Vinny arrived first so I picked him up fresh from the many-houred flight and took him to a burger joint. Hello, we’re in America. Everyone gets a burger on arrival. He’s a big In-n-Out fan but he has a whole week plus to satisfy those cravings. Instead, we tried out The Counter where a sorta awkward but nice enough waiter shuffled us along in our burger journey.

The Counter is one of those “build yourself a burger” places. They have the usual suspects (onions, pickle chips, tomatoes) alongside appropriately frou-frou ingredients like soft ripened brie and dried cranberries. Between you and me I don’t know if I need these in a burger but hey no judgment if you’re into that.

We shared a fifty fifty plate of sweet potato fries and onion strings. It came with a trio of sauces none of which were identified my best guess is bbq, some aoili (what is up with all of the vowels in that word), and something ranch-like.

These were good but really extremely oily. Like every bite I had was followed by a squeeze of the napkin and an oil stain of massive proportions. Everyone on Yelp is talking about the sweet potato fries and I think they’re good but not necessarily remarkable.

I picked a veggie patty of the smallest size (1/3 lb – I had to do rough kilogram conversions for our metric-loving visitor) on a pretzel bun with yellow American cheese and Bermuda red onions, jalapenos (I’m on a spicy kick), lettuce (a blend, if that makes a difference), and tomatoes.

I’m not sure if the onion ring in the honey mustard sauce was on purpose or not. Ordering veggie burgers is always a risk since you never know what kind of crazy herbs and flavors they’re going to squeeze in there. Luckily, this veggie patty was very nice. It had the heft of eating meat with enough flavor to make you happy but not making everything you’re adding to the burger taste strange. If you’re wondering, it seems to be made mostly of potato.

I also really liked the pretzel bun. Soft with some chew it’s only downfall was the incredible amts of butter they slathered on.

I’m not going to a place like The Counter for a healthy meal but I thought they could dial back a bit on the butter and oil and still serve tasty food.

Two burgers, the fifty-fifty plate, one soda, including tip was $34. My brothers would probably love this place but I probably wouldn’t venture back on my own.

The Counter: 369 California Avenue, Palo Alto, California 94306

Post- Burma Superstar dinner, post-performance at the Women’s Building we hoofed in back in our high heels to the car. Despite the drizzle and my aching feet we made a detour to Bi-Rite to join the line of other smart people satisfying their sugary dreams. Verdict: worth it. Want more.

Ok, admittedly, not exciting from a color perspective but trust me when I tell you that the flavor was amazeballs.

The bottom scoop was roasted banana which was really deep in banana flavor but a little too sweet to be a complete home run. The top scoop is ricanelas which is cinnamon ice cream with snickerdoodle cookie pieces. I want to have a giant gallon size package of this in my freezer. Loads of cinnamon but not enough to make it taste like bad cinnamon gum (ew) and bits of chewy, buttery snickerdoodle cookies. WHO THOUGHT OF THIS? Give them a prize please.

A single size (1-2 flavors) on a cone or in a cup is $3.25. Have some.

Bi-Rite Creamery: 3692 18th Street, San Francisco, California 94110

Silver lining: at least I’m blogging. That’s got to be some sort of miracle, right? The camera that I usually use is completely full of pictures and completely out of battery juice. It’s sitting forlornly on my dining room table amidst the detritus that gets shoved into my mailbox (don’t you hate that crap?). I’m sure someday I will clean up the sd card and find the battery charger. Someday…

Back to Burma Superstar.

I first heard of Burma Superstar in my first months  in Singapore. Random, I know. Danielle (a fellow Bay Area transplant), said that thunder tea rice reminded her of the tea leaf salad at Burma Superstar. I had no idea what she was talking about but I nodded and continued on enjoying my bowl of pulverized tea leaf and veggies.

Fast forward to the present. I was thinking about how it’s been a really long time since I’ve had thunder tea rice. I was also headed up to the city for a performance of Yoni Ki Baat which is inspired by the Vagina Monologues but from an India perspective.

Er. Back to Burma Superstar.

We ordered the tea leaf salad which comes to the table looking lovely with all of the components in little separate mounds. The server does a little Vanna White show and tell and then mixes the whole thing like crazy so you end up with the picture above. It’s very crunchy from the lettuce and generous helpings of fried garlic chips. It also has a bit of fermented tang but I thought the tea flavor was pretty mild. Definitely not as tea-y as thunder tea rice. While it didn’t satisfy that particular craving, it was good nonetheless (although just a little bit oilier than it needed to be).

This second terrible picture is garlic noodles with duck. I’m always wary of garlic noodles for fear that they will be sort of bland or boring. These were actually very good. Good roasty, toasty garlic flavor, scallions for crunch, and slices of duck strewn about. Very nice.

