Gim Tim Restaurant - Traditional Hokkien Dishes

Gim Tim Pte Ltd (Restaurants) or well known as “锦珍” started from a small HDB area restaurant in a corner located at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4. Gim Tim has grown into a group of 3 restaurants, serving exquisite cuisine with Hokkien, Szechuan and Cantonese dishes. And I believed most of us have a deep-impression of their mobile kitchen where Gim Tim has a mobile fleet that is specially fitted to cater for outdoor functions.

Same as Lim Hai Sheng’s Carrot Cake (Click HERE), Gim Tim is also one of the featured restaurants in Clarke Quay Food Street as well as the Singapore Chinese Dialect Heritage Feast too. And out of the 3 restaurants that Gim Tim has in Singapore, only the branch that located at Ang Mio Kio Ave 4 served authentic Hokkien Heritage Dishes.

Before we start off with today’s Hokkien dishes, let’s take a look at who is behind the kitchen whipping out all these fabulous Dialect Heritage Cuisines. Chef Lai Yong Meng - 赖泳鸣大厨 is the Master Chef of this restaurant who leads his team of chefs and helpers in preparing these delicious cuisines that will be featured during this Friday 16 July – 25 July 2010 Food Street event.

Chef Lai has a very friendly personality and we really enjoy chatting with him during the food sampling session. Through the conversation we can sense his passion towards his customers and food that he prepares with his professional skill. He has spent more than 30 years of his life working as a chef in major Chinese Restaurants in Singapore and Malaysia. Chef Lai also holds a position as the Second Vice President of Society of Chinese Cuisine Chefs (Singapore).

Before I came to this food sampling event, I don't really familiar with what are the commonly traditional dishes that most Hokkien people loves to cook or order during their eat out. What I have in mind was only their famous Kong Bak Pau or Hokkien Mee. But today after the conversation with Chef Lai I actually learnt a lot through him from this event. Now let’s us take a look at the first Hokkien Heritage Cuisine which is “Fish Maw Soup - 福建鱼鳔羹”.

Take a closer look at the ingredients; it is really full of Fish Maw chunks, julienned carrots, mushroom and etc. The soup tasate more or less like shark's fin soup texture but without adding shark’s fin in it. I have tried a few Fish Maw soup in different restaurants previously and I find the one served at this restaurant really brings out it’s full flavour and some how or rather you might really think that you are eating the real shark’s fin. You can grab a bowl of this to sample it tasate at the coming Clarke Quay Food Street at affordable pricing too.

Here comes today’s “Special” Hokkien cuisine which is known as “Fried Tapioca Roll - 福建大茨粉”. Accordingly to Chef Lai, this is a very old traditional Hokkien cuisine that is hardly found in most of the Hokkien Restaurants these day. This dish is fried with some handmade Tapioca roll that is cut into roughly 0.5” by 2” long strips. At first glance you might think that it look quite similar to the Hakka Abacus Seeds but with rather long strips instead of seeds. Although this cuisine might not look appetizing due to it’s colour (seems black) but I can assure you that if you love spicy food, you will love this. The dish is fixed with Chef Lai self-made Chilli paste that taste similar like “Hae Bee Hiam” (consists of crispy-fried pounded dried shrimp, spices and chilli) and it definitely brings out the bland taste of the tapioca strips.

I am sure you are familiar with this black sauce "Hokkien Mee - 福建面" where you can get it from some of the Cze Cha Stalls in Singapore. Eating this dish at a restaurant and having it at the Cze Cha stall seems a bit different perhaps due to psychology thinking. The noodle used here is those flat yellow type of noodle, which is different from the usual yellow noodle that is found in other stalls.

This is a complimentary dish from Chef Lai, “Hokkien Hei Zor - 福建虾枣” which is also one of the featured dish that will be available at the Clarke Quay Food Street. Look at the display, this is my first time seeing "Hei Zor" served with Achar as side dish, interesting combination right!

Look at the inner section of the Hei Zor, this really taste different from our Teochew Ngoh Hiang. They used more on prawn, water chestnut and fatty pork as the main ingredients. You must not give this a missed during the food fair. According to Chef Lai, they might be selling this for S$1.50 a roll during the food street fair. So keep an eye on this....

