PRSky » Food

Best food in Singapore

admin — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 03:10:00 +0000

Our first destination in Singapore was Chinatown. We just missed the celebration of the Chinese New Year , which this year is the year of the Tiger. We missed the celebrations by one day, but luckily, the spirit of the festivities were still in its death throes of passion. The Chinese New Year is unique both in spectacle and in color and we found this most colorful spectacle of a tiger dancer tossing mandarins, which is a symbol of prosperity, in a street next to Chinatown. The Tiger dance is a dance with Chinese origins, it is intended to scare away evil spirits. The dancer was very good and he moved with grace, but less could be said about the accompanying musicians that blasted our ears. We could only handle five minutes of his dance because the music was literally hurting our ears.

While in Chinatown, we searched for a cafe’ called Joo Heng. Our parents always came here when they traveled and could only rave about the food and the service. We couldn’t believe our eyes when we found the place, it looked like any other plain ol’ coffee shop in Singapore. Joo Heng is Cantonese and it serves what locals call ‘Cze Char’ or better known as comfort food. Joo Heng employees skilled and experienced chefs who know how to master a wok and control the fire in order to impart the dishes smoky flavor.

Cze Char is an art-form that is dying, especially if you equate it with excellent home-style cooking. Being a chef in a Cze Char kitchen is no easy feat, especially with the high humid weather of Singapore, because to qualify as an authentic Cze Char eatery, the kitchen should have no air-conditioning. That’s how exacting cooking Cze Char style can be. So, being here, even though the place doesn’t look like much, was actually a privilege.

We started with the soup of the day, which was lotus root with pork ribs. If this soup was made any other way than how Joo Heng prepares it, it would not be soup at its best, because Joo Heng simmers the soup for 4 hours before they serve it. For our appetizers, we ordered the sharks fin and crab meat scramble, served with lettuce leaves laced with belacan chili paste and a squeeze of fresh lime. For our main course, we ordered the steamed fish head with yellow bean paste, which came garnished with spring onions and deep-fried pork lard cubes. The other dish was the steamed minced pork patties, stir-fried potato leave that comes with prawn paste chicken.

We’ve never eaten such wonderful food in our entire life, our dishes were so savory, so comforting and so fulfilling. Our parents were right, Joo Heng is a must when traveling in Singapore.

Best food in Singapore is a post from: PRSky

Jumbo Seafood Restaurant in Singapore

admin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:33:12 +0000

Whenever I used to hear of or think about Singapore I always thought culturally dynamic island nation. However, this was when I knew certain elements of Singapore and had studied some of the cultural traditions such as Cantonese Opera, I had never before been there. After last month I might still think of the cultural dynamics though hands down I will also be thinking of fabulous food in the great restaurants in Singapore. And that is extremely exciting to me because I’m a selective eater and I absolutely love it when I find restaurants that I think are great.

This is exactly the case with a place called Jumbo, a seafood restaurant with amazing food. And I’m not the only one that thinks so. I visited Singapore with my family and we all ate there, which by the way is a great way to experience their food. We had a family style dinner and it included delicious black pepper crab. I can’t even describe to you have great these were, it’s simply a palate sensation that you have to experience to understand. Oh, I can describe how quickly they disappeared from the plate and how quite my family was during the dinner. And we’re a talkative group. We have a lot of great family conversations during dinner but everyone was busy enjoying their food and we just didn’t get a chance to talk.

We also had the Cereal Prawns and something called a Japanese Beancurd Treasure Bag. We ordered those because they sounded interesting, which they were and they too were delicious though I don’t know exactly what all was in it. We had one other bean curd dish, oh yeah the Deep Fried Beancurd Special. This too was great and I think it had some seafood mixed in with it. It was served with a really good sweet sauce. The only other thing we shared was the Prosperity Chicken. This, well everything we had was incredible and made a nice compliment to the other food, which was primarily seafood based.

