – Iron Chef on TV had similar information) all freshly made pasta needs to be dried. This gives the pasta more body and bite, and helps it ‘stand its ground’ when there’s sauce added.

So I decided to experiment.

First, the basic fresh pasta recipe:

6 egg yolks (or three eggs. Not the perfect outcome, but acceptable for everyday food)
2 cups (300g) strong superfine flour (plain flour’s fine, you just have to knead it more)

Mix the egg yolks in with the flour. You can do this in a food processor till there’s a course crumb, or by hand in a bowl. Once it comes together, tip it out onto a clean counter top an knead till the dough is smooth and elastic. Wrap the dough in cling and leave to rest for 1/2-1 hr.

*On a side note, if the dough is too dry, add more egg. It all depends on the size of the egg you’re using.*

Next comes the fun part. Section the dough into 100g balls. I use a pasta machine to roll it out, but you can do it by hand if you want (it’s quite a bit of grunt work though). If you’re using a pasta machine, feed the dough through the machine on the widest setting once, then fold it over and feed it through the machine again. Do this a couple of times. After that, keep moving setting thinner till you get a sheet that you can see newsprint through.

Put the sheet through the pasta-cutting-roller-thing, so you get your linguine/fettuccine/etc.

Oh, and always remember to keep your dough lightly floured! Otherwise you’re going to end up with a sticky mess.

There are two main ways of drying out pasta. The first is the hanging method.

Get a clean rack and drape your carefully rolled out pasta over it. I’m using a plastic bath towel rack with suction cups, but any rack should do the trick as long as it will take the weight and you can clean it properly. The pasta strands are not supposed to touch, or mould will form. (I know I’ve got some that are touching – they were fine, but just try your best)

Drying time will depend on the climate you’re in. In Heston’s book, it’s mentioned that low heat and low humidity work well, and I can safely say that it’s the case for me. The pasta was completely dry (as in, stiff-as-a-board dry) in a couple of hours.

The second method is the nest method. This was a bit tricky.

Ok, so mine’s not so much a nest as it is a heap. You’re supposed to roll it into a nest shape and dry on a rack. For some reason mine just kept rearranging itself into heap formation. Either way, it seems to me that this produces a more semi-dry pasta, as opposed to the fully-dry hanging one.

The other thing that’s mentioned in Heston’s book is the cooking of said pasta. Apparently the holy ratio of pasta cooking is 10:100:1000. That is, 10g of salt, 100g of pasta, 1000g (1L) of water. Bring the salted water to the boil and add the pasta. Check after 5 minutes whether it’s cooked, and then a couple of minutes after that if it isn’t. The fully-dried pasta takes longer to cook.

The verdict? The thick fully dried pasta suits a meatier sauce, and the thinner fully dried one suits a simpler sauce or an Aglio e Olio type dish. The semi-dried one tasted a lot eggier, and I’m thinking that it’s more compatible with a cream-based sauce.

The fresh pasta was certainly worth the effort, it tasted like it had character of it’s own, rather than just the carbohydrate component to a dish. I would strongly recommend trying it. =)

Happy munching!

Ribbed for Your Pleasure

Recipe

I just love slow-cooked ribs. Firstly, because I love slow-cooked anything. It barely takes any prep, and just bubbles away while you’re at work! And the smell when you come home is…well, it’s as if someone’s been slaving away to prepare your dinner for you!

And well, ribs. No one can resist that melt-of-the-bone succulence that comes with a well cooked rack of ribs.

I’ve got a recipe for slow-cooker ribs that is honestly, well, cheating. It’s not the most wholesome, from-scratch recipe there is, but it’s easy (and tasty)! And we all need a bit of ease in our lives once in a while.

Ingredients:

2kg Pork Ribs
1 Large Brown Onion
2 cloves Garlic
1 tbsp Chilli Powder (or 2 fresh chillies, chopped finely)
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Dried Rosemary
Enough tomato and BBQ sauce mixture to almost cover the ribs

Directions:

Thickly slice the onion and lay it on the bottom of a lightly oiled slow cooker. This acts as a trivet for the ribs so that it doesn’t burn on the bottom. Next, throw in the rest of the ingredients and cook on LOW for 6 hrs (or on HIGH for 4).

Serve with a selection of steamed veggies. 

By the way, the time that I specified is more of a minimum. I usually put it on in the morning and then go out, leaving it on for about 8 hrs. It’s all good.

Hope this gives you as much pleasure as it does me.

Happy munching!

Slow Roasted Lamb

Recipe

It’s expensive eating out. Whether you’re going to a really nice restaurant or you’ve got a really fast moving date (wink wink), you’ll usually set yourself back quite a bit just by deciding to step out for dinner.

So, being someone who will jump at any excuse to be in the kitchen (I did not take that last piece of chocolate I swear! The box was empty when I got there!), I always do a slow roasted lamb when I find rosemary on sale. And don’t get turned off by the word “slow”, because something celestial just happens to meat when the word “slow” enters the picture. The absolute cheapest cuts of meat just become the most tender, juicy, fall-of-the-bone piece of heaven that you can get.

Why pay the restaurants top dollar when you can do it yourself?

I must say though, given my addiction to cooking programmes/magazines/books/anything-I-can-get-my-hands-on, that some of the recipes I use would come from one of these sources. This one’s from Jamie Oliver, with a couple of tweaks from me. 

You need:

1 lamb shoulder
Garlic Cloves (I like garlic, so I use almost the whole head)
Rosemary
Salt
Pepper
Chilli Flakes

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Rub a scored lamb shoulder with salt, pepper, chilli flakes and olive oil, and set it on a bed of rosemary and garlic. Set some rosemary and garlic aside to lay on top of the lamb. Cover the roasting tray with foil and put it in the oven. Reduce the heat to 150 degrees and leave in for 4hrs. After 4hrs, rest the meat for 20 min and serve with some salad and roast potatoes. Serves 4-6 (depending on who’s coming for dinner!)

It’s 5 mins worth of effort from me for a really tasty result! That, and you can leave the lamb in the oven while you go out to do some shopping. When you come home the smell of a hot roast dinner will perfume your home, and to me, that’s better than any incense that you can buy. There is nothing more welcoming and warming to the soul than the alluring smell of food.

And there isn’t a better welcome present for your dinner guests either. 

Happy munching!