Mar/102
eating in singapore: black pepper crab
everyone knows that when you want chili crab or pepper crab, the best place to come is singapore. and once you’re in singapore the best place to have crab is east coast park seafood centre.
my friend mylinh suggested that we go to long beach for black pepper crab – as last time we had gone to jumbo.
Mar/100
eating in singapore: thye hong
so why would i choose my first meal in singapore in the middle of a mall food court? well for one, i was still carrying my luggage with me – so i was hanging around orchard road shopping mall wisma atria when dinner time came.
so i made my first meal in singapore at thye hong hokkien mee famous for their fried prawn noodles.
even though thye hong is in the middle of a shopping mall food court, they got their start in a proper hawker centreand were very famous in their original location – which i’m too lazy to look up. their calling card was to fry the prawn noodles in prawn stock.
they’re really quite good. the noodles are tender, but with enough bite almost to be al dante – the mix of sambal paste with the seafood provides a nice spicy backdrop for the noodles.
i’ll be hitting the hawker centres over the weekend, but if you’re shopping on orchard, you could a lot worse than thay hong.
thye hong hokkien mee
Address
435 Orchard Road
#04-00 Food Republic, Wisma Atria
small order of noodles S$4.50
Mar/100
Northeastern Four Season Dumpling King
dumplings might be my favorite thing to eat in the world. or at least they’re among them, and one of my favorite spots in shanghai is northeastern four season dumpling king. because i was first introduced to them at the xuhui store of this chain, we often go there, but looking at dianping.com there’s a chain of them – and ones a lot closer to both work and home.
Mar/102
hiking and congee
one of the things which i miss most about living in shanghai is the easy access to nature i had growing up in california – or even living in one of the world’s most claustrophobic and crowded cities – hong kong.
yes, that’s right, even if hk is one of the most urban places in the world, one is only a 15 minute cab ride from getting into nature.
just over the last chinese new year, my friend andrew suggested we do a hike from the south side of hong kong island over the wong nai chung gap towards the north side, starting near stanley hiking over “the twins” and bypassing “violet hill.”
a view of stanley from the first twin
Feb/105
tai hing roast meat company
i really didn’t know tai hing was a hk-wide chain. i thought there were only the two stores – one in central and one in causeway bay.
apparently, they’re a special administration region wide chain.
Tai Hing is well-known for its “5-Star Roasted Pork” and “Chilled Original Milk Tea”. The Group is constantly injecting new elements in traditional food and innovating for more variety of food. The Group is also devoted to developing the retail market so that busy urban folks can enjoy the delicious products of Tai Hing anytime anywhere.
please develop the retail market in shanghai! and don’t screw it up like tsui wah did!
andrew and i went to the one in causeway bay for some cantonese style roasted meat.
roast pork + roast goose vs. roast pork + roast pork
mmmm, char siu
Feb/100
sometimes nostalgia should be left alone
i had heard somewhere that boston restaurant, located on luard road and johnston (near the southorn playground) was my grandmother’s favorite restaurant. in any case, it remains a large part of my childhood, as it was where we ate after i feel into a giant rice paddy in the new territories and where my cousins richard made my other cousin jason cry by taking his hat, and then rich burned his thumb on the sizziling hot plate and ate for the rest of his meal with a thumb stuck into a glass of ice.
boston is most famoust for those sizzling hot plates of steak – but i hadn’t actually been there since 1986, and in the meantime have had many many excellent steaks. would boston be able to hold up its bargin with nostalgia (short answer: no)
Jan/100
“money’s too tight for steak”
after spending my christmas and new year’s holidays in (relatively) sunny california, i hopped on a plane headed eastwards for new york city.
unfortunately, as this was a work trip, i didn’t have all that many free meals, but i knew that with one of my meals, i wanted steak. big thick american cuts of steak. i had obsessed about having steak since reading ruth reichl’s garlic and sapphires and about her search for the best steakhouse in new york city.
Jan/104
zest express
shanghai desk workers on the nanjing west road strip know there’s a few reliable places to get a salad during lunchtime. the usual haunts of wagas, element fresh and gourmet cafe all serve up slightly expensive, decent salads – or if the prices make you balk, one can make their own salad at city shop for only 10 rmb, however ingredients are quite limited.
after months of seeing the empty shop front on wujiang lu, zest express finally opened to provide competition to those above establishments. using organic vegetables, zest express’ calling card is being primarily a salad bar as opposed to being a cafe or burger joint or general restaurant.
Jan/102
juan’s for mexican
in yet another post in a never ending effort for me to write a non-food blog, i bring another food post.
one of the joys of going back to california is the huge variety of food from all over the world available. authentic food.
but sometimes, sometimes, you are just craving some dumbed-down american version of that nation’s cuisine. me? i love cheesy, big plated mexican food – the type you get from chevy’s or el torito or similar family style tex-mex places.
the week after new year’s, i was in berkeley with my cousin and her husband to watch my university take on the stanford university cardinal in a game of basketball. after a super satisfying beatdown, we worked up an appetite. i had mentioned i wanted mexican food – actually i wanted a burrito – but my cousin was horrified when i said that i had never heard of juan’s, which has apprently been around forever.
Dec/0914
still not a food blog: monday hot pot
there’s a lot of resources around the shanghai internets about hot pot and the various locales where one can partake in this winter-centric dining style, so i don’t feel i need the need to add to this.
but as this is my friend grace’s last full week and shanghai AND my super-awesome-cool friend abbie was up in shanghai for meetings, we gathered at hot pot king (huaihai lu and fuxing lu – 2nd floor) for some awesomeness.
Hot Pot King (Huaihai Lu)
PHONE: 6473 6380
ADDRESS: 2/F, 1416 Huaihai Lu,
near Fuxing Lu
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about 80 rmb per person