Chinatown Street Light Up (Night) for Lunar New Year 2020 - Year of The Rat @ Singapore #yearoftherat #chinatownstreetlightup

I am a bit late in sharing the pictures of Chinatown's street light up this year as it has been a darn busy month with work, baking and a short overseas trip! Nonetheless, late is better than never! 

Guess many of you would know which zodiac animal is the upcoming "king" for the new lunar year; it's none other than the rat! Known for its intelligence and craftiness, the rat signifies the start of the new 12-year cycle and there's actually a story of how it managed to win the race. 

After the two furors involving the centerpiece for the pig's year and the mooncake festival in 2019, the designers (students from the Singapore University of Technology and Design) did a pretty good job with the rats; smiley, radiant and bursting with happiness! 

There's a blue ribbon sticking out from the back of the gigantic gold ingot (which acted as a base for the rats) and it led to a grass patch right behind where 11 different zodiac animals were lined up. 

They were lined up in the order of appearance over the 12-year lunar cycle! Remember i spoke of the rat winning the race? You can read the rest of the story here.

In total, there were 1,388 lanterns of which 200 were in the rat-form. You would see the bulk of them at the back, towards Outram Park MRT station, in the middle section separating the busy New Bridge Road and Eu Tong Sen Street. 

It's dangerous to just cross the road in order to take a close-up picture with the smaller rats! Please wait until the road closure on Lunar New Year's eve (Friday, 24 January 2020) to have your fill of selfies with the rats; likely with plenty of photo-bombs.

The remaining 1,188 lanterns were in the form of flowers, gold coins and auspicious greetings hung over the roads. Ethnic Chinese loves money and it's evident when the popular well-wishes for lunar new year revolve mainly around wealth and prosperity. 

Decorations along the parallel South Bridge Road didn't raise any eyebrows with mainly flower-shaped lanterns. Having covered the festive decorations for quite a few years now, i must say the best so far for South Bridge Road was during the snake year! 

Of course it's a must to take some photos at this vantage point overlooking the centrepiece! It's no longer a secret but that's hardly surprising when even i had blogged about its location before. You may read further over here. 

Only one thing i lacked was a tripod to shoot better photographs! 

For a conservative society like Singapore where we believe in monogamy, marriage between man and woman etc, is there anything amiss that you notice from the centrepiece? 

I can spot the dad and the little kids. For the two characters next to the dad, am i right to assume they were of the fairer sex and likely wives? Hm... that's polygamy right and from my understanding, that's illegal in Singapore! Oh well, they could jolly well be helpers too.... 

Whatever the case, that's for the netizens to debate. My friends and i were not concerned over it and preferred to spend our time taking useless pictures like the above which were hard without sunlight / a tripod.

There shall be another post on the street bazaar and i sure hope it would be published by this Sunday since lunar new year is only about a week's away! Time flies and it's amazing that even i am meeting a new milestone in age this year.

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Period for the Street Light-Up

Until 22 February 2020 

Website 

https://chinatownfestivals.sg/programmes/#street-light-up

Prachak Roast Duck - Opened Since 1909 @ Silom [Bangkok, Thailand] #PrachakRoastDuck

"Opened since 1909" - these few words stopped me and even though we just had our delicious porridge from Jok Prince; I dragged Alex into the air-conditioned eatery that has been operational for over a hundred years!

Not many customers at about 10.00 am when we reached but the place quickly filled up in less than 15 minutes. The menu (to be shared at the end of this point) had both English and Chinese translation; hence, you shouldn't have any problem ordering.

Pork Wanton with Red Pork - from the menu, it appeared to be char siew with wanton; what i totally didn't expect was that it was literally a bowl of soup; it looked nothing like the picture on the menu! 

Wantons were slightly bigger and meatier than the ones we have in Singapore but the taste was nothing to scream about. Char siew was surprisingly tender and tasted pretty flavourful despite taking a soup bath. Pity i didn't have the stomach to try their char siew rice; it would have been not bad.

Roasted Duck -  its called Prachak Roast Duck for a reason (i presumed) but i should have known better as Zai Shun Curry Fish Head in Singapore isn't famous for its curry fish head too! Nevertheless, let's just order a small serving without rice and noodle!

The meat was swimming in this savoury sauce that was on the saltier side but i am way more disappointed with the texture when my teeth sank into the duck meat; it was mushy and had the tendency to stick all over my teeth! Skin was much better with a layer of fat and a nice smoky touch; it could have benefited from a crispier bite although i admit i did take some time to finish taking my photos and the time delay could have softened the crisp, if there's any. 

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Overall, it was a highly anticipated meal that didn't quite meet our expectations. Maybe i should have gone with the normal roast duck with rice or char siew with noodles. Should a second chance be given?  

Address

1415 Charoen Krung Rd, Silom,

Bang Rak, Bangkok 10500, Thailand

(Near Saphan Taksin BTS)

Map

As above.

Menu

As above.

Pricing

Pork Wanton with Red Pork - 40 baht

Roasted Duck (S) - 100 baht

Jok Prince (Michelin Bib Gourmand) - Smooth, Gluey, Thick Porridge @ Silom [Bangkok, Thailand] #jokprince #michelinbibgourmand

For someone who love unhealthy food like deep fried chicken, char-grilled pork, it's kind of rare to find me seeking porridge when i am overseas; but that's exactly what i did in my recent trip to Bangkok! 

I am actually nursing a sore throat and thought having porridge would be good; however, i admit i had known about this particular porridge place near Saphan Taksin BTS station for quite some time already. 

Online directions pointed to an alley off the main road but it seemed that the over 60-year-old shop had since moved to a bigger premises along the main Charoen Krung Road; furthermore, it's now a Michelin Bib Gourmand eatery! 