Lastly I must thanks Mr Desmond Liap and his crews for their warm services during this food tasting session despite that they were all very busy with the on-going banquet during our visit. Thanks for making everything so smooth during the interview and food sampling too.

Gim Tim Restaurant at Ang Mo Kio Ave 4 has both indoor and outdoor dining area to smooth the crowds during weekends and festive seasons. If you are interested to try these Hokkien Dishes from Gim Tim, do drop by their stall at counter #21/22 at the Clarke Quay Food Street and Singapore Chinese Dialect Heritage Feast from 16 July - 25 July 2010. More information can be found HERE.

Gim Tim Restarant - 锦珍
Block 157, Ang Mo Kio Ave 4
#01-546
Singapore 560157
Telephone: 6459 7766

Lim Hai Sheng - Fried Carrot Cake

As part of this year Singapore Food Festival (SFF) 2010 outreach to the blogging community, there is an interesting new event known as "Food In Translation", where local well-known food bloggers are invited to sample and blog about some of these popular Singapore Chinese Dialect dishes that will be featured during the SFF on the 16 - 25 July 2010.

I was so excited and honor to be invited as one of the bloggers to cover this event by "Word Of Mouth Communications Pte Ltd". At this Food In Translation event, we can choose to visit either one or 5 of the mentioned restaurants/eateries in the list. On this event, I took up 3 places to venture on and I will keep you people updated on the fabulous dishes before the Official Opening of the Singapore Food Festival on 16 July 2010.

First Stop on my list is “Lim Hai Sheng Cooked Food - 林海盛熟食” which is located at Block 724, Ang Mo Kio Ave 6. I am sure those who stays around Ang Mo Kio area would have either tried or heard about this stall that is always pack with queues.

Accordingly to the stall owner, Jenny, they have being operating this stall for more than 30 years starting from her father’s generation. And they only focus on selling the "White" Fried Carrot Cake instead of black and white like some other stalls.

The texture of the carrot cake is soft and fragrant with generous amount of beaten egg and salted turnip (cai po - 菜脯) that lift up the overall taste of this simple dish. Accordingly to some of my readers who frequent this stall, they suggested that next round when I pop-by this stall again, I can actually request them to fried the Carrot Cake longer in order to achieve nore crispy outer layer. So if you prefer more crispy texture, you must send in your request while making your order.

For those who are more health conscious, Jenny told me that she actually used vegetable oil to fried the carrot cake instead of follow the traditional method of using “pork lard - 豬油”. And they also have a very special homemade chilli paste to go with the fried carrot cake if you prefer something more spicy too.

I was there around 11:00am on Sunday morning and from the time I arrive till I left at around 12:00pm their queue was very consistent and Jenny has to rush in and out of the stall to cook and at the same time answer some of my interview questions. According to Jenny during weekdays, she is alone to cook, pack and serve the customers all by herself.

Jenny works only on the morning shift from 8:30am till the carrot cake sold out at about roughly 1:00pm or so, if you are interested to try their delicious Teochew Fried Carrot Cake, remember to drop by earlier to avoid disappointment. Or you can visit their stall at the Clarke Quay Food Street on 16 - 25 July 2010 Singapore Food Festive.

Lim Hai Sheng Cooked Food - 林海盛熟食
Block 724, Ang Mo Kio Ave 5
#01-09
Singapore 560151
In-Charge: Jenny Lim

Opearting Hours:
Mon - Fri: 8.30am - 2:00pm, 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Sat/Sun/PH: 7:00am - 8:00pm


Hai Sheng Carrot Cake - 海盛菜頭粿
(Bedok Branch: Run by Jenny's Husband)
Block 216, Bedok North Street 1
#01-49

Operating Hours:
6:00am - 1:00pm

Flavour Fiesta @ AMK Hub

For those who stay around Ang Mo Kio area or frequent passes-by of AMK Hub via the Bus Interchange I am sure you will have notice this “Flavour Fiesta @ AMK Hub” which starts from 05 July – 18 July 2010 at the basement 1, Exhibition Hall.

