A Recipe For Disaster: SingaPoorMan's "Asian-Un-inspired" Salad

Step 1 - Have a look in fridge - Just some wine really - where's all the food?

Oh, there it is...outside...

Recipe:

Juice of 2 limes - make sure all the pips fall in the bowl so you have to fish them out
2 tablespoons of Fish Sauce - far too much - you'll regret that later
2 teaspoons Peanut Butter (preferable Skippys Low Cal one cos it tastes too sweet)

Stir around a bit until it looks like it's curdled - it probably has

Taste it - disgusting isn't it?

Splash of water to try to "emulsify" the curdling and add a couple of spoons more of the Peanut Butter

Looks Ok huh?

Add 2 large tablespoons or dessert spoons of Thai Chili Sauce (it doesn't really matter it'll taste rank anyway)

All at once it tastes too sweet, too salty and too acidic - waddayadonow?

Put some more sugar in? Might as well!

Get some fresh chili in it! (whole big red one...chop it up)

Ginger grated - most of a root should do

Some coriander leaf - tonnes of the stuff

Taste.....and it's awful!

Panic!

Open up some coconut milk to tame the excessive flavours - pour in as much as you want as it won't make a blind bit of difference

Still tastes too sweet, salty and acidic? - how is this possible?

Construct your salad:

Slice lettuce
Grate carrot
Slice cucumber
Slice red onion
Pick some mint leaves out of the fading bunch you bought a week ago

Look good? Actually it does!

Now, go and ruin it by pouring the melted chili flavoured Snickers bar all over it

Tasted a bit like nutty salad cream really

The End

Valentine's Soup

The little love hearts are made of red pepper - Thank you Mother Nature

Breakfast At The Quayside

My Views

Botany, Bays, Bikes & Batali

Sunday - not quite Valentine's Day but close enough: we decide to make a day of it and pack as much stuff in as we can....

Destination 1: the pool - not exactly miles away - in fact it's on the 3rd floor of the apartment block! Before you ask, it is outside. We've been down there 2 days running and have managed to get a bit of a tan in the space of 20 mins or so. It's pretty hot at the moment - I don't think it can be hotter than normal as the temperature is more or less the same everyday, but there is less rain. Rather than raining everyday, like it was when we arrived, the rain now comes every few days so there is a real build up of humidity.There seems to be less cloud cover too and this convinces you that you're not getting burnt! The pool is not that busy so you can always get a seat/lounger and do a few undisturbed lengths before getting on with the day.

Destination 2: more exercise, this time just as wet, as we walk very slowly in a pool of sweat towards the Botanical Gardens at the crossroads of Orchard Rd and Holland. I see people on air conditioned buses as my hair frizzes and skin stings and look forward to an Icy brain-freeze drink from the Seven-Eleven.

The Botanical Gardens are very relaxing and an oasis of calm from the concrete and chrome of Orchard Road. There are orchids and waterfalls and a huge lake, not to mention a rainforest. We ignore all that and go in search of the food-court.

It transpires that the food court has ceased to be so we make do with a hotdog smothered with a bolognaise sauce and some mini somosas. This isn't what we wanted! The Ginger Garden seems to promise all sorts of Asian culinary delights but alas, no; there is just Westernised, table-clothed, high-end cusine... or chips.

We have a bit of a wander and decide that there are too many tourists around (aint we the locals now, eh?). In a flash we are in a cab speeding down the highway towards Pulau Ubin, an Island accessed only by a 12-berth boat that leaves from Changi Point Jetty when it is full.

Changi is the village next to the airport. In London this would be Hounslow and would be fairly depressing - a place that people land in but can never leave. Here, however, there is a vibrant community with busy shops, bars and food-courts alongside a scattering of seashells on mini, white sandy beaches. I could quite easily spend the rest of the day here, but we are soon on the boat for Pulau Ubin on our 5 minute voyage to Destination 4.

The whole island looks like it's been made out of drift wood and corregated iron, but has a real presence about it. There are bars and seafood and a lot of bikes. We haggle over a clapped out bone-shaker or 2 and peddle off to see what is around. In reality all we care about is having an ice-cold beer but feel it is a little odd to just get off the boat and flop down at the nearest bar.

There are a few maps at strategic points around the island but these are identical; each one has an arrow pointing to the jetty, but not to where we are at that moment. This obviously makes finding your way around impossible. At every crossroads you follow whoever is cycling in front, in the hope that they might know where they are going. Of course, they don't.

Eventually we pass the same "Holiday Camp" twice - it looks a little deserted & eerie, like the setting for a horror movie. The rusting wheelchair at the entrance does not bode well but we soldier on and find ourselves at a rope bridge and a kiosk. Luckily the attendant is not some goolish, axe-wielding maniac and turns out to be a completely normal bloke, overseeing the water activities at the Celestial Resort. The brochure makes the place look slightly better than it is, but nonetheless it is a very pleasant spot overlooking a lagoon.

