Showing posts with label Budget ~ Cze Cha(煮炒摊). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Budget ~ Cze Cha(煮炒摊). Show all posts

Monday 30 January 2012

What we EAT during Chinese New Year

Every year throughout the 15 days of Chinese Lunar New Year(CNY) celebration we would have some house visiting and food gatherings among relatives and friends. As usual from reunion dinner onwards everyday there is at least 1 food gathering where we get to feast different kinds of CNY goodies or special new year dishes.

This post shows how our family feast during the 1st 7 days of Chinese New Year.


EARLY REUNION DINNER @ JING LONG SEAFOOD RESTAURANT


Again this year our reunion dinner with in-laws is at their favourite Jing Long Seafood Restaurant (last year dinner HERE) located at Bedok North Ave 2. But this year their service was rather bad due to poor planning of dine-in timing and lack of serving staffs.

Deep-fried Soon Hock with Garlic - Crispy outer layer with tender and juicy meat inside.

Deep-fried Prawns with Special Sauce - Love these prawns that soak in tom yum taste gravy together with dong fen(冬粉) in it. The dong fen taste so delicious while soaking up the gravy.

Prosperity Seafood Noodles - This braised  Longevity Noodles with seafood is something new to me and I would want to replicate this yummy dish at home. For the sweet version of this longevity noodles you can refer HERE.


OUR REUNION DINNER AT HOME


This year I have prepared two simple dishes for our reunion dinner which is this Stir-fry Fu Gui Cai and Stuffed Mushrooms with Black Moss. (please refer to recipe HERE)

Second dish is this traditional Hakka Glutinous Rice Wine Chicken(黄酒鸡) where homemade rice wine is used to simmer the chicken pieces with ginger and perhaps some red dates for Chinese New Year auspicious colour. (please refer to recipe HERE)


CHINESE NEW DAY 1 - LUNCH


Braised Sea Cucumber with Mushrooms, Fish Maw, Abalone, Pork Tendons(猪脚筋), Dried Scallop(干贝), Black Moss and etc.

Love this Stir-fry Broccoli with Scallop. Very quick and simple homecook veggies.

One of the traditional Hakka dish - Braised Mushroom with dried oyster, roast pork and black moss.


CHINESE NEW YEAR DAY 2 - DINNER


Since the coffee shop below mum's place is not opening during Day 2 of Chinese New Year, she has to source for another catering to provide the food for evening gatherings. Here are the food that she ordered from "Feng Wei Seafood(Block 5 Tanjong Pagar Plaza)".



Braised Tofu with Mushrooms - Accordingly to mum the stall owner told her that they made this tofu themselves instead of store bought. The tofu is very silky soft and fragrance which blends well with the stewed mushrooms and sauce.




CHINESE NEW YEAR DAY 6 - UNCLE ALAN'S HOUSE


For a chance Aunty Grace did not order her Chinese New Year Buffet from the usual cater company this year. Instead she tried another food catering which is smaller in scale and provide quality style of homecook food buffet.

We all love this Braised Pork Belly(Kong Ba Bao - 扣肉包) which is well-season. Each piece of the pork belly is so soft and tender and it goes very well with the white steamed bun. Can't resists to eat more but have to control :)

This round we have Pork Ribs Curry instead of the usual Chicken Curry. Taste wise still acceptable but there is still room for improvement on their curry spices.

Yummy homemade Cheng Teng(清汤) which is not too sweet and yet taste great with generous amount of ingredients such as dried longan, gingko nuts, barley and etc.


CHINESE NEW YEAR DAY 7 - UNCLE LIANG's HOUSE


Uncle Liang is my mum's 2nd brother who is also known as "2nd Uncle" to me. Every years during Chinese New Year he would invited everyone to his house for lunch where Aunty Irene (aunty-in-laws) would whipped up spread of delicious homecook food for us.

Aunty Irene is very thoughtful and she would always prepared some of these finger food for kids(we always have around 10 young cousin).

This "Braised Sea Cucumber" together with lot of other ingredients such as clam, mushroom, black moss, roast pork and etc is one of Aunty Irene signature dish. Everyone I would look forward to eat this dish and I have tried to replicate once using her recipe too. If you are interested to read up more please refer to the link HERE.

