More Local Favs & Sad food search

An update on the local favorites that I'm trying over again. 

First I tried the popiah at Wisma Atria Food Republic when I met up with Steve and Adelene.  I love popiah, but that was my least favorite... I believe it was the egg bits inside that I didn't like. Plus, the skin wasn't as crispy or fresh as I would have liked.  They asked me if I wanted it spicy and I said a little, which I believe is the sauce on top, but it wasn't spicy at all, so was a bit confused about that too.  I still haven't been impressed with anything I've eaten in that place!

Second thing I tried again over the weekend was Char Kway Teow. 

I've had it a few times and wasn't blown away any of those times. I had this odd urge for it, so I went looking... the sad thing about today is that I had this plan to go to Queenstown Shopping Center to get a tennis dress and then to Tiong Bahru hawker center to use the Singapore Food Festival voucher at one of the places.  I've heard the center is good so I wanted to try it... However, sadly no luck with the tennis dress AND I ended up at the wrong hawker center (Redhill), and didn't feel like going to look for it again. This one was good with cockles and not too spicy.  I liked this one better than the one at Gluttons Bay but less than the one I ate with Jeremy at oddly the Thai place in Far East Plaza.  Maybe I'm biased towards Pad See Ew...

I really wanted dessert but was full when I stood up, so I waited until I got off at my MRT (train) stop and said if there was an ice cream man on the way home I would get one of the $1 ice creams in bread.  Sure enough I found a nice uncle, and I decided on flavor #4: coffee.  My favorite is still the sweet corn believe it or not!

19 more days in Singapore~

Singapore Food Festival

Three words:  Singapore Food Festival!

What's there NOT to be excited about?  I love food and they're letting me try 3 different things for free!  I'm not quite sure what I'll try because not all stores participate, and I've already tried all 10 things on the local must try list... 

It was difficult to do, since they're all good and different, but here are the top 10 Local Favorites list in my (current) favorite order:

1. Chicken Rice

2. Chili Crab (except for the hard work)

3. Rojak

4. Roti Prata and teh tarik

5. Char Kway Teow

6. Laksa

7. Satay

8. Bak Kut teh

9. Fried Carrot Cake (I like the black one)

10. Fish head curry

My Thai Dessert Experiment

This week I hadn't really tried any food out of the ordinary of what I've tried already...

BUT, I did cook something I haven't tried before.  I really like the Thai dessert of sticky rice with mango. I had coconut milk that I was trying to use as well as a bunch of brown rice I need to eat before I leave Singapore, so I though "Hey, let's try regular brown rice with sweet coconut milk!" It was actually quite easy, and absolutely tasty, but be patient as it takes a bit of time.  Here's what I used: just 5 ingredients, anybody can do it right?  

I know it's not much of a picture with the recipe but here it is:

Amy's Brown Rice Dessert Experiment:

3/4 cup short grain brown rice

1 cup light coconut milk

1 cup water

1/4-2/4 cup brown sugar

pinch of salt

Just put all the ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil.  Then, simmer until the liquid is practically absorbed.  Mix every now and then to make sure the rice isn't sticking to the bottom and that film isn't forming on top.

*If you don't want it as sweet, just add less sugar.  I added sugar about half the amount of uncooked rice, and it was a tad too sweet for me.  But I'm sure if Jeremy were eating it, he would have wanted more sugar.  (Or maybe he would've told me to follow a recipe...)

Seemingly Odd Tapioca Combo

This entry is dedicated to my boyfriend Jeremy.

Jeremy's favorite tapioca is Vanilla Cookie Swirl or something like that at Tapioca Express, because it pretty much tastes like candy. When I told him tapioca/bubble tea here is S$1-S$2, he was very excited.  There are many options for that price, but who in their right mind would choose banana oreo? Answer: my boyfriend.  I'll admit I thought he was crazy when he said he wanted to try it, but his reasoning was why not be a little more adventurous when its cheap?  It made sense and although I was EXTREMELY skeptical, I tried it and it was actually not bad! The first sip I took, it was just ok, but I must admit that it grew on me the more sips I took.  So today I ended up buying one of my own. It was good still, but it was

a bit too much after a while.  I couldn't finish a whole thing all by myself, so for myself in the future, I prefer passionfruit tea or something not as sweet (and healthier). 