We sit at the air-conditioned bar and have what is probably the best beer of our lives. After all the exercise, the ice-cold glasses and ice-cold Tiger combine to give us a glimpse of beer heaven. We tuck into some spicy noodles while laughing at children who are laughing at other children falling out of canoes.

One last Tiger, please

We make our way back to the jetty, dump the bikes and drown a last Tiger while over looking the white sands and make-shift cabins in the village. God knows what else there is to explore on the Island but we will try to find out on our next trip there. Either that or have a beer or 2.

Back in Singapore, I have a surprise dinner booked for us at Mozza, an Italian-American restaurant run by the famous Mario Batali. It is located at the Marina Bay Sands casino complex and seems a far cry from the wooden shack island we've just been to. Understandably, we've been home first to change before descending on Destination 5.

(See Review)


A picture from after our meal at Mozza:

View From Marina Bay Sands

Mario Batali's Mozza: Pasta It's Best?

The place is smart, yet relaxed. There is a pizza joint on one side and a more upmarket Osteria on the other. The dress code is "business - casual" but who knows what that means. I opt for smart jeans and designer shirt but had toyed with the addition of a jacket. I'm glad I didn't as 2 blokes wander in with muscle-t-shirts and work-out shorts and are not turned away. This is definitely more American than Italian then. The rock music soundtrack pumping in the background completes the rather eclectic tone.

We also get an appearance from Mario himself who is in-town doing some PR. Mario's wardrobe of choice is pink shirt, body-warmer or waistcoat and a pair of Crocs as footwear. This is maybe his idea of "business-casual".

To begin; Charles Heidseck Champagne, which delivers fine frothy bubbles; biscuit and grapefruit on the nose combining with lemon and marshmallow on the palate.

Food-wise, we start with Crispy Pig's Trotter with cicoria and mustard for me; for Caroline, Burricotta with radicchio, spiced walnuts, honey & fried rosemary.

The Pig's Trotter is a bread-crumbed gelatinous ooze. It is tasty enough but certainly doesn't wow. 

In direct contrast, Caroline's Burricotta is amazing! The combination of flavours is very pleasing and seems very Italian. Only the Italians know how to make great vegetarian food without you realising it. Here the $24 charge seems justified.

Orecchiette with sausage and Spaghetti Gricia are our pasta courses.

The sausage is like greasy mince with a hint of fennel. It needs some greens to counter the saltiness of the meat. It is OK, but not Italian- the lovely porkiness of fennel sausages in Italy are one of life's pleasures. This tastes like something I would cook if i'd ran out of the right ingredients. And the passion for making authentic Italian food. 

I think mine is salty; til I taste Caroline's. The cured bacon in her spaghetti is way too salty and removes all other flavour from the dish. Disappointing.

Pan Roasted Sea Trout with umbrian lentils & red cabbage sottaceto and Grilled Beef Tagliata rucola & Parmigiano with aceto balsamico are our mains courses.

I get another very average dish : nicely cooked piece of fish with a few lentils and some pickled cabbage. Fine: but not for $40 and not for a portion of that size. I've seen bigger Tapas.

Caroline's Beef is really good! Medium rare inside, smoky-griddled outside, all with a nice hit of balsamic and Parmesan. This is much more like it. Simple and bold, and well.... tasty.

We finish with a faultless Panna Cotta, all firm yet wobbly with tangy fruits to complement the creaminess of the pudding. 2 strong espressos complete the meal and I wait for the bill.

I know this is going to be expensive - and it is. $500 (£250) is far far too expensive for this kind of thing. There is no consistency at all. Some things are great, some things are bland and somethings are just badly conceived and delivered. At these prices, the food ought to sensational. To be fair, $160 of the bill was a bottle of Champagne, but that seems like a bargain in comparison to most of the wine list!

Might try the pizza next door next time and maybe stick to water...

Mozza is located at Singapore's Marina Bay Sands.

I am published! Kinda...

http://tinyurl.com/4dmcy4g

On The Local Nose website!

Moving Flat, I mean, Apartment...

Well, what a week!

After a corking good night at the Katnook Estate do, we awoke to realise that we should probably get up and get a move on...quite literally! We were supposed to be moving that day...

Not that there was any massive rush to actually physically move out of the apartment as we had another few days available if needs be but, well, it seemed like the right thing to do. Even if it was Caroline's birthday.

So, by way of birthday celebration, we shifted all our stuff from one apartment to another by taxi. A journey that took approximately 1 minute as we were moving a short walk away from no. 30 to no.60! There was no way I was actually walking it 'round though - there was a 42" TV to consider.