Aunty Irene's fried chicken wings is also another of her signature dish. Her chicken wings is very flavorsome and remains crispy even if it is cold. Everyone loves this and we can have 4 to 5 in one go.

Very colourful homemade YuSheng (鱼生) prepared by my 2nd Aunty-in-laws and everyone praised for its' taste and freshness.

My cute and forever young mum, aunty and aunty-in-laws: (Left from back: Small Aunty, Mum, 2nd Aunty-in-laws and 6th Aunty-in-laws; Left from front: 3rd Aunty-in-laws; Small Aunty-in-laws and Big Aunty-in-laws)

My uncles and uncle-in-law: (Left from back: Big Uncle, 6th Uncle, Uncle-in-laws; Left from Front: 2nd Uncle and Small Uncle)

Although different people has different view of Chinese New Year, some might look forward while others might being "running" away from this festive season. But no matter which category you belong to, my advise it family bonding is always something heartwarming and it's good to gather everyone together and enjoy even a simple homecook meal. For more photos of our Chinese New Year celebration, you can check it out at Cuisine Paradise Facebook page "Usher Into the Year of Dragon" album HERE.

Thursday 28 April 2011

Cze Char Food Gathering @ JB Ah Meng, Geylang

Time flies, it seems just a few days ago when we had our monthly Food Gathering at Old Airport Road Food Center (read more HERE) and yet last Saturday evening we had a enjoy gathering again for the month of April. This round we set foot at a Cze Char Stall near the alley of Geylang Lorong 23. It was such a fun and exciting night where we have food, dessert and excitement seeing some Police Officers patrolling around the alleys as well as chasing a prime suspect.

When Maureen(Miss Tam Chiak) first told me about going to “JB Ah Meng” for month gathering I was kind of shock as in I thought she was planning a food trip to Johor, Malaysia (JB). But it was till then I realize that JB Ah Meng is actually a Cze Char stall along a street at Geylang Lorong 23, Singapore.

This is one of the Menu from JB Ah Meng Cze Char Stall. They also have some other in-house special dishes which are written on pink paper which pasted in front of their stall.

For starter we have Deep Fried Fish Skin(香炸鱼皮)with serve with Green Papaya Salad and sweet chili sauce. The fish skin was quite crispy and not very oil but the papaya was rather too little, hard and big pieces in size. Perhaps they could improve on the papaya salad like those julienned Thai style version.
Price: Deep Fried Fish Skin(香炸鱼皮) @ $13.00 for Medium serving


This Stewed Chicken with Liang Fen(粉皮焖鸡) comes with chicken pieces, shittake mushroom, black fungus on a bed on liang fen (mung bean noodle sheets). The translucent liang fen is hidden underneath the chicken pieces which appears to look like those soon kueh skin. The gravy is prefect to go with steamed rice with hint of sesame oil fragrant and this is indeed a very home cooked style dish.
Price: Stewed Chicken with Liang Fen(粉皮焖鸡) @ S$15.00 for Large serving


Nothing fancy about this Fried Fish Head(炒鱼头) which is just some fried red snapper fish head pieces that stir-fried with ginger, spring onion and etc. Although it has some wok fragrant but it might be too salty if it is to be eaten alone without any steamed rice. And moreover there is much "meat" pieces which makes it quite expensive for it's price.
Price: Fried Fish Head(炒鱼头) @ S$18.00 for Medium serving


Here comes their famous pancake style fried bee hoon known as J.B San Lou Meehoon(新山三楼米粉). It has a slightly crispy top and a bed of choy sum hidden underneath the bee hoon so the best way is to give it a toss to mix it well before eating so that the choy sum will be evenly spread out.
Price: J.B. San Lou Meehoon(新山三楼米粉) @ S$10.00 for Large serving


This Vegetable with Golden Mushroom(豆根金针菇) was well received at our table with it's soft and silky fried tofu that braised in the oyster sauce gravy together with cuttlefish, shittake and enoki mushrooms. At the side there are still some generous amount of balanced baby bok choy to accompany it.
Price: Vegetable with Golden Mushroom(豆根金针菇) @ S$12.00 for Medium serving


