Night Market at Chinatown 2010 (牛车水年货市场)

With Chinese New Year (CNY) fast approaching in less than a week, one key attraction for all Singaporeans (regardless of races and religions) is the leisure strolling amongst the temporary night markets for CNY, notably in "where else but" Chinatown.

Though it is well-known as the night market to go before CNY where you can soak in the festive mood with its beautiful light-up, i personally prefer to go during the daytime when the sun is hot and sweat is guaranteed to wet my boxer shirt.

Reason?
It is too BLOOODY crowded at night!!!!!!!

Not being able to move along a street is one irritating thing but being pushed while you are looking at some interesting things (like food etc) is f*cking annoying!!!! And being small sized, i cannot help but to go with the flow~~~~.

Anyway, it was still quite crowded on a Friday afternoon though it was a far cry from the CNY eve i went two years back. Some stalls, though the percentage was rather small, were not open for business at around 1pm.

Some pictures for you!!

*warning: a lot of them*

It's the year of the tiger!! Expect loads of tiger soft toys!!

Makan Makan

Dried Cod Fish Jerky

Dried Nuts

This shop sells nothing but CNY decorations!

Japanese Jelly or are they Taiwanese Jelly?

Glittering windmills toys! I used to play this when i was a kid. It's a pity this thing doesn't operate like a fan. I stank horribly that day!

Festive Biscuits by the THOUSANDS

Dried Pessimons! It's actually a very tasty snack!

Red packets for the kids and er... singles!! Like me!!

Nice, brightly colored cushion covers for sale!

Mochi!! These soft soft snacks from Taiwan have been very popular in recent years!

Dried Fruits

Besides the red red gold gold decorative items, this stall sells sparklers too!! In fireworks deprived Singapore, this is the best we can get.

If i have a niece, i sure buy this! But mine is a nephew and i will risk being murdered by my sister if i ever buy this for him!!

Dried Fruits Again

Anyone fancies a whole leg of ham???

You need someone to write a calligraphic couplets for your door? For a fee, it's always possible here!

It's on a Friday more than a week before the big day (CNY) and the queue was already around 200-300 meters long outside this super popular Bak Kwa Shop; Lim Chee Guan!!

The market has so many things; you can even find a basket of sexy, grandmother-style bras for sale.

Disclaimer:
This is only part of the market!!!

Explore it yourself for the full enjoyment!!

Hong Kong Desserts @ Ji De Chi (记得吃)

Nowadays, it's getting more and more common to have shops naming themselves as a Chinese sentence that feel very warm at heart for commoners (like me); think Wan Dou Sek (搵到食: Found The Food), Sik Wai Sin (食为先: Food Comes First) and now Ji De Chi (记得吃: Remember To Eat).

For Chinese like me, these words centre around the most basic of the Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Food. That, coupled with the many vibrant pictures of desserts, proved to be irresistible for me not to patronise the eatery i am posting today; Ji De Chi!

In actual fact, i reckoned i have resisted long enough but there's a limit to what humans can do to push away temptation!! Especially when it has minimum impact to the people surrounding your life.

Unfortunately, with immense temptation comes not one, not two but three trips to Ji De Chi. Here's some of the things i had.

Mango in Pomelo Sago

Two versions: The first time i had this, the pomelo sago was tardy, slightly saltish and i thought it might be better to stick to the mango.

The second time, the pomelo was better tasting but the mango this time was disappointing. It might look yellowish sweet but it was not to be.

Mixed Ball in Ginger Soup

Age-related; i like ginger soup with its hot, spicy and sweet combination! The tangyuan (balls) here had a sticky dough that sticked between your teeth but the inside was marvelicious!! 

Nothing beats crushed bitey peanuts in a tangyuan!

Mango Baked Puff Rolls

This was hot!!! As in temperature hot!!! In degrees celcius!!!

Double edged sword though! When it's hot; difficult to eat, when it's cold, not nice to eat. The key is to eat it at the optimal temperature!

Water Chestnut Cake

Personally, i think this was the best out of the lot! It was not overly sweet like most desserts we know and was jelly-like with loads of chestnut bits for chewing pleasure! 

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Location

A few branches in Singapore, I know of Jurong Point (the new extension), Chinatown Point and have heard of branches in Upper Cross Street and Liang Seah Street. Go Google please.

Additional Information

If you really want to know, my preference is with the local Singaporean style of desserts like chng tng, ice kacang, chendol etc etc. They feel............ well, more at home in my stomach although food items like tangyuan were pretty customary for all Chinese.

Ji De Chi has an extensive menu and the prices varies; its mixed balls in ginger soup (tangyuan) was in fact price-comparable with some stalls in hawker centres. 

Yet, we all know all businessmen are not stupid; portions i had were not big.

Not that i am complaining for this reduced food intake.

Chow Time (Wanton Mee, Rojak, Satay Tarik, French Toast) @ Amoy Street Food Centre

Years have passed since i last stepped into this huge, two levels hawker centre. At least not during the daytime since i vaguely remember using the toilet of this food centre one night for an urgent expulsion.

It was scary without the usual busy lunch crowds!! 

Coming back, i was pretty disappointed with some stalls which i used to think were really fantastic! Was it my luck? Was there a change in the person preparing the food? Hm.... as with many questions in life, a BIG question mark. 

Tai Seng Noodle House

In Singapore, when you see a long queue, it usually means a few things.