So, for Caroline's birthday, I got a 42" TV and she got a 1 minute ride in a cab. There's a joke in there I'm sure.

In reality,  I did buy her some nice gifts actually:

Bottle of Chanel perfume
Stir Fry cooking book (when in Rome...)
An iPhone cover fashioned out of leather and a single Swarovski crystal (pretty classy)
2 Riedel Champagne glasses (but no Champagne)
1 bottle of top notch Zinfandel wine (but no red wine glasses..)

Admittedly, the last 2 items were half for me at least, but it's the thought that counts.

We were up bright and early and down to our new pad with some trepidation as when we'd collected the keys the day before we were met by a bit of a nightmare. No, not the new landlord! The nightmare was a huge brown crack in the freshly painted ceiling with water pouring from it....

It had been a very wet couple of days and the upstairs neighbour's gutter had backed up so much that the whole lot was overflowing into our new living room. The upside was that we hadn't moved our brand new furniture underneath it a day or so before!

So, while work men filled the gaping holes with some bonding stuff and made good the mess, we did the  sensible thing and went downstairs our 1st floor neighbour's place for some refreshment. They go by the name of Boomerang Bar! As our mate Deano would say, "livin the dream".

While sitting there wasting a few moments before our couch and other Ikea tat arrived, we sunk a jug of Birthday Shandy (that old excuse) and tucked into an Aussie Breakfast.

Strange old week really; we've gone from eating noodles 15 times a day to the extremes of Western food.
Wednesday: Australia Day burgers, bangers and pies
Friday: French Bistro style with flair
Saturday Morning : Aussie Breakfast
Saturday Evening: Mexican!

The Mexican was a bit of a mistake. Good Margarita though!

Probably not Caroline's best birthday ever....

The Katnook Got The Cream

Via Twitter, @RexWineCo suggested I check out http://www.thelocalnose.com/ for listings of local wine events and I stumbled across an ad for the Katnook Dinner on Friday 28th Jan at Picotin Bistro & Bar. I signed up straight away as I've been a fan of Katnook wines since the early 90's, plus I can never turn down the chance of a good feed!

In a bizarre twist of fate it is this Twitter conversation that led me to Sarah Mayo and an offer of some freelance writing work on the Local Nose website. So, this write-up is a precursor to my Local Nose piece, for my pleasure, and hopefully yours; for the meal was a real pleasure - great food, great wine and great company. If you don't want to read anymore, here's my opinion in the first paragraph; book yourself onto one of the Local Nose events and meet some interesting people and try some excellent wines. You might get to try some fabulous food too if you're lucky, and we were.

Picotin is nestled in the slope of Turf Club Road, Bukit Timah, Singapore. We arrived by taxi via some roads that also included the word "club" in their names. Eventually the taxi driver cottoned on my non-Singaporean patois and dumped us outside what looked like a national park. It maybe a national park...

You'd never guess from the road that a gem-of-a-bar was hidden behind the tropical leaves, but on closer inspection we found an airy, relaxed watering hole with a real buzz.

We were ushered over to meet Alison Harvey from Katnook Wines by John who helps provide a chilled, unpretentious front-of-house atmosphere. Alison was similarly unpretentious, which is really refreshing in the world of wine.

We got stuck into some Katnook Estate Riesling as an aperitif which really complemented the very grand hors d'oeuvre that followed. Crab Croquetes with Saffron Mayonnaise, Foie Gras on Toasted Raisin Bread and Sea bass Tartare with Lime Dressing set the tone for the evening. The Riesling was displaying some classic petrol aromas with a succulent twist of lime on the palate to get the taste buds leaping.

As we sat at the table awaiting the first of 5 courses I thought how thoroughly informal it all was, and all the better for it. "Wine Dinner" sounds very starchy but this was far from it. Everyone was chatting and laughing as if they'd known each other for years. Some had, it turned out! This is the fun thing about these Singapore get-togethers; they're uncomplicated, and people always come back for seconds.

Next came the Chicken & Mushroom Ravioli with Pumpkin Puree & Sage Butter, paired with Katnook Estate Chardonnay. The ravioli was light and flavoursome, matching well with the almost Burgundian-style wine with it's undertones of satsuma and mint. One of the best Australian Chardonnays I think I've had, showing real elegance and poise.

Duck Foie Gras made a welcome return with the second course, this time with a red onion marmalade. My only criticism would be that there was maybe too much of it (a huge slab of the stuff!) - but who's complaining? Maybe the duck, but certainly not me.

The Katnook Estate Merlot was selected with this course, but Alison quickly pointed out that the wine was too warm. It had been left waiting too long and the aromas were muted and the smell of alcohol was too prevalent. Almost unheard of in the UK, the wine was sent away to be cooled, but when it returned the flavours of smoke, licorice and beefy Marmite were really coming through. It's hard in Singapore's humidity to get "room temperature" right!