Maureen's must try Brinjal Potato with Chilli(地三鲜) dish which consists of brinjal, potato and green capsicum. For this dish, the brinjal are cut into long and wide pieces which then coated with batter and fried till golden brown together with potato cubes. These ingredients are then toss in the wok and blend well together with green capsicum and gravy. Although t his might look a bit greasy but it is sure taste great and you won't even notice that "brinjal" in it.
Price: Brinjal Potato with Chili(地三鲜) @ S$15.00 for Large serving


Not much of Fermented Beancurd taste on this Deep Fried Fermented Bean with Belly Pork(腐乳炸花肉) dish and the pork meat was rather tough and dry. This dish could have be better if the key ingredient "fermented beancurd" taste is stronger or even more tender meat that suits everyone in the family.
Price: Deep Fried Fermented Bean with Belly Pork(腐乳炸花肉) @ S$12.00 for Large serving


According to Alice who is one of the regular who patronise this Cze Char stall, this White Pepper Crabs(白胡椒螃蟹) is one of her favourite dish when taking orders. For about S$24.00 you get to enjoy 3 medium size crabs(some still have egg roes) that cook in fragrant white pepper sauce that is a great deal not to be missed. 
Price: White Pepper Crabs(白胡椒螃蟹) @ S$24.00 for 3 crabs


This Snake Bean with Lotus Root(蛇豆炒莲藕) is one of our favourite veggie dish with different layers of "crunchy" texture. They use snake beans (long bean), tossed with celery, salted fish, pork bits, dried shrimps and crispy lotus root chips. Although the lotus chips seems to be a bit over fried but still everyone of us love it's thin and crispy texture.
Price: Snake Bean with Lotus Root(蛇豆炒莲藕) @ S$15.00 for Large serving


The last was supposed to be the best as we are having high expectation for this Salted Egg Prawn Ball(咸蛋黄炒虾球) which was highly recommended by Makansutra and ieatishoot forum. These salted egg yolk prawns with fried battered corn kernels are supposed to be sweet, crunchy and crispy but what we had on that day was rather hard, salty and dried. So most of us were quite disappointed with this dish.
Price: Salted Egg Prawn Ball(咸蛋黄炒虾球) @ S$24.00 for Large serving


JB Ah Meng
新山亚明小橱
No. 2 Geylang Lor 23
Telephone: 6741 2418
Opening Timing: 5.30pm - 3.20am



DESSERT - DURIAN FEAST!


After finishing our 10 Course Dinner at JB Ah Meng, we then proceed to our Durian Feast Session at "Wonderful Fruit Enterprise(旺德福)" which located at 147 Sims Avenue upon recommended by the lady boss at JB Ah Meng.

This is the "horrify" scene when you put "18 Durian Lovers” together with their favourite Durian. As you can see everyone is eager to “rip” off the fruit despite of the spiky shell in order to have a seed of these delicious fruit. Honestly we don't really find the Durian is of good grade at this stall, example the "Hong Xia - 红虾"(shown on the bottom right photo above) that we had is totally lousy with sour, tastless and funny combination of taste which cost us more than S$30++ for just 1 durian.

For Durian lovers out there, do you have any good location or stall to enjoy Durian feast? Do share with us your experience.


Lastly I would like to thanks everyone who join us for this month Cze Char Food Gathering. You can proceed to their fabulous blogs below for more read up too.... So what's up for our NEXT gathering.... stay tune :p

1. Maureen (Miss Tam Chiak, our outing organiser)

2. Lobster (Lobsterpaints)

3. LeRoy (The Hungry Cow)

4. Justin (Gourmetestorie)

5. Charlene and Charles (Foodoshoot)

6. Derrick (SG Food on Foot)

7. Meng Cheng (Jessie Food Trip)

8. Priscilla (I Lov My Scooter)



Tuesday 2 November 2010

Hong Kong Street Old Chun Kee

Last week we had dinner at one of the Hong Kong Street Old Chun Kee (香港街老珍记) Cze Char stall near our area and I was surprised to see they have quiet a number of unique dishes featured in their menu. And from one of the banner hanging near their stall, it stated that they are also one of the recommended stalls from Channel 8 Food Show, Sizzling Wok(煮炒来咯). Here are 3 of the dishes that we have tried.