This Flavour Fiesta Food Fair enables you to enjoy various dialect delights from the participating stalls and at the same time catch up with some experienced chefs from Society of Chinese Cuisine Chefs (Singapore) in action. These chefs will also demonstrate various dialect cuisine right in front of your sight and you are also given a chance to try the end products before trying them out at home with the recipes.

Yesterday, I was happened to be around that area to another Food Festival event and I am glad to be able to catch up some cooking tips with Chef James Aw Ah Lee (Executive Chef, National University of Singapore Society) who is whipping up these delicious Cantonese Cuisines. The two dishes that Chef James shared were "Tenderloin Beef Cubes with Black Pepper Sauce" and "Crispy Stuffed Chempulak with Scallop". I will be trying out the above dishes thought the given recipe soon and will share it on my recipe blog too. So stay till for it if you are interested to know more....

Event Highlands For Singapore Food Festival 2010

A 10 days Singapore Food Festival (SFF) 2010 kick off from 16 - 25 July 2010 at the Clarke Quay Food Street - 美食街 at Read Bridge, will bring the entire length of the bridge to be transformed into a food haven offering sumptuous Chinese delicacies from more than 30 food stalls from various famous restaurants.

The Singapore Food Festival 2010 core events includes:-

1. Singapore Chinese Dialect Tingkat Cruise where the public is able to learn about the various Singapore Dialect food culture and their heritage while relaxing on bum boat ride along Singapore River. Every participant will also gets a tingkat (tiffin carrier) with some Singapore Chinese dialect food to partake during the 45 minutes ride. Booking and Detail HERE.

2. Singapore Chinese Dialect Street Snacks where you can take a walk down memory lane on the re-create old Singapore Rive bustling with activity.

3. Singapore Chinese Dialect Heritage Feast where you can prepare your taste buds for a gastronomic adventure as there are five buffet lines full of sumptuous delights from five different Singapore Chinese Dialect groups.

4. Makansutra SFF Culinary Master Classes give you an insight into the culinary culture and at the same time discover interesting cooking tips from choosing the right ingredients to whip up a delectable Singapore Dialect dish. Booking and Details HERE.

5. Singapore River Market is in conjunction to the SFF with savvy shoppers and a large contingent of food enthusiasts to jazz up the event. Kids may treat themselves to exciting weekend of face painting, balloon sculpturing and street jugglers.

Other than all the fabulous events and great feast mentioned above. For the very first time, Singapore Food Festival (SFF) goes digital with a fun Cooking Game known as "Grandma's Kitchen - 奶奶的家常菜", to educate food lovers to choose and whip up their own Chinese dialect dishes, such as "Bak Kut Teh or Hokkien Mee.

Through the process, they will learn the use of different ingredients and at the end of the game, player will receive the full recipe of the chosen dish.

Upon completion of the entire game, the player will unlock a secret "diary of recipes" where they can obtain the full recipes to cook the dishes for real. You can either play this exciting game on the official website HERE, or download it as an iPhone Application and play during your leisure of travailing time.

Note:
~ Before you can proceed with the game, you might need to install the "Unity Web Player" for the game site.
~ You also stand a chance to participate in the SFF Lucky Draw to win fantastic prizes when you completed all the dishes in the game.


This is an unique recipe post card book with collectible stamps when you spend a minimum of S$50.00 for Standard Chartered Card members and S$80.00 when you pay with other modes.

This recipe post card books consists of 12 different recipes from the 5 Chinese Dialect groups featuring some of the mouth watering dishes such as:- Teochew Fried Carrot Cake, Fried Hokkien Noodles, Hainanese Fried Sesame Ball and etc.

You will be able to find 3 Singapore Stamps featuring some local cuisines at the last page of the recipe book. To redeem this recipe book, you can go to Singapore Visitor Center @ Orchard Road, Singapore Visitor Centre @ Arrival halls of Terminal 1, 2 & 3 and SFF Food Street @ Clarke Quay.

There are still many interesting events such as:- Singapore's Largest Kueh Lapis, Cooking Class at Singapore Zoo, SFF Events @ Hawker Centres and etc. For more information of these fabulous events of this year Singapore Food Festival 2010, do visit their official website at: www.singaporefoodfestival.com to find out more.