Well, the good thing is that the decorations were not over the top and excessive for a new place; which means the pricing of the food would not likely be jumping leaps and bounds like what some eateries did after getting the highly regarded Michelin recommendations.

With the large pots of simmering porridge placed at the entrance, it's rather easy to spot Jok Prince. Even if you don't speak Thai, ordering was fuss free with the simple menu (in Thai and English); just point at the item you want and indicate the number of servings.

Our two bowls of pork porridge with egg that cost 45 baht (around S$2.00). 

Breaking the yolk and stirring it for a homogeneous mix with the gruel. I super love the smooth, gluey, thick consistency which would be considered more the Cantonese style in the Chinese world where you can't really feel the grains.

What's a badly needed companion for porridge? Chinese crullers (also known as youtiao / Chinese oil stick) and they were sold separately at 6 baht a bowl. Now's the time to taste the jok! 

The porridge was plain yet had a delicious, smoky flavour enhanced by the strips of raw, spicy ginger! The handmade minced meat balls were delish too and counting just three in the bowl, i had to resort to rationing so that i wouldn't finish them all in one go.

Comfortable food for the traditional Chinese soul and definitely well received by someone who has not been feeling over for the past week! Serving wasn't big but i didn't mind reserving my stomach space for other good stuff in Bangkok! 

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Address

1391 Charoen Krung Rd, Silom, 
Bang Rak, Bangkok 10500, Thailand 
(Near Saphan Taksin BTS)

Map

As above.

Operating Hours

6.00 am to 12.00 pm

4.00 pm to 10.00 pm

Menu

As above.

Pricing

Pork Porridge with Egg - 45 Baht

Chinese Cruller (Youtiao) - 6 Baht

Traditional Hong Kong Desserts @ Yuen Kee Dessert (源記甜品專家) in Hong Kong #yuenkeedessert

Our dinner at Kwan Kee was memorable and I desperately needed desserts to round off the meal; hence, I searched on Goggle Map for a place near to the claypot rice eatery. 

Voila; there's a Yuen Kee Dessert just 130 meters away and I happily made my way over despite not knowing what to expect since it definitely wouldn't be serving our local Singaporean favorites like ice kacang, cendol, etc. 

Like many dining establishments in Hong Kong, the shop was narrow with limited seating. Bigger groups of four would find it hard to find a table to accommodate everyone; i am glad there was only Alex and I.

It took me a while to look through the simplified one-page Chinese menu as I don't quite know what some of the terms were and it's confusing to read from top to bottom instead of the usual left-right / right-left.

Black Sesame Paste - Alex's choice which isn't something I would typically order. Surprisingly, it's not as thick and gooey as the ones we have in Singapore and its sweetness was just right to result in a warm and comfortable sensation for the stomach.

Mulberry Lotus Seeds Egg Tea - one of my favourite Singapore desserts is cheng tng and this one at Yuen Kee was chosen given its similarity! 

OMG - this was amazing! The taste was relatively similar to cheng tng with a tea tinge to it. I am particular when it comes to lotus seeds in cheng tng as most stalls failed to make them soft and non-bitter. Yuen Kee's version met my expectation without tasting bitter and mashed up immediately with just a light bite.

One whole hard boiled egg in the soup! What does this remind me of? The sweet dessert that my mom would make on the first day of lunar new year as she would always add a hard-boiled egg in every bowl. 

Key difference is that my mom uses eggs boiled in plain water whereas Yuen Kee's one tasted just like the tea leaves eggs (you can get them from some Chinese medicinal halls or pasar malams) and they were the kind that would entice you to have more than one! 

Cleaned up the bowl in no time; I regretted not ordering the double-egg option. As lunar new year is coming, maybe I should ask my mom to use tea leaves eggs instead for her sweet soup! 

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Address

32 Centre St, Sai Wan, 

Hong Kong

Map

As above.

Operating Hours

Mondays to Sundays - 1.00 pm to 11.00 pm

Menu

As above.

Pricing

Black Sesame Paste - HKD $27

Mulberry Lotus Seeds Egg Tea - HKD $39

For the summary of my seven days' itinerary to Hong Kong (with a day trip to Shenzhen), please click here.

Soon Yan Carrot Cake (With Prawn) @ 111 Lorong 1 Toa Payoh [Singapore] #soonyancarrotcake #carrotcakewithprawns

When it comes to the Asian style carrot cake, the de facto preference for me would be the black version; hence, i was slightly flustered when i came to Soon Yan Carrot Cake at Toa Payoh as it appeared to sell only the white version! 

Well, the stall seemed to command more customers than the others in the same coffee shop and it's kind of assuring to see the Makansutra's rating of 3 bowls, 6 chopsticks; an indication that it's a die die must try. 

As the carrot cake was cooked in one large batch and divided according to serving portions; i didn't have to wait long at about 5 minutes with just about four customers ahead of me.

In case you are unaware, there's no carrot in carrot cake; instead, radish is the main ingredient. Coming back to Soon Yan - at first glance, i was amazed by the nice coat of egg that almost hid the many cubes of radish cake. There's a tinge of spiciness as the previous customer asked for chilli but it's not big a problem for me. 

Aside from the egg that had turned into a crisp; the radish cake retained a nice bite that was complemented by the addition of preserved radish (known as chai po). The two prawns were good to have even though not really a necessity. Overall, my feel is that this would be a plate of carrot cake that many of the older generation would enjoy. 

For me, give me a plate of black carrot cake anytime! 

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Address

Block 111, Lorong 1 Toa Payoh,

Chang Cheng Mee Wah Coffee Shop,

Singapore 310111

Map

As above.

Pricing

Carrot Cake - Minimum S$3.00