First we have Sum Lo Hor Fun - 三捞河分 which we think the texture can be better because most of the rice noodles seems to be bundle and stick together which makes it very lumpy. But overall the taste is still good with that slightly burnt wok taste and generous amount of fish slices.

Next we also ordered one of their signature dish known as "Golden Dragon Beancurd - 金龙豆腐". As you can see from the photo, each tofu cube consists about 3 different layers of colour. And each different layer, the chef used different type of vegetables such as spinach, carrot and dried fish to blend with soya bean milk and steam each colour layer by layer together with a layer of Japanese seaweed sheet to achieve the colourful effect. Lastly the steam beancurd is cut into cubes, deep-fried and top with floss and mayonnaise which makes this a unique and appetizing starter.

"Mongolian Pork Ribs - 蒙古排骨" might not look appealing on sight due its colour but it has a very sauce that goes with the deep-fried pork ribs. This sauce taste a bit spicy and creamy with the combination of curry leaves, black pepper sauce, mayonnaise and etc. I would recommend this for a change of the usual usual sweet and sour pork or pai gu wang.

For those of you who frequent Hong Kong Street Old Chun Kee I am sure all these dishes are not new to you. If you have any recommend dish from their outlets do let me know so that I could get the chance to try them out too. I also spotted something seems to call “Smoke Dual Duck - 双色熏鸭” but the waitress told us that dish need to pre-order as it cannot be done on the spot. Have anyone of you tried this duck dish before? If yes, do let me know your view on it.


Hong Kong Street Old Chun Kee (Yishun Branch)
Block 293 Yishun Ring Road
#01-1237
Singapore 760293
Telephone: 8264 4116



Tuesday 13 July 2010

Keng Eng Kee Seafood

For this year Singapore Food Festival, if you want to have a more fulfilling and enriching event, perhaps you can consider to attend some cooking classes from the "Makansutra SFF Culinary Master Classes". In this classes you will be able to learn the best-kept secrets from some well-known Singaporean Chinese Dialects dishes and as well on how to prepare and cook those dishes.

The Master Classes also give you an insight into the culinary culture of some of these mulit-award winners, which inlcude the Makansutra Street Food Masters and Legends Awards. You can at the same time discover interesting cooking tips from choosing the right ingredients to whipping up a delectable Singapore Chinese Dialect dish.

Yesterday evening I am so excited to visit one of the Chef, Mr Liew Choy who is one of the 4 chefs conducting the "Hands-On Master Classes" for the Mankansutra SFF Culinary Master Classes event. During this Hands-On session, the participants will be visiting a local wet market to learn on how to pick out the right and fresh ingredients to be used in Chef Liew’s class. And the dishes that will be featured in his class are:- Ming Zhu Roll, Marmite Crab, Steam Kampung Chicken with Ginger Sauce. In this reivew, I will be sharing their signature dish, “Ming Zhu Roll - 明珠卷” too.

Chef Liew has being working in the line for about 38 years since his Father-in-law generation and I noticed that he always put on a very genuine and friendly smile when the customers or his staffs approached him. And from our conversation, he reveal to me that out of all the dishes that he has concoct over the past years, his favourite dish is actually something simple and yet full of addicting flavour, “Cuttlefish with KangKong - 鱿鱼应菜”.

Since "Cuttlefish With Kangkong - 鱿鱼应菜" is one of Chef Liew's favourite dish, we definitely give this a try. Just like what he told us, the sauce is kind of sweet and spicy (but not really hot) and infused with crushed peanuts and sesame fragrant. Honestly, this is a delicious dish with that crunch and "Q" texture of fresh cuttlefish which goes pretty well with steam rice or even blanch bee hoon.