Our (there were 3 of us) last dish was chicken dahl. Super tender chicken in a stew with yellow lentils. I was expecting something thicker and more dahl-y with more lentils but the heft of the dish was more like adobo. It was pretty aromatic although not quite in your face as a straight curry.

We went here at 5pm on a Saturday and had no wait time. I hear it gets super busy during the dinner rush hour and they don’t take reservations. For these 3 dishes, 2 portions of rice, and a Thai tea we paid $50 (including tip). Def good enough for another whirl to try the rest of the menu.

Burma Superstar: 309 Clement Street San Francisco, California 94118

If I’ve timed this correctly by the time you read this I’ll be enjoying a mango or two in the land of mangos.

He has a car.

A car that takes him to places that are otherwise arduous journeys for those of us relegated to the (actually pretty awesome) public transportation system in Singapore. As a last hurrah Gary took me to one of the randomest noodle joints ever. It resulted in me being: grateful (yay a car), confused (where the hell are we), stuffed (oh wow so good), and angry (thanks for sharing your favorite food place as I’m leaving and will probably never be able to eat here again).

Did I mention that it used to be a Western themed tavern?

This place is actually near my old hood at Marine Parade. It’s nestled within a full on HDB complex so you’d never stumble onto it otherwise. These types of places are the ones that you have to rely on word of mouth to find. It’s just like Uncle Leong’s up in ButterCrabville. You get there and you’re thinking –  how on earth would I have ever found this place?

Anyhow let’s get cracking. You’ll start off with the usuals here – hot tea, peanuts, chili sauce.

I made Gary do the ordering obviously. We had some of this sliced fried chicken with almonds and a lemon sauce. It was an “oh no I might finish this plate and I’m pretty sure this is really, really bad for me” kind of dish.

We ordered veggies to pretend that we’re healthy.

This claypot dish was very nice. Peppery and saucy with cooked cucumbers. I think this was pork but don’t quote me on that.

And ta da…

One dead beautiful bowl of beef noodle. Saucy, sweet, salty, tender beef over fresh rice noodles, topped with cilantro. Don’t wear white. You’ll be slurping up the noodles and making a hot mess of yourself.

Kim Moh Beef Noodle: 5000F Marine  Parade Rd #01-22 Laguna Park, Singapore

It’s banana cheese prata served with curry. I’m not sure what possessed us to order this particular combination.

It was good and we ate it.

I did one batch of s’more style bark with marshmallow and graham cracker and one batch of darker chocolate with dried cranberries and pistachios. When you’re all done wrap them up in tissue paper and wrap them like a pro.

I hope your belly is full of good food this season. I hope you’re grasping for the inhaler through bouts of uncontrollable laughter. And I hope you’re spending this Christmas with the people you love the most in this crazy, crazy world. <3 xoxo

This chicken rice episode definitely did happen though. River Valley Road was not exactly what you would call convenient for me location-wise but it does have this nice strip of eateries that were bustling on the night we made it the area.

To your right: full on traffic (we sat outside right up against the main street). To your left: glistening plates of chicken rice.

Don’t be alarmed by the wilted cilantro that is neither here nor there really. Focus on the ji fan juices collecting in the corner of the plate and the tender chicken bits perched lovingly above it.

There were two of these babies by the way. (I was with Therese on this particular dinner outing.)

No fun without the fan (that’s the Chinese word for rice and not the appliance that keeps you cool in the summer, it’s also just a not funny joke all around).

They serve the rice in little pyramids here. It’s a bit browner than other chicken rice places and some online reviews suggest that it’s too oily but I don’t share that complaint. It was delicious to me.

I miss sticky black sauce.

The only downside to this place? Pretty expensive. I mean, it’s good but it’s not so good that it has to be 2-3x more than hawker center chicken rice. Total for 2 people (including service charge, etc) was SGD16.

Boon Tong Kee Little Gourmet: 425 River Valley Road Singapore

Actually, wait. I have a few, unrelated things to purge from my brain.

- Yesterday I found a dead frog on the table in one of the conference rooms at work. Dis.gust.ing. How did it get there? No one knows.

- I am totally obsessed with watching Top Chef All Stars. I DVR each episode and then watch it about 5 million times. No, not just because of Dale Talde. (Although it’s a nice bonus.) The challenges are freakin’ crazy this season and you got some pretty badass chefs on the show. Except for Jamie who keeps flying under the radar…

- My brother got me the Momofuku book for Christmas and now I really, really want to try the cereal milk custard and the ramen.

- I’m leaving for a trip to Asia in a few days and I’m not packed at all.