Good Food

Value for Money

Promotions (buy 1 plate, get 1 plate free etc)

Psychological (i see people queue, i queue too!)

All the Above

For Tai Seng, i believe it is the "Value for Money". The portion was really big!!! For S$3 a plate, i got a good spread of Char Siew, five or six fried dumplings and around eight dumplings in the soup!!

Noodles were Q and made a delightful eggy bite! 

Not sure if it's the same for you, but a good fried dumpling must have a crunchy skin! Like the one in Tai Seng!!

The soup was so nice lor (both sister and mum heavily suspected it's MSG)!!

My usual weird standard when ordering wonton noodles is that i will not eat the usually tasteless soup wontons (dumplings). But the wontons here tasted really smooth and flavourful with the tiny chunks of meat within them.

The only aversion i had was on the Char Siew. They were so tasteless, the vegetarian Char Siew i ate HERE were a million times better!!

Rojak@ Tai Sun Coffee

A side business of an otherwise normal coffee stall.

 

Lightly burnt yet crispy/crunchy ingredients mixed in a thick gravy of prawn paste and a sprinkling of aromatic crushed peanuts. One of the better rojaks i had. If only my sister had included the century egg.

Wak Ju & Family

My sister recommended the Satay Tarik here when i first ate in this food centre. 

Basically, instead of the normal sticks of satay, bowl of gravy, cucumbers and ketupat (rice) displayed separately, this stall improvished by dumping all of them together.

Save the trouble of dipping the sticks of satay into the gravy, bite, using the stick and stabbing the cucumber/ketupat into the gravy etc etc, i guess.

I can only say it used to be so fantastic i think about it every now and then.

That fantasy is smashed as of yesterday.

No complain about the cucumbers, ketupat and gravy, it's the satay. They used to barbeque the satay and prepare the dish when you ordered.

Nowadays, they prepare well in advance. And you get meat that are hard, dry and almost devoid of taste.

Kaya French Toast @ Ah Seng Coffee

French Toasts with a spread of home made Kaya (coconut) jam between them and a spoonful of Kaya by the side for an extreme Kaya indulgence!!

So far, i have not been disappointed with the toast offerings from this stall. My mom tried to torture the stall owner (a chap called Ah Seng) to give his secret recipe but his mouth was sealed with glue!

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Location

7, Maxwell Road. Walking distance from Tanjong Pagar MRT Station.

Additional Information

Spread over two floors, you have a hundred over choices for lunch. 

If you want to really try the food in this hawker centre, please come during week days and during lunchtime.

Too early, stalls are not open. Too late (like after 2pm), the stalls are in the midst of tidying, cleaning and closing. The main target is the office crowd during lunch. 

Typical of Singapore, tables and chairs with umbrella, newspaper and the notorious tissue paper packet were "reserved".

If you wait patiently and your group is small (especially when you are alone), it is not difficult to find seats.

Prelude for Spring Festival 2010 (Chinese New Year)

For residents in Chinese-dominated countries, cities, towns, places, it is quite obvious that a big festival is coming!! The red red gold gold decorations, the big big statues of the God of Fortune with the unmistakable music floating in the air.

Chinese New Year (also known as Spring Festival) is approaching!!

Fast and furious!!!!!

As with any Chinese family, my family is currently busy with spring cleaning, a major time-consuming task that takes ages to complete!! The big overhaul of the cluttered store-room, the laundry for the heavy curtains and so much more!!!

Don't get me started on the preparation of food stuff!!

For the customary new year's eve dinner, one of the rare occasions that you will see everyone of us in the family seated around a table and actually dining together, there will be piles upon piles, plates upon plates of food!!!

And for visitors, there will be a massive accumulation of sweets, preserved fruits, festive biscuits, bak kwa and occasionally, steamboat!!!! It's better to have more than less! If there are remainder 15 days after CNY (which means Chinese New Year), they shall worm their way into our stomachs!

For all Chinese, it's basically a fattening season!

I wish everyone of you a Happy Chinese New Year, in advance. I am including a picture of a god of fortune (made of crystals) below and pray that it will bring all kinds of good luck (think 4D, TOTO, Big Sweep) to all of us in the Year of Ox!!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Hor Fun (河粉) @ Hiap Hoe Coffee House, Yishun

The names of Chinese dishes can be so misleading. In this instance, there's nothing fun about hor fun; it's purely a dialect term for thick flat rice noodle.

I used to think that any hor fun is good, so long it comes from a tze char stall in a coffee shop. C'mon, how bad can it be for such a simple dish? Coming from a person who sucks big time in cooking!

Of course that was the ancient thought i had when i was in my teens. Years passed and my standard of hor fun has impressed marginally (fortunately).

At least for now, i understand that a good dish of hor fun must have the legendary wok hei flavour; essentially the essence of a well used wok coupled with fierce fire and vigourous stir frying by an established chef.

In particular (for me), a flavourful corn starch sauce fused with fresh ingredients like prawns, sotongs (squids), vegetables and pork is the determinant of how much i enjoy a dish of hor fun. Yes, not so much on the noodles!

The last two paragraphs described one of my favourite tze char stalls for hor fun; Beng Tin Hng at Hiap Hoe Coffee House in Yishun Block 747.

This tze char stall is quite popular with Yishunians and their Sin Chow Bee Hoon is actually to die for. Shall blog about it again!!

Ciao~~~~