With air-con and fans the wintery Braised Beef & Roasted Swede Puree tasted fabulous in the heat of Singapore. The soft, velvety beef, drizzled with a deep, rich gravy over sweet root vegetable went perfectly with the Katnook Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. The vanilla oak and green pepper nose, combined with plump loganberry & blackcurrant fruit on the palate blended well with each mouthful of the beef.

Billed as Roasted Lamb Shoulder, but delivered as Half Rack of Lamb, with Asparagus & Red Wine Shallots, the next course was top notch. Pink lamb and caramelized onions, with the pungently difficult wine-matcher, asparagus is a hard one to pull off with a Shiraz but here the Katnook Estate Prodigy did the job very nicely indeed. The Prodigy was jam-packed full of dark chocolate, cherry, black olive and radicio flavours, each one in harmony, not competition.

The only wine-pairing that didn't work was the last. On it's own, the Dark Chocolate Cake with Black Cherry Ice Cream was a lovely finish. Likewise, the Katnook Estate Odyssey as a wine was a serious Cabernet, meant to age gracefully with good tannin and acidity balancing the leather, stewed fruit crumble and red apple flavours. Together, however, they just didn't work. But, it was a  minor blip in an otherwise faultless evening.

Cigars puffed, phone numbers were exchanged and wine continued to flow but eventually the evening came to end as the stragglers fell into cabs and disappeared into the warm evening glow. We left Picotin with full bellies and big smiles, looking forward to our next adventure.

Thanks to Sarah Mayo at The Local Nose; Kelvin at HC Wines &Spirits and Alison Harvey at Katnook Estate Wines. Oh, and of course Picotin for having us!

Rubicon Wines: Tales of Haggis & Shiraz

Last Tuesday evening (25th Jan) was Burn's Night. I've been celebrating this Scottish knees-up since living in Edinburgh in the early 90's and nothing can stop me from reciting a bit of poetry and piping in the Haggis. Even when I lived in Melbourne, Australia, for a year, I managed to get a Haggis from a department store in town. Not this time! It seems that although the Singaporeans like nothing more that a bit of Pig Organ Soup they draw the line at lungs and oatmeal wrapped in sheep's stomach lining; what the hell's wrong with them?!

Disappointed, obviously, I had to settle for the next best thing - Australia Day! This involves eating pies and sausage rolls, stuffing barbequed meat into rolls and then into mouth and guzzling lager at speed and in quantity. This is exactly what we're been doing for years in England; we just call it Friday or Saturday night.

Even I wasn't thrilled at the idea and was naively considering a day off the booze until the evil Twitter, Facebook and Blogger triangle conspired to make me go out. While innocently trawling through a list of wine companies that might potentially give me a job, and signing up to all sorts of social media sites, I was virtually be-friended by Greg, of The Asia Wine Society.

The Asia Wine Society is also affiliated with Rubicon Reserve Wines and Greg was helping organise an Australian Day bash at the company's headquarters on Clarke Quay. The event was to consist of an unlimited (Free Pour) bar of wine and beer and as much BBQ, sausage roll & meat pie as you could eat. Was I interested in a complementary pass for me and the Missus? Is the Pope a Catholic?!  As Greg is American and I am British, the idea of us both going to an Australian Day booze-up was like a Buddhist and a Hindu popping in for Holy Communion. Hey; there was plenty of bread and wine!

As I was networking, I thought it was only right that I didn't get completely smashed even though the opportunity was there...how I've changed...!

As Greg was so kind to invite me along I did a few notes about the wines on offer. The guys at Rubicon wines were keen to point out that these were more quaffing wines as this was a fairly relaxed event, but even so I found some really good stuff here and the retail prices were very reasonable. Here are my thoughts on the night's selection:

The best of the evening's wines was The Lakes Reserve Brut  fromYaldara, a sparkler from Adelaide Hills. The cheapest wine of the night, at $25 it represents seriously good value.
Fresh lemon and grapefruit flavours abound with a creamy spritz - delicious!

My second favourite was the Goode Pinot Gris 2009 a great South Australian wine that should go down a storm here in Singapore. It seems made for Asian dishes: lots of lychee, white pepper and spice on the nose and palate. Rich yet refreshing.

Of the reds, I thought the Red Earth Shiraz was very interesting: Plum crumble. blackcurrant, cloves, bay and cola cubes were all present on the palate. At $32 this was pushing the price a little, but this is Singapore and prices are always steep so still a relative bargain.

I look forward to trying the more 'serious' wines at some point in the near future as this was a great start!
Thanks again to Greg and the gang.