Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Jonker Street Satay, Melaka

Jonker St Satay

Formerly on the old Jonker Street, hence the name, and now relocated to a spacious and rather clinical looking shophouse outlet, this was a slight let down. According to The Star Street Food guide - "Jonker Satay is relished as much for its wonderfully aromatic meat - with crisp, slightly burnt edges - as for its special satay sauce, a tangy, spicy-sweet concoction of crushed peanuts, aromatic roots, spices, shredded pineapple and belimbing."

Unfortunately, we didn't find the meat marinade that superb (tasted a little like curry), and the bits of pork fat lacked the requisite juicy crispness and slightly burnt aroma for satay nirvana. It was a pretty interesting and unique experience to have innards as part of the satay selection though.

In my books, Chuan Kee satay at Old Airport Road is a lot better than this.

Jonker St Satay / Sun May Hiong Satay House
50/50A Jalan Kota Laksamana 1/1
Tmn Kota Laksamana

Medan Ikan Bakar, Melaka

It's no secret that I love seafood, and it always seems to taste better when grilled on the spot and eaten next to the sea. So I had high expectations of Medan Ikan Bakar, with memories of Lombok's Warung Menega still vivid in my mind.

Well it wasn't quite as good as Warung Menega - the grilled aroma wasn't as fragrant and the chilli dip not as delicious, neither was the food eaten on the beach with sand between the toes - more like a huge open-air seafood restaurant, but the seafood was all fresh and came out piping hot from the kitchen. Affordable too, we paid about 40 Malaysian Ringgit (SGD16) for the spread you see below, including a fried vegetable dish and drinks.

MedanIkanBakaar2


MedanIkanBakaar3


MedanIkanBakaar4


I liked that they provided these small packets of nasi lemak (coconut rice), in the Malay style.

MedanIkanBakaar_1

Medan Ikan Bakar
KM 4-5, Jalan Padang Temu
Permatang Pasir, Melaka

Sunday, May 29, 2011

The Majestic Hotel, Melaka

Majestic Hotel_1

The Majestic hotel is absolutely beautiful, a boutique jewel in the heart of Malacca. The hotel lobby is housed in an old building dating back to the 1920s, while the rooms are housed in a cunningly integrated new annex, all decorated in sumptuous Peranakan style - tiled floors, dark teakwood furniture, gently whirring wooden fans, intricate mosaic decorations, porcelain vases.

Majestic Hotel_2

We simply loved the thoughtful little touches such as jars of old-time snacks of nuts and candies, the welcome drink of fragrant Chinese tea served in a wicker basket, and the nighttime snack of Peranakan kuehs served in the traditional lacquered wedding basket.

Majestic Hotel_4

Service was absolutely beyond reproach - everyone from the duty manager, front desk receptionists, porter, maintenance workers - were exceedingly warm and friendly without veering into obsequiousness. A wonderful experience and the highlight of our little trip.

www.majesticmalacca.com

Friday, May 27, 2011

7 Months Old!

Hello everybody. I am 7 months old today and I started to crawl a few days ago. But not very well because sometimes my hands and feet move at the wrong time and i fall over. Mummmee lets me do a lot of things now, like writing this because she is very tired. Mummmee is tired because we just came back from a trip to Melaka today. But she says that I was a good good boy! MMMMM!!! I love Mummmee!!! Love love love!!!

Ethan_Melaka

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Salt Grill and Sky Bar

Way up high in the sky, at Salt Grill and Sky Bar, the view is simply astounding.

Getting to the restaurant is an experience in itself. Head to Level 4, where there is a dedicated Salt concierge, who will show you to the lift lobby located within an art gallery. Dim lights, soft meditation-type music, projections of swirling clouds add to the feeling of exclusivity. One continues to float on clouds as you step out into the bright expanse of the high-ceilinged restaurant and savour the view that stretches out before you.

No surprises though when it came to the food, which has a casual Australian vibe.

Salt_Salad

Beetroot salad, with rocket, endives, mustard vinaigrette, roquefort cheese. Well composed and a good balance of flavours. I thought the pungency of the cheese might overwhelm the subtle flavours of beets but surprisingly it was a good match.


Salt_Main

Roselle spiced barramundi fillet, cauliflower cream, chargrilled asparagus and lime. This dish was extremely ordinary and I could easily have cooked this in my own kitchen - couldn't taste the roselle spices, or detect any hint of lime.


Salt_PetitFours

Lunch ended with teeny tiny petit fours. While the food itself is only passable enough to merit a "can consider if in the vicinity", the view alone makes the journey worthwhile.

Salt Grill and Sky Bar

Level 55/56 Ion Orchard

http://saltgrill.com

Monday, May 23, 2011

Mini Kaiseki lunch at Matsu

A delightful mini-kaiseki lunch at Matsu. We were the only table of patrons two Saturdays ago, and left it up to Chef Matsu to decide what to serve us for lunch.

Matsu_1

First course - eel and abalone in dashi jelly, with seaweed salad. This dish brought out the essence and spirit of the sea wonderfully, with each bite oozing fresh briny goodness. The dashi jelly was a delight, with its quivery soft texture and refreshing umami flavour. My favourite course of the meal!

Matsu_2

Second course: cream of beetroot soup. This was tinted such a beautiful pinky-red colour, but the taste of the beets was overwhelmed by the corn.

Matsu_3

Third course: bouillabaisse. Here chef Matsu adopted a light touch to the French classic soup. Tasty and included a good variety of fresh seafood, although the giant clam was rather chewy and a tad difficult to eat.