Jumbo Seafood Restaurant in Singapore is a post from: PRSky

Mount Vernon and The Baltimore Art Scene

admin — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:21:33 +0000

In the city of Baltimore, Maryland the art scene is alive and well. The artistic hub for the city is in the neighborhood of Mount Vernon. Here you will find an array of museums and galleries wherein the collections vary from ancient artifacts to contemporary works by the artists of today. The Walters Art Museum places their emphasis in ancient pieces of art in a collection that includes work from Rome, Egypt, and Greece as well as those from Medieval Europe. The collection reflects almost fifty centuries of the endeavor towards artistic expression. In one of the sections of the museum there are artifacts and priceless pieces such as Faberge Eggs and Tiffany Brooches, as well as suit of armor, maces and swords.

Postmodern art is found just around the corner at the Contemporary Museum. This museum exhibits works of multi-media, works that may challenge the mind, but are also pleasing and interesting to the eye. There are some pieces that are part of the permanent collection, as well as many displays and projects the museum sets up around the city. Starting a tour of the city’s innovative and cutting edge work at the Contemporary Museum is a great way to find out whether they currently have work in other parts of the city and where to find that work.

“First Thursday” is an event that happens on the first Thursday each month. Many cities have similar once a month art walks. The galleries on Charles Street host the night. They stay open a bit longer, there are often musicians on the streets, and food and wine provided by a local Baltimore Restaurant. The Baltimore Museum of Art takes part, by offering free admission to the public, and the Enoch Pratt Library usually provides live entertainment. This is a great time to get to know the different galleries and different local artists working in the city.

Each year in the month of July, the city sponsors a three day art festival, ArtScape. The festival spans four blocks around the College of Fine at the Maryland Institute and every aspect of art is celebrated, from the poet to the painter, to the actor and the musician. Many cities have begun to sponsor such events, and to support the arts over the last year or so. When the economy forced certain programs to be cut, this did not go unnoticed, and the arts are being reborn in various cities around the country, and most definitely in the city of Baltimore.

Mount Vernon and The Baltimore Art Scene is a post from: PRSky

Warm in the Winter with a Wood Burning Fireplace

admin — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 17:25:32 +0000

With winter just around the corner in some cities, and coming on strong in others, it is time to consider the ways in which to keep warm. For some people this means an update in their wardrobe. Chunky snow boots and great scarves become the fashion. Another way to stay warm, is to heat up the body, by doing even simple tasks such as cleaning the house, vacuuming is a menial task that will raise the body temperature.

Hot tea and coffee, hot soup…all of these add to the further increase in your internal temperature. But say you would like to relax with a great book or an old black and white Christmas movie? This is when the ever popular–throughout history–wood fireplace comes into play. Curling up on the fireplace with blankets and big slippers will only get you so far. Not only will the warm glow of the heat the room, but especially during the holidays, a warm fire will heat the heart and the spirit.

And during the winter months, gas heaters and electricity bills can sky rocket, and a wood burning stove will help ease that pain. Not only is the heat provided much more consistent and evenly dispersed, firewood is not expensive and will burn long into the night. Some choose to add cast iron inserts, which will increase the heat as it is stored in the iron long after the embers have ceased to glow. So put on the thermals, grab the blanket and fix some hot tea. Once the fire is raging, and the stockings are hanging from the mantle, and…Jimmy Stewart is doing his thing in “It’s a Wonderful Life“, the snow outside will become beautiful, not treacherous. And the warmth inside will become the holiday preface or backdrop, for the holidays that are about to come about.

Warm in the Winter with a Wood Burning Fireplace is a post from: PRSky

Grilling Chicken Teriyaki

admin — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:12:53 +0000

A new direction in how we eat comes with the addition of drop in grills to our outdoor kitchens. There is suddenly a shift in the way we think about food, and preparation becomes less of a hassle and more of a pleasure. Cooking on a grill is a bit like daydreaming, it seems to come habitually, and with great pleasure. Thinking about the joy of eating, the social ritual of the meal, enters into the preparation, and everything becomes a little easier. It could be the thrill of cooking outdoors, the idea of the primal nature of meal preparation on an outdoor fire, or it could just be the idea that we’ll make the whole neighborhood envious from the smells at our house. Whatever it is, it’s tangible, and it doesn’t go away.

