Official Opening of Singapore Food Festival & Clarke Quay Food Street

Finally the official opening of this year Singapore Food Festival (SFF) was held concurrently together with the Clarke Quay Food Street from 16 July - 24 July 2010. Come let us embark on a mouth-watering journey on this year Singapore Chinese Dialects Heritage Food to stimulate your senses for an unforgettable experience.

But before you enter into the food street to start off your feast, remember to get a SFF Kopitiam stored value dining card from the cashier counter at either side of the entrance at a minimum of S$10.00 value. This stored value card will allows you to enjoy fast and convenient transactions at all the 30 participating stalls at the Clarke Quay Food Street. And remember, "CASH" payment are not allow at the Food Street so do get ready this card before you step in to avoid any inconveniences.

Due to the Opening Ceremony today, there is this long table with a few plates of similar items that symbolised the different Dialect groups and their culture. Eg. The beancurd represent the Hakka yong tau foo, the mee suah represent Hokkien, Fishball for Teochew, Wanton for Cantonese and Beef for Hainanese.

Let's walk through some of the stalls in this year Singapore Chinese Dialects Feast at Clarke Quay Food Street.

Near to the right side of the main entrance are some delicious traditional Hainanese dishes and snack such as Chicken Rice, Chicken Curry, Pork Chop and etc. All these items look so heart warming as it reminds me some of my mother's family traditional Hainanese cuisines.

Talk about Cantonese delight, Dim Sum is always one of the good choice to start off with. I am sure these traditional Cantonese delight such as Cha Siew Bao, Har Gao and Siew Mai can be also found in some western countries too.

If you want something more different from the above dim sum, perhaps you can try out some of these Hokkien and Cantonese delight by Gim Tim. Above is their signature Traditional Hokkien Fried Topical Roll - 招牌大茨粉 which I have review in another SFF post (click HERE). Whereas on the second photo is their Cantonese snack known as Steam Glutinous Rice Roll - 糯米卷. This is a special dim sum dish whereby the seasoned glutinous rice is wrapped with a white skin that is similar to "Bao" skin which is soft and fluffy.

Ngoh Hiang Prawn Cracker is some kind of assorted deep-fried snacks that you can pick from the choice of items such as fishball, cuttlefish, sausage, prawn or fish roll, prawn fitter and etc. These deep-fried items are often served with some sweet/spicy dipping sauce with crushed peanuts.

Lim Hai Sheng Carrot Cake is one of the stalls that is always surrounded by people queuing to get their famous fried carrot cake. Although this dish might look simple with just steam carrot cake fried together with beaten eggs and salted turnip but you must really give it a try which will makes you crave for more. You can read more about this stall at another SFF review post. (click HERE)

I saw a lot of people eating this snack along the way while I venture the stalls. When I asked around, some of the folks told me that this is a Must Try item as they actually prepared the freshly made Popiah skin on the spot at the Food Street.

Without hesitate, I went over to the stall and ordered these Popiah and Kueh Pie Tee. I must admit that those recommendations are good because the ingredients are very fresh and the taste of the filling is very fragrant and with the right amount of seasonings.

Tian Jin Hai, Teochew stall caught my attention with their traditional Fried Black Olive Rice instead of the Cold Crab. This is not the usual fried rice that we used to order from local Cze Cha stall. The fried rice sold here is fried with black olive which makes the rice infused with a special fragrance and taste.

Kew Gardens offered some of their traditional Hakka dishes such as Chicken with Wine Lees - 红糟鸡, Abacus Seeds - 算盘子, Soon Kueh - 笋粿 which is made of yam instead of the normal white soon kueh skin. Other than the above-mentioned, I also discovered the Hakka Black Bean Kueh - 黑豆糕 which I had never seen my in-laws whom are Hakka prepared in any occasions before.

Other than local Chinese Dialect food, you can also find some Malay or Indian food stalls around selling their traditional satay, otah, biryani, curry, and etc.

If you prefer something sweet, perhaps you can try the Four Seasons Durian stall where you can get some durian products such as durian cream puffs, durian tarts, durian kueh and etc.

These are some of the yummy food that are available at the Food Street market. But we are quite disappointed that there actually isn't any dessert stall around except some ice-cream from Four Season Durian and cheng teng from Gim Tim.

The beautiful night view of the Food Street together with the crowds that are busying with the choice of food to buy and also tried to sample as many as possible on those delicious food.

You can also sit along some open air cafe to enjoy a cup of coffee, tea or drinks and look at the beautiful view of the Clarke Quay river after the feast at the Food Market.

If not you can take a walk along the Street Market to pick up some clothing or stuffs which you might be fancy of. Teochew Hand Puppets show is also available the Central's River Promenade from 8:00 - 8:30pm and 9:00 - 9:30pm from 16 - 25 July 2010.

Lastly for all the Media and invited guests, each of us get to take home a very traditional and unique 8 Treasures Box - 八宝盒 from Mandarin Oriental Hotel as a gift. It consists of some traditional sweet candy treat such as malt sugar, candied lotus, candied melon and etc.

So if you love to eat all these dialect dishes, do drop by the Food Street from today till 25th July with some friends or family to sample some or all of these delicious cuisine. And if you are interested on the Chinese Dialect Heritage Feast on 25 July 2010 where there are more than 100 over dishes served. You can drop by this website (HERE) to book your tickets online.

Clarke Quay Food Street
Date: 16 July to 24 July
Time: 4pm to 11pm
Venue: Clarke Quay Read Bridge
Pricing: Payment via Singapore Food Festival Souvenir Card
Official Website: http://singaporefoodfestival.com.sg




p/s: For more photos on the SFF Food Street, you can click on this link (HERE) at Cuisine Paradise Facebook Fan Page.