From Jiamin, Chef Liew's daughter, "Prawn Roll (Hay Chor) - 虾枣" is one of their hot selling items too. And we are so in time to witness the staffs preparing, rolling and steaming their special homemade Prawn Roll, which is an extra knowledge for me. Their Prawn Roll consists of ingredients such as:- minced meat, prawn, water chestnut, carrot and etc that wrap with beancurd skin. It is steamed till cooked before deep-fried with coated batter. There is a special sweet and fragrant taste in it, do give it a shot for small plate @ S$8.00 for about 10 – 12 pieces.

月光河粉 or translated as Moonlight Hor Fun..... is such a lovely name for this "Fried Hor Fun" dish. The speciality of this dish is customer has to stir the raw egg into the fried rice noodles mixture while served in order to use the heat of the noodle dish to cook the raw egg. According to Jiamin by mixing the raw egg into the fried noodle, it actually give this dish a smooth and delicious taste. Readers, if you do try this dish, bewared that there are actually deep-fried pork lard in it to give this dish it's unique traditional taste. But if you prefer something healthier, you can always ask the chef to omit the pork lard on special request too.

After the 3 appetisers mentioned above let us start off with today's food sampling items. First to be served is their signature dish “Claypot Pig Liver - 姜葱炒猪肝”. In order to maintain the taste and texture of the pork liver in this dish, the chef must be able to control the heat well as claypot tends to get the pork liver cooked faster in its high temperature.

When this "Claypot Pig Liver - 姜葱炒猪肝" is served, the waitress will give the mixture a quick stir in front of the customer in order to prevent the pork liver for being over cooked or certain portion being stuck at the bottom of the pot. I was so delighted to be able to sample this dish because it has always being one of my favourite childhood dishes since young. Although this dish does not have those strong cooking wine taste compared to some other Cze Cha stalls, but it the traditional claypot cooking method definitely brings out another type of fragrant and taste in it.

Finally, here comes the long waiting "Ming Zhu Roll - 明珠卷" dish that is going to be featured in SFF 2010 Makansutra hands-on Master Class on Sunday, 18 July 2010. (Click HERE for more details) Chef Liew's wife shared with me that they actually prepared this Ming Zhu Roll a day ahead, keep in the fridge to further developed the taste before deep-frying it when customer request the order. The name “Ming Zhu Roll - 明珠卷” comes from actually the colour of the salted egg yolk, which reflects like moonlight on the shredded shittake mushroom. As you can see from the photo, there are other ingredients such as Prawn, Salted Egg Yolk, Ham, Parsley that are stuffed in the Beancurd bag (Tau Pok) and wrapped tightly using beancurd sheet.

This dish is sure to be their top "Signature" dish that is full of multi color, ingredients and flavour. Imagine biting into a mouthful of this crispy outer skin, which burst out that juicy and sweet inner filling with combination of ham, fruit, vegetable and seafood in it. A small serving of this dish comes with 6 individual pieces at S$9.00 which is just nice for 4 person to share with.

Chef Liew runs Keng Eng Kee Seafood Restaurant together with his family members, which make it a family business. Currently the main chef handling the kitchen will be his second son while Chef Liew will help out during most weekends or festive season where they are crowds. Keng Eng Kee occupied almost the entire coffee shop area at Block 124 and with another air-condition space directly opposite the shop which can act as a mini function room for private function. This area can hold about 48 - 60 people with 6 big round tables. This restaurant is always packed with people during Friday to weekends so is best to give them a call to make a reservation or dine during weekday to avoid the weekend crowds.

Keng Eng Kee Seafood Restuarant
Block 124, #01-136
Bukit Merah Lane 1 (Alexandra Village)
Singapore 150124
Telphone: 6272 1038
Handphone: 9748 7054


There are 4 Hands-On Master Classes which are availbe at Restaurant Assocation of Singapore (RAS) Kitchen on these timing:-

Sunday,18 July 2010
Time: 10:00am - 13:30pm, (Chef Liew's from Keng Eng Kee featuring Ming Zhu Roll and etc)
15:00pm - 18:30pm

Friday, 23 July 2010
Time: 18:00pm - 21:30pm

Sunday, 25 July 2010
Time: 10:00am 13:30pm

For more information and pricing on the classes above, please click HERE to direct to the SFF 2010 official website.Posted by Picasa


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