In fact, it just gets better with learning, where the collecting of recipes becomes second-nature, and we start to meet people who have the same interests in cooking as we do. It is in this spirit that collecting recipes for grill favorites such as chicken teriyaki becomes a method of learning and discarding and collecting and re-inventing. We like to re-invent, and it’s become the way we cook. With chicken teriyaki, like anything, there are hundreds and thousands of variations, and no two chefs seem to agree completely on what works the best. From the dozens of recipes, there are only generalizations we can make, like, they all include teriyaki sauce. But then there are occasional kinks in this logic, too, when we come across recipes that demand that we make our sauce from scratch.

Perhaps the only thing, then, that we see in common with all the recipes across the board, is the inclusion of chicken and the grill. The rest is variation. Some of our favorite recipes include lemon, sesame oil, and garlic in the marinade. One lets this soak and absorb for at least 24 hours to bring out the sesame flavor throughout the chicken, and care should also be taken to let the garlic brush the meat as it soaks, but not penetrate the flesh too deeply, because the flavor here can be overwhelming. Other variations of chicken teriyaki include ginger, and this really seems more traditional than sauces with garlic. For the actual grilling, use indirect heat, and cook on each side for 6-7 minutes. The essential thing here, again, is experimentation.

Grilling Chicken Teriyaki is a post from: PRSky

The Various Flavors in Singapore Restaurants

admin — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:21:49 +0000

Anyone who has spent time in Singapore knows that is is all about the food. Singaporeans love their food, and this provides the opportunities for all those interested in diverse cuisine with many options to love their food as well. And in abundance, as there are many locations to discover the flavors, through the hawker stands and centers, to the Singapore restaurants, to the snack markets and cafes to the open air courts, the food is found on every corner, in the city, as well as in the surrounding suburbs. It is quite easy to find something delicious 24 hours a day. The meals in the restaurants range from fancy fine dining delectable dishes, to hearty plates found at the hawker stations. Whether it’s breakfast in the morning, or hunger pangs in the middle of the night, there will always be a coffee shop or diner open for service. Throughout the city, visitors are guaranteed that what they will be eating will be fresh, and will exhibit all the traditional components of the cultures that make up the population of Singapore.

And although there are many different cultures living withing the city, there are some similarities that have converged to make the cuisine of this city truly distinctive and regional. Open air produce and fish markets are located throughout the city, with more than one hundred and fifty to chose from, the variety and freshness of the food has no comparison. Steamed vegetable and fish dishes are quite common as well as stir fry, BBQ pork with a soup of melons, to curry and spiced dishes of cabbage and cucumber. The ingredients are so extensive, and the recipes seem so different, however each of the cultures celebrates the fusion of the cuisine of their ancestors with those of modern day recipes. And although there were distinctions in the past between the flavors and the ingredients found in the food of the Indians, the Chinese and the Malays,this fusion combined with the 200 years of coexistence on the same small island, has served to create the dishes now that are truly unique to the Singapore character.

The Various Flavors in Singapore Restaurants is a post from: PRSky

Choosing a New York Restaurant

admin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 05:08:57 +0000

New York is a diverse place harboring lots of different cultures. In fact there are few cities around the world that has as large a range of restaurants.

Some of the top New York restaurants have unsurpassed quality and many of the chefs are celebrities with many having TV shows. Much of the food available around the city comes from afar although there are a few dishes that are unique to New York including, pizza, pretzels and cheesecake.

The New York deli developed from the large Jewish population of the city. Many of the cities great delicacies such as pastrami on rye, bagels with lox and cream cheese and blintzes became available through the delis.

Areas in New York that are worth exploring include Chinatown and Little Italy.

There are over twenty five restaurants in New York and so there is an enormous choice. You will have fun picking them out!

Choosing a New York Restaurant is a post from: PRSky