Singapore Blog Awards 2010

Finally the long waiting time has past after months of rallying and almost a month of voting for all nominated categories. This year the Singapore Blog Awards 2010 by Omy finally took place at Movida, St. James Power Station.

The event held on last Saturday, 10 July 2010 from around 4:00pm to 6.30pm. Although the weather was pretty cloudy but it doesn't seems to affect all the finalists and their guests. Look everyone is busying at the reception counter doing registration, photographing and accept interviews.

As a food blogger, "Food" is always the first thing I look for before exploring around the surrounding. This year, there is two buffet lines provided by "Orange Clove".

Look at these yummy finger food such as:- Cottage Pie, Ebi Fry, Sausage, Sushi, Mussels, Mango & Prawn cocktail and etc. For desserts, there are full of varieties from different kind of cheesecakes and chocolate mousse.

My first time seeing "绝对Superstar" Silver Ang in real person singing "美丽笨女人". She is also one of the 10 finalist in "Best Modeling" and during the event, she won the most "Likes" from the audience and won the "Modeling Showcase" competition.

"The Ultimate Bling" is another event that needs the audience participation. The one who has the most number of "I Like" stickers win a trip to Phuket resort.

The Guest-of-Honour for today's event is Mr Teo Ser Luck whom is a Member of Parliament (MP) for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC. He is also the Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports and Ministry of Transport, as well as the Mayor, North East Community Development Council.

These are the winners for the 10 nominated categories. More details of the winner can be found at Omy official website HERE.

Look at these "I Like" stickers, each of us are give 3 of this stickers to vote for the participants for "Modeling Showcase", "Head Turner" and "The Ultimate Bling".

Another game that we played during the Blog Awards is this "BLOGO" game where we need to match a straight line on card base on the given name shown on the TV screen.

Although this year "Cuisine Paradise" did not win the "Best Food Blog" award but I am really very grateful to everyone of you who has voted me daily on this events and I hope to do my best in the future to share with everyone more recipes and posts. And this year "Best Food Blog" goes to Catherine from www.camemberu.com, you can take a look at her very informative blog on those yummy food reviews and interesting posts. Once again, congratulation Catherine!!!! You deserved this award :)

Häagen-Dazs Cocktail Party @ Clarke Quay

I was so excited to attend the offical lunch of Häagen-Dazs Cocktail Menu on Wednesday, 14 July 2010. According to the spokesman, Häagen-Dazs Singapore is the 1st country in Aisa to launch this Cocktail Menu that is available exclusively at its Clarke Quay cafe. The menu features an inspired combination of exquisite tastes such as their signature ice cream cocktails, sorbet-blended cocktails and liqueur coffee.

This cocktail reception is held at the Clarke Quay Central Fountain area, which is just a stone throw distance away from their Haagen Dazs cafe. And you can see the cafe crews are all busying preparing cup after cups of different flavour of cocktails to satisfy our taste buds.

These are some of the yummy finger food to go with the Cocktails. Other than these, there are also some chocolate cubes and strawberries that are dipped with melted chocolate available for your pick.

At a glance, you can find the trace of Roman Romance either scattering around the tables or on the hand of some guests. With it's sweet and attractive colour I am sure it has being crown the "Queen" of the night. It is also a romantic fusion of Raspberry Sorbet, sparkling lemonade, lime juice, fresh strawberry and a shot of tequila that makes it a perfect drink for the night out in town with friends.

For chocolate lovers like me and Joyce, Venetian Velvet definitely makes our dream come true. It is blend with a smooth concoction of Belgian Chocolate ice cream, fresh milk and Bailey's Irish Cream which gives this cocktail it's rich, decadent and divine.

On the other hand, for those who prefer something light and sweet, perhaps you can start off with Santorini Sunset, a combination of Mango Sorbet, vodka, lime juice and pineapple juice. The three of us agreed that this is more fruity like taste compare to the two drinks above.

During the 2nd hour of the Cocktail party, Mr Yiannis Karaolides, Managing Director for General Mills Singapore said that this is part of their 'Slow Melting in Progress' campaign, which was launched in November last year. They wanted to continue building on the Häagen-Dazs experience where everyone can enjoy quality time with their loves ones or friends and at the same time enjoy the world finest ice cream.

After the speech given by Mr Yiannis Karaolides, all the guests continued to move around while enjoying their cocktails and catching more conversation with each others. The three of us felt so relax and we really enjoys the atmosphere, drinks and companies.

We almost missed out this Irish Illusion at the party because according to the waitress it is only available in the cafe. This sure will give your taste buds a twist with it's rich and silky concoction of Vanilla ice cream, Espresso and Bailey's Irish Cream. After sipping it at the same time, the 3 of us find that its rather interesting to have a mixture of hot & cold sensation tickling in our mouth.

Out of the 5 drinks, we didn't managed to get hold of this Manhattan Moment which is blend with rich Vanilla ice cream, fresh milk and Bailey's Irish Cream. (photo credit to Häagen-Dazs media kit)

If you are interested to try out either one or all of these new items, do drop by the Häagen-Dazs cafe that is located at: -

Häagen-Dazs cafe (Clarke Quay)
3A River Valley Road
#01-07
Merchants' Court Clarke Quay
Telephone: 6337 0846

From the 5 different cocktails and liqueur coffee which is available in their Cocktail Menu, I am sure there is one that will help to unwind yourself after a long day at work.

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.