rice cake confessional

I’ve had a great day of eating (and laser tagging) and am now at home making the familiar dent in my couch while I couch potato status and watch  American Idol. (PS Adam Lambert, you are totally overrated.)

My Makansutra guide has been gathering dust on my bookshelf for a few months but I pulled it down to do some research for an upcoming work event. The section on onde onde reminded me of some of the posts on EatingAsia that sing the praises of gula melaka. This prompted a lunch time hunt for these sweet treats which, I’m proud to say, was very successful.

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The basement of Takashimaya on Orchard Road is one of my favorite places in Singapore. In general, it’s not that different from the many other food centers on the island so I wonder what’s gotten me so enamored with it. I’ve boiled it down to a few things.

1. It has a lot of food going on and everything looks lip smackin’ good.
2. What is a cheapy food basement doing underneath quite possibly the largest LV store I’ve ever seen in my life? Who knows. Maybe if you spend that much on a bag you only have a few bucks left over to eat.
3. The one and only Sephora in Singapore is in this building.
4. Two words: Beard Papa.
5. The ramen place uses the same logo as Maruichi.
6. Because I feel like it.

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I don’t know too many people who are all about steak and meat and beef, but I do know one. Jay is all about beef and rice and Aston’s serves a lot of beef and some rice so I figured him and Steph would be prime candidates to drag to Aston’s.

We actually ended up here because Steph wanted to try out Summer Frost and, while some might argue that you could have shaved milk ice for dinner, most people need a little more sustenance than that.

I got the prime ribeye or was it the NY strip… Whatever. It was a big ol’ slab of meat and when you’re living in Asia you’re usually getting big ol’ slabs of duck or maybe noodles but rarely, if ever, straight up meat.

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You’ll recall my previous love for thick toast.

It recently joined forces with butter and a new fave – chicken floss.

I used to see this stuff at Ranch 99 but never thought much of it. In these parts, it’s everywhere. I find it on rice crackers, in sandwiches, in steamed buns, and (obviously) on good ol’ thick toast. It’s salty and a bit sweet, sorta fluffy, but still with a meaty texture. Since the end product looks nothing like its original form you can expect a multi-step process that you can wikipedia on your own darn time.

I had this slice while waiting for Bamboo to take the stage at the Pinoy Sunday concert a few weeks ago.

Haaaaall-ayyyy-looooo-yooooo!

It took me 6 months to finally have popiah in Singapore.

That is pretty sad.

Popiah (pohp-ya) is un-fried egg roll wrapper holding together a savory, peanutty, vegetable and noodle filled mixture. See Exhibit A.

You can have it with or without chilis and they serve it sliced in pieces that can be stuffed in one bite or more politely taken out in two. The verdict? I like it. It tastes like Filipino fresh lumpia except instead of the peanut flavor being in the sauce, it’s put in the filling. There’s a lot more veggies in the Filipino version while the Singaporean roll has lots of noodles, some lettuce, and some carrots.

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One thing that’s nice about where I work is that people are from all over Southeast Asia. The major perk of this, of course, is that when you travel to these awesome destinations you get firsthand tips and advice about where to go and what to do and, most importantly for this little piggie, where to eat. If you’re very very lucky you’ll even get to visit these destinations with these local experts in tow.

So it goes that when I was in Bangkok and told Pui and Muk to pick a place to eat, they picked one of their favorites – Secret Garden.

Meatballs are always kinda scary because you’re never quite sure what you’re gonna get when you bite in. Thailand’s version is meaty but with the requisite lemongrass, basil, and chili flavors that are so common in Thai food. These were very nice – lightly browned on the outside (hell yes they are fried) and soft and tender on the inside.

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A cancelled dance class turned me and Shawn’s quick bite late lunch into a easy going Sunday meal. Since we both arrived fairly grumpy (due to a combination of low blood sugar and work stress), we had to find a place to eat asap.

We settled at Simbashi Soba in the basement level of Paragon on Orchard Road. As soon as the escalators deposited us in the basement I immediately recognized it as a place that me, Jen, Jlin, and Julia stumbled upon during our visit last May. It’s nice when this happens because it reminds me of buddies back home and our adventures.

Anyway, back to the present.

Simbashi Soba has a great menu full of soba dishes that I’ve never had or heard of before. While I was gunning for something warm, I ended up not being able to resist the spicy salmon soba.

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Yah, this post is totally about Dempsey Hill again.

Before we got into the eats, let’s talk about my arduous journey to get there. I live on the East side of the island which I heart very much. One of the things that I do not heart is that I live on a road that is often closed off and used for marathons, races, and other annoying fitness related activities that I do not care to partake in. When I say ‘closed off’ I mean that they turn off the bus service that feeds into and out of my area. Take the MRT you say? Yah, there is no MRT where I live.

This means during these marathons and races and whatsits I’m pretty much trapped. Not cool. The only way out is by taxi and everyone is scrambling for them so you’re best bet is to call for one. Total taxi fare from my humble abode to Dempsey Hill: SGD17. Ouch.

Whatevs though. I’m getting my darn pancakes – raceathon be damned.

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Sorry for the MIA status lately. It’s raining work these days (not unlike the picture above).

In any case, the Blog turns 2 on March 20th and I’m trying to fill up all the days in between with lots of fooooood. Some from the back log but hopefully a few new eats too. I’ve readied 7 new blog posts all coming at you this week. Also, if you’ve commented in the last few weeks or two, I’m sorry for the super late responses! They’re on their way!

And now – for fun – true confessions time…

Eating:  instant noodles doctored up with miso paste, imitation crab, tofu, and bean sprouts

Listening: erm… Gee by Girls Generation I can’t help it, it’s super catchy. Plus I’m knee deep in kdrama mode right now.

Looking Forward To: new episodes of BBF and mani/pedi time next weekend

Last Thing I Bought: new pair of black patent leather heels from Charles and Keith (oh fine, I bought a new bag too)

Next Trip: Bali for Erika’s wedding

Can’t Wait to Try: ICE MONSTER! I found the Ice Monster shop in Singapore. Wheeeee! Who’s coming?

Peace out homies.