rice cake confessional

I have enjoyed the extensively modified potato chip that is the Pringle for many years. My favorite flavor is a toss up between sour cream and onion and salt and vinegar. Imagine my amusement when my cousin and I were cruising Carrefour and saw these babies on sale for SGD4.80 for 2 cans.

At first the grilled shrimp and seaweed flavors didn’t phase me too much since I’ve had seaweed flavored things before and I love a nice salty bag of shrimp chips. Then my cousin explained that the real kicker is that all of these flavors would be on top of that distinctive crispy crumbly Pringles chip.

Then I got a little worried.

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When the homies came to visit two months ago I took them to the basement of Takashimaya which is one of my favorite places in Singapore. While moseying around deciding between more yakitori or an omelette made of yakisoba Jeff said, “Have you been to the basement of Siam Paragon in Bangkok? I think you would like it.”

This my friends is how I ended up asking Muk to take me to Siam Paragon on my last trip to Bangkok. As luck would have it our hotel (the Grand Hyatt Erawan) is conveniently located within walking distance to Paragon so we had no trouble walking the concrete above ground maze that connects a handful of Bangkok’s finest shopping establishments.

Let’s talk about this mall right quick. It has a BMW dealership. It’s not even on the first floor. It’s, like, on the 3rd floor something crazy like that. Now tell me: how do they even get those cars up there? Do they have a special elevators or something? How often do they switch it up? Does not compute. The rest of the mall is equally impressive with international brands and lots of high end things that neither you nor I can afford even on a good day.

Luckily the basement eats do not require a black credit card of any kind.

I did not know what to do with myself once we got there.

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I like seeing how big food chains try to localize their food for each market. Auntie Anne’s in Singapore has a few local flavors – one of them being seaweed. 

It was alright. Tastes just like you would think. Like seaweed on a pretzel. Who knew.

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!

That’s right these are ‘ham cheese’ and not ‘ham AND cheese’. 

Muk had these on her desk awhile back. I took a picture because I was shocked at how hammy and cheesy they tasted. Who knew that the flavor could be so easily capture in stick cracker form?

Be amazed.

They are pretty serious about chilli here. What goes on a hot dog? Mustard, ketchup, tomato, relish, and onions. Oh and chilli. A LOT of chilli. Not THAT kind of chili with the beans and such. The other kind of chilli. These remind me of milking cows. (Keep your Hanford jokes to yourself.) Good ol’ Ikea.

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As predicted, Singapore is a food blogger’s paradise. Three new meals a day means lots of food pictures. Extreme laziness (and the aforementioned not so comfortable internet connection setup) means lots of blogging backlog.

Back to the paradise. Some food is good and some food is bad (okay not *that* bad). Here’s a sampling of what food-life has been like. Get comfy. It’s a doozy.

HIT: I’m a creature of habit and I’ve grown accustomed to turning right from the service apts into Clarke Quay. Vinny, crazy guy that he is, suggested that I try going LEFT. Strange, strange idea. Resulted in mini-wok of soupy but crispy noodles and seafood. Add a drink and it will set you back about SGD 5.

HIT: Char kway teow. This one from the stall at Kopitiam at Central. The man that works the counter makes 2 dishes: char kway teow and some prawn mee something or other. Agree to add chilli and feast on pad see ew-like goodness of wide noodles, bits of egg, crunchy bean sprouts, cockles (aka mochacocka – what an awesome name), Chinese sausage, and fishcake. SGD 4.

MISS: Mom and Dad came and I took them to the previously mentioned Kopitiam. We picked the pho and were disappointed. Little shriveled bits of meat, an oddly sweet broth spiced with lemongrass (sorry, not a fan), and other greenery. The longer it steeped, the more turned off I got.

HIT: Porridge from one of the many stalls at Lau Pa Sat (LPS – learn this acronym, you’re going to get pretty familiar with it). Chicken and egg, green onions, crunchy noodles, fried onions, white pepper, and cut up ‘oil sticks.’ This was ridiculously cheap like SGD3.50 or something.