- I wore boots over my jeans for the first time 2 days ago. I’m still recovering.

- I hate this laptop.

Okay, I feel better. Where were we?

Singapore. Food Tours. Let’s talk about it.

The usual suspects (the bloggers: myself and Nags; the Singaporeans: Melina and Isaac; the eater: Pui) coordinated another round of Singaporean eatin’ last Spring. We started where all food tours should start – Chinatown.

We trekked deep into the Chinatown Hawker Center (just above Smith Street) to gorge on small plates to whet the appetite. First up: chee cheong fan – chewy, toothy, ricey rolls with chili and hoisin-y sauces.

This one had a similar black sauce but was starchy (maybe taro?).

Some lovely dumplings of course:

Washed down with fresh soy milk.

We learned from our first food tour to not overindulge on any dish especially in the early part of the day. Pace yourself. It’s what your mama would remind you to do.

Stop #2 was actually down the ways from my ‘hood on the East Coast.

We stopped at 49 Katong Laksa for… wait for it… laksa.

Even though it’s been months I still remember the taste of this laksa. Rich with coconut milk, briny with shrimp, spicy like curry. A few greens for pep. Piping hot and lovely even on a muggy Singapore afternoon. Reminds me of palabok actually.

Someone ordered otah. Not  me, obviously. NEXT.

We ordered soup so we’re allowed to indulge in you tiao. Personally, don’t think this is necessary when you’re eating a soup as heavy as laksa BUT if I’m getting offered an oil stick I’m gonna take it.

Now for the star of the show.

Hi there bak kut teh.

It looks so unassuming doesn’t it? It’s not even… colorful. It’s some pale ass piece of meat and some clear broth.

Then you eat it and you’re like, SHUT UP. What IS THAT?? There’s crack in the broth. Crack and white pepper and probably some other spices. Whatever. It’s super good. Like warm you up from the inside good. I don’t know why you’d need to be warmed up from the inside in Singapore but still.

Yah ok we ordered other stuff too. I don’t really remember any of it. Looks like tofu skins and greens and some crispy shallots business.

Go try some meat bone soup. We had ours here at Founder Bak Kut Teh in Balestier.

Last course is dessert which we trekked over to the Beach Rd area to enjoy.

We were aiming for local flavored ice cream at Tom’s Palette (100 Beach Rd #01-25 Shaw Leisure Gallery). That particular day they didn’t have anything *super* local which was a little sad.

I had half scoops of salted caramel and something called Granny’s favorite. I recall the salted caramel being the more tasty of the two. I found the flavors to be a tad sweet for my liking though. You would think that ice cream would be plenty for dessert but nooooooooooo.

Must get fried things now.

Goreng pisang are fried bananas with a sweet, crispy, netted batter. The bananas end up melted, almost custard-like, post-fry.

This madness is from Kee’s Crispy Goreng Pisang Golden Mile Food Centre 01-90.

A little food binge, a little brain purge. You’re welcome.

I had two objectives on this lovely London day: 1) find an old map of Singapore/Southeast Asia and 2) eat something good.

Portobello Road Market featured pretty prominently in our guide book and has been around for ages but cousin had never been. I picked it because I heard there were a few antique map vendors here which would up the chances that I would find a nice map to commemorate my Southeast Asia livin’.

There are plenty of pubs, restaurants, and street stalls to enjoy on Portobello Road. The darn thing goes on for ages.

There are also a gillion people milling about so don’t go here if you’re not prepared for crowds.

It was well into lunch time so we started with some paella.

The rice was very… toothsome. The shrimp was tasty but not very market walking-friendly since it required some maneuvering to get the shell off. Just imagine trying to deshell the shrimp while standing and with the crowd pictured above. Not pretty. Overall, good but not the best paella I’ve ever had. The little bowl set us back GBP6.

Next, Dimple (that’s my cousin’s nickname) picked a tray of fried goodness. It was mostly shrimp with a few crab claws with imitation crab meat packed on it. We shoulda grabbed some of the sauce they offered but we sorta skeddadled away from the stall to get out of the sun. In any case, no reason to complain about deep fried seafood. I *think* the plate was GBP5 or so. By the way, that’s a rubber band at the bottom there.

We couldn’t deny ourselves some dessert and we went for crepes since the smell of them permeates every corner of the market. We kept it simple and got it plain with sugar. So lovely.

I did end up finding a nice map of Southeast Asia from 1908 it only set me back about USD20! Looks all smartpants and sophistimicated in the new casa. Missions accomplished.

Portobello Rd Market: [at the writing of this post, their official website portobelloroad.co.uk was down so I used the Google Place page instead], easy access via Ladbroke Grove or Notting Hill Gate tube stations