Matsu_4

Fourth course: Kurobuta pork with plum sauce. Plump and juicy, flavourful pork - perfectly married with sweet plum sauce with just the right tinge of tartness. Whatever was left of the sauce after we finished the pork (there wasn't much of it) went into mopping up the mashed potato.
Fifth course: Matsu curry rice, a clever twist to the traditional rice course in the usual multi-course kaiseki. With melt-in-the-mouth beef cubes and a tangy flavour to the curry, this was well executed comfort food, although I felt that it was incongrous with the refined fusion theme of the meal thus far. (I personally also prefer a more spicy and stronger tasting curry aka Indian style.)

Matsu_6

Sixth course: Dessert platter - affagato (with mascarpone cheese ice cream) , grapefruit jelly with fruits, and cheesecake. The ice cream was delicious - creamy and lucious but not too sweet - nicely balanced with the shot of expresso. Also worthy of mention was the grapefruit jelly speckled with little pieces of rind, adding a delightful zing and crunch to the wobbly jelly. The cheesecake paled though in comparison to their next door neighbour's rendition.

For Matsu, it helps to keep an open mind on the type of fusion cuisine, and not to expect the sky especially at this price point (SGD58 for the 6 course lunch, with a 1-for-1 offer for DBS cardholders). Both my visits to Matsu have not disappointed, we will be back for more.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Feeding the most important epicurean in the world

This month has been rather more exhausting than usual. Ethan likes his solids a little too much (in retrospect, I should have seen this coming!) and has been kicking up a huge fuss at milk time and cutting down on his milk intake drastically. This has been going on for the past three weeks and I'm tired out from the histronics and tantrums!

Why not let him be and eat all the solids he wants? Well, at this age, milk is still by far the most important and complete food source for babies - solids are meant for supplementation and experimentation. Also, when Ethan takes less milk he then suffers from constipation and gets all cranky and grumpy. No fun I assure you.

I have to crack my brains to get him to take more milk - including persuasion (delay his feed by half an hour), bluffing (cook or mix milk into his solids), stealth (feed him while he is asleep). PHEW!!

On the bright side, while it's a lot of work feeding the pampered prince, it can actually be exciting and fun too.

Ethan_assortedfruits

Fruit puree, served as part of breakfast and lunch: pear, apple, prune, cherry, peach, papaya....

I steam and puree the fruits, then dollop them into ice cube trays for easy portioning. At each meal, he gets two hearts of assorted fruits.

Ethan_fishstock

Homemade stock is used for cooking his porridge: beef, pork, chicken, and in this case, fish.
I put the stock, together with wholegrain rice, a portion of meat/fish, and a portion of vegetable (pumpkin, butternut squash, peas, or spinach) into the slow cooker, and it produces porridge 3 hours later.

Ethan_ikanbilispowder

A dollop of homemade ikan bilis (dried anchovy) powder goes into his porridge, to up his calcium intake since he is taking a lot less milk now.
At teatime, Ethan usually gets avocado puree, mixed with milk. Avocado is by far his favourite food - he can eat up to half an avocado at one sitting - and for that I am glad cos it's powerpacked with nutrition and healthy fats / protein, and cos I can mix in lots of milk into his puree!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Chikuwa Tei

Chikuwa Tei_Chiraishi


Chikuwa Tei strikes me as being very unpretentious and down-to-earth. The most famous item on its menu is the chirashi set, so this was a must order for me.

While not the most memorable bowl of chirashi that I've ever had (that honour goes to Aoki, followed by Inagiku), but certainly very decent for the price (SGD25) - thickly sliced, fresh assorted sashimi, sitting on top of well seasoned sushi rice. E's order of the grilled tai lunch set (SGD20) was amazingly value-for-money, comprising a tasty fillet of the fish, a heap of thick salmon sashimi slices, a tasty cup of chawanmushi that was chock-a-block with nameko mushrooms, and the obligatory rice/pickles/miso soup.

Indeed one could do a lot worse than Chikuwa Tei if you're thinking about where to go for a good, honest and wallet-friendly Japanese meal.


Chikuwa Tei
9 Mohamed Sultan Road

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Waterbaby

Ethan_Swimwithfloat4

Loving his regular weekend swims.

With the float, Ethan now kicks and moves through the water happily and independently.
Under the watchful and closeby presence of his mummy, of course.

Ethan_Swimwithfloat3

Such a waterbaby, my little baby.

Ethan and Mummy

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Ippudo Tao, UE Square

Ippudo Tao_Aka


We have had rather a lot of ramen recently (Nantsuttei, Shin-Sapporo, and Kusabi that I will not be blogging about, as it was only so-so). However when we saw the signboard for Ippudo Tao en route to our original planned destination of Chikuwa Tei, we couldn't resist the call of the noodles!!

The ramen was outstanding. I had the Tao Aka (SGD15, thin curly noodles in tonkotsu broth blended with Japanese fish stock and Ippudo spicy miso paste, topped with pork belly, spring onion and accented with fragrant garlic oil) while E went for the Tao Kuro (SGD15, flat chewy noodles in Shoyu Tonkotsu broth, topped with pork belly, flavoured black fungus, spring onion, special blended miso paste, and fragrant garlic oil).

Chewy, al-dente ramen? Check. Flavourful, rich, umami broth? Check. Melt-in-the mouth, fragrant chashu? Check (my gripe was that it was far too small). I didn't order the tamago, so couldn't say how good this was - hopefully better than my experience at the Mandarin Gallery outlet.

Ippudo Tao_Pork Bun

We also grabbed Ippudo's famous pork bun (SGD3) as an appetiser. This was good, with chewy and slightly gelatinous buns and meltingly soft pork. But oh! So tiny and pricey.


Ippudo Tao
207 River Valley Road, UE Square
www.ippudo.com.sg