HIT: Looks weird, tastes good. Kopitiam also has a dessert stall and I had this two nights in a row. Crushed ice with soursop (that’s that fleshy stuff on top with the big black seed inside), some tapioca like/frog eyes looking business, and ice jelly with a kalamansi as garnish. Very light and very refreshing. Compare that to…

HIT: WOW. Peanut ice kachang from the same dessert place. Crushed ice, sweet corn, a sweet peanut sauce, condensed milk, crushed peanuts. The heaviest shaved ice dessert ever. Better than a candy bar. SGD2.60

MISS: Ramen with gyoza from LPS. This one though is probably my fault – I didn’t eat it on the spot and took it back to the office instead. The noodles were very soft and the veggies and garnish were kind of one big mass. The gyoza was pretty good though so all was not lost.

MISS: These were the worst spring rolls I’ve ever had. Weird herbs and dry spring roll skin. Blech. From the same place as the funky pho.

HIT: Steamed bun with sweet yam filling from 7-11. I tried to get another one today but was moted by the steamed bun cabinet – it would not open! I had this one with soy milk for breakfast the other day. Hit the spot. If you’re wondering, the filling is yellow. A snack for Laker fans?

You are probably concerned about my health and are wondering if I’ve ballooned to 500lbs. Luckily, I walk about 2 miles a day (not an exaggeration) so that’s helping keep the calories in check and allows for guilt-free gorging at lunch.

You would think I would be done with any HK-related posts. Yet here we are.

Check out these Roasted Sausage Flavour Mongkok Style potato chips. I can’t do a comparison to the original Mongkok sausages but these chips were pretty good. I expected them to be neon orange from the pictures on the front of the bag but they were only lightly dusted with spice.

Like barbeque flavored chips except with a slight hint of sausage. Weird but pretty good.

Thought I was done with my HK posts? Me too! We were wrong. I had a Stan’s donut today for dinner. Probably a bad idea. In honor of that donut and donuts all over the world, I present the long awaited (but only by me) HK Pastry Parade. For those of you who wonder about my health, I still have a sore throat. You are so thoughtful for asking!

One of my favorite things about Hong Kong (2nd only to my love of the MTR) is that there’s a bakery on every corner. Tons of them everywhere. Near the mall, across the street, next to 7-11, in the MTR station. Check out the cute mouse mousse mini cake they had at Maxim’s in Central across the street from H&M.

I’m skipping ahead though. The first pastry I had in HK was from Queen’s Bakery in Causeway Bay.

This was the infamous pork curry bun (or was it beef) that ruined my appetite for dinner. It had a few kernals of corn on top for decoration. It was about HKD7 (USD1). While at Queen’s I also picked this up. I figured it would be handy in case I needed a midnight snack.

I picked diet in a lame attempt to watch my caloric intake. I have no idea if there is anything diet about it. In any case, it was soft and airy but kinda dry. Not bad but I didn’t finish it in one sitting.

I was chomping on this one while I took that picture of the mouse cake. Sweet bread with cream cheese on th einside dusted with sugar and sliced almonds. This would have tasted yummier had it still been warm. It was still a good fill up between our Central shopping marathon.

Lastly, I leave you with Teddy Bear Buns from Queens Bakery. So cute. How can you eat a face like that?

You can file this one under ‘wtf they make that?’

I found these gems in the Robinson’s Imus grocery store. I checked out with a copy of Cosmo Philippines and a bag of the weirdest candy I could find.

I’ll be honest. I was a little scared to try this. I mean, I like corn. I like creamed corn. I just wasn’t so sure I ever wanted it in candy form. The packaging is cute. Half open ears of corn splashed with milk. The actual candies are a dull tan color and are the same size and shape as those Werther’s hard candies. Guess what? They’re actually good – like extra sweet corn with a hint of caramel.

I’m rationing the remaining few kernels (heh) since I haven’t seen the candy anywhere Stateside, but if you’re good (and you ask) I might just lend you an ear (heh). Okay I’ll stop being corny (heh). Ok no really I’m done.