Food often tastes better when you steal a few bites off of someone else's plate, so maybe this drink was one of those cases. I wouldn't buy it again for myself, but I'd take a few sips of someone else's banana oreo tapioca again any time :)

More New Foods For Lyzz

Lyzz tried a lot of new things while she was in Singapore with me.  She wanted to try durian and some local desserts, so we combined them and ate a durian ice kacang at Maxwell Hawker Center. She thought durian was good too!  The smell wan't too bad to her either, so I'm not the only abnormal foreigner that likes the fruit!  The ice kacang was better than the last one I tried because it wasn't as sweet as the last one.  The really bright colors still aren't ideal in things I consume, but it's good with the items on the bottom.  There are red beans, grass jelly, fruit jellies, and surprisingly corn! I love having shaved ice in hot times!

Another thing I had her eat, was a literal ice cream sandwich.  All the uncles with the ice cream carts on the street give you a selection of ice creams that they cut 

for you from a block of ice cream. Then, you can choose to put it between wafers, in a cup, or in a slice of colorful bread!  Before, I tried the sweet corn ice cream with Jeremy, but this time I tried the yam ice cream (I have liked all the yam desserts here).  Lyzz just got a strawberry-vanilla swirl, but we both enjoyed the sandwich.  The bread has a hint of sweetness on its own, but I'm not sure if that is just plain white asian bread.  Who knows, but all I can say the combination seems odd but its fantastic!

Mos Burger & Thai Express

Friday lunch time was a serving of Mos Burger. I must say I hadn't had anything from Mos Burger since my childhood summer days in Japan every now and then.  The burgers are actually QUITE small, especially compared to American burger sizes.  My Singaporean friends have said that the sizes are still smaller than the American fast food chains here as well.  

I tried the Unagi Rice burger, which is actually quite tasty.  They shape the rice to basically hold in the shape of buns and sandwich unagi pieces in between.  I like Unagi bowls, so it was exactly like that but you can eat it with your hands!  As I said, it's pretty small so you have to get a side of fries to share with your friends or you can go get a bubble tea (tapioca) afterwards to fill you up!  Take your pick :)  We ended up gettin

g fries, and I like eating them with a mix of the chili sauce and ketchup they give you!

For dinner time, Lyzz had mentioned wanting some Thai food, so we ended up going to Thai Express at the bottom of Paragon. **Apologies now for pictures of food that has already started to be eaten.** We got their "popular" Mango salad.  It was delicious!  I'm not sure if it is a different type of mango, like green mango (similar to their green papaya salad), but it was a great combination of a slightly crunchy texture, that is slightly sweet with a hint of sour.   Plus the slightly tangy/sweet sauce that goes with it was really refreshing.  

Our 2nd dish was Pad Thai to see what the flavor here on this classic dish was.  I was a little 

disappointed because it came out so quick and it was not piping hot... it seemed like they make a lot because many people order it, but it isn't freshly made after an order is placed.  The taste was good with chilis on the side that you could add in yourself. Not the best Pad Thai I have had, but not the worst either.  I guess you can't expect too much out of a chain restaurant.  The mango salad is a definite recommendation to try though!

Gluttons Bay With Lyzz

Lyzz is visiting for a few days and we're having a fabulous time!

We went local the first night and went to Gluttons Bay Hawker Center next to the Esplanade. It tends to be a litle more expensive than usual hawker centers, because of the beautiful view by the water and it is supposed to be where good stalls are brought together.  It was only two of us so I couldn't have her eat everything, but we tried some of the unique/unusual stuff.  Of course I forgot to take a picture of the most unusual one, grilled stingray with chili.  It actually just tastes like white fish, but I like it with some of the chili sauce grilled in.  It's good to balance the spice with plain white rice, but the rice isn't very good here... very dry...  But my tolerance for spicy has definitely gone up since living here! 

I also had her try Kaya toast even though it is usually a breakfast or snack food, but hey if we don't have much time, who cares when we eat it!  It is a type of jam I would say made with coconut and egg (plus sugar obviously). I really like it but I've heard that coconut is high in cholesterol because of the high fat content, but there's much debate, so I'll go with my usual motto: "Everything in moderation!" (or at least try)

We also had carrot cake which isn't the American carrot cake 

dessert we would immediately think of.  It is actually like the radish cakes that they serve at dim sum places- I love that stuff!  In Singapore, they offer a black kind that is a bit sweeter.  They cut up the cake pieces and pan fry it with a sweet black sauce and other little veggies.  This time though, we tried the white version which we were told was more salty, and since neither of us had tried it, we said let's try it!  We thought it was just going to be pan fried cake without the sweet sauce, but it actually ended up being more of a radish cake omelet.  I'm not a huge egg fan, so I personally like the black version better, but it was still okay.

Also, this goes for the next post as well, but apologies for not remembering to take a picture before we started eating... but better than nothing right??