Food Adventure in Taichung and Tainan

Taichung and Tainan, 18 October 2010 to 18 November 2010

I went to Taichung to search for some humble yet absolutely delicious Taiwanese cuisine. In the month of October, the weather was cooling and it was the best time to go to Fengjia Night Market, the biggest night market in Taiwan. It was a great place to “settle” my dinner. There were plenty food stalls to choose from, this made me a happy glutton. There were fish eggs, fried squids with wasabi, Big Intestine with Glutinous Rice, pig blood cake (大肠包小肠) and oden (a Japanese winter dish consisting of several ingredients such as boiled eggs, daikon radish, konnyaku, and processed fish cakes stewed in a light, soy-flavoured dashi broth). The one I liked the most was the fried squid with wasabi. The fried squids were crispy outside but chewy inside. Wasabi was the prefect sauce for the dish. It was absolutely delicious.

In the month of November, since it was approaching winter, the cuisine that did justice in winter is ginger duck soup (姜母鸭). A certain kind of duck was selected for the soup. It was fried with ginger and other ingredients and was brewed with chicken and duck broth. Rice wine may be added to increase flavour and made this soup simply irresistible. Side dishes such as pork livers, pork intestine, and golden needle mushroom and bean curbs were cooked with the ginger duck soup, just like steamboat. The soup and the side dishes were tasted together with the mee suah (rice vermicelli). This dish was awesome.

The rice tube pudding (筒仔米糕) was tasty as well. It tasted almost like rice dumplings. The dish was almost prepared the same way as the rice dumpling too. The glutinous rice was cooked with stewed pork and was steamed in a small metal container. So the steamed rice pudding took the form of the container and so it was known as rice tube pudding. The rice tube pudding was delicious.

Rice Cake (碗粿) was a popular street food in Tainan, it was absolutely delicious. It tasted almost exactly like Chwee Kueh (水粿) from Malaysia and Singapore but more flavour and more ingredients. Pork, dried shrimps, hard-boiled eggs and other ingredients were mixed with the glutinous rice juice in a bowl and the mixture was steamed. The taste was simply irresistible.

My next stop will be Ding Tai Fung, the flagship restaurant in Taipei. Stay tuned, folks.

Justin's Signatures

Taipei, 16 Oct 2010

Cruising aimlessly in Taipei City, I accidentally found Justin’s Signature, a flag ship French restaurant owned by Chef Justin Quek. Chef Quek founded the legendary Les Amis, a well-known French restaurant in Singapore. He sold Les Amis and venture overseas such as Shanghai and Taipei to introduce the Chinese what is French cuisine is all about. He used to own La Petite Cuisine Brasserie, one of the top 5 restaurants in Taipei. He closed down the restaurant and setup a new restaurant called Justin’s Signatures in Taipei City this year. I cannot miss this chance to taste his artistic creation.

Justin’s Signature is simple decorated yet gorgous, classical music is played throughout the whole restaurant and it is definitely a place for fine dining. Justin’s Signatures could be one of the top 5 restaurants in Taipei end of this year, in my opinion.

I ordered a 7-course dinner for my eat-venture experience. The first course was Gillardeau Oyster served with Aruga Caviar and Citrus Vinaigrette. La Gillardeau was fresh and the taste was spot on. However I prefer shaved ice added in the oyster as well. This would bring down the temperature of the oyster and brought out the natural sweetness of the oyster and the taste of Aruga Caviar and Citrus Vinaigrette.

The second course was the Autumn Sensation and it consisted of 4 small appetizers. They were Goose Foie Gras Gateau, Cep Gratin and Cherry Tomato Confit, Duck Confit with Parsley Jus, and Boudin Noir Royale with Mousseline Potato. The four appetizers were exciting and tasty, but I preferred Boudin Noir Royale with Mousseline Potato because the taste was absolutely absolutely delicious.

The third course was Line Caught Pacific Catches and French Chanterelle. It was actually Brasied Fish Fillet in Chanterelle Nage, Sherry Vinegar. The sauce was creamy and enhanced the taste of the fish fillet. The fish fillet was well seasoned and it was absolutely delicious. This is one of my favourite dishes in the menu.

The fourth course was Live Marine Lobster, light smoked and pan-roasted, served Duck Gizzard, Red Wine reduction. Chef Quek did not forget to introduce duck gizzard, which is a popular snack in Taiwan, into French cuisine. The lobster and the duck gizzard seemed to be an odd combination but both ingredients brought out the contrasts of each other and they were absolutely delicious. The freshness, tenderness and the natural sweetness from the lobster simulated my taste bud. The gizzard was chewy and tasty. The two ingredients definitely worked together and made this dish very exciting.

The fifth course was U.S. Beef, roasted to medium rare with Sautéed Sweet Bread, Wild Pepper “Ma-Gao” sauce. The beef was absolutely tender, delicious and juicy. The accompanied Wild Pepper “Ma-Gao” sauce added sweet and peppery flavour to the beef without overpowering it. The sauce and the beef were absolutely complemented to each other. However I still preferred to taste the beef without any sauce. I wanted the beef to “speak for itself”. In fact in my humble opinion, the juice in the beef is the best sauce.

The sixth course was Avant Dessert. It was guava juice with apple cider vinegar. It was tasty and refreshing. It helped to sooth my digestion system and ready for the real dessert. The last course was Chef’s Desserts which were Chocolate and Seasonal Fruit Creation. The desserts were tasty and sweet, but no that sweet. A cup of coffee with Petits Douceurs was the prefect way to end this sumptuous dinner.

The service is good and there are several menus you can choose from based what you can afford. This restaurant is high recommended.

Address: 17, Lane 265, Sector 2 Dunhua South Road, Da-an District, Taipei 106

Telephone:+886-02-2736-8000

Website: http://www.justinquek.com/

Beautiful Taipei, Tasty Street Food

Taipei, 16 Oct to 17 Oct 2010

Once again I stepped into the land, which is well known for street food, Taipei. There are quite a number of night markets in Taipei, the most well known night in Taipei is Shilin Night Market. You can take a subway and stop at Jiantou station at 8pm to reach Shilin Night Market.

There is quite a variety of street food in Taiwan. What I like most are stinky tofu, Taiwanese style fried chicken cutlet, tempura and stewed pork over the rice. Stewed pork over the rice is absolutely delicious. The savoury of the stew pork with plain flavor of rice is absolutely spot on. I will return to Taiwan for just the dish.

What I preferred to enjoy the most is eating stewed pork over the rice at Tamsui Fisherman’s Wharf and watching the beautiful sunset at the same time with a cup of papaya milk shake. The feeling was simply awesome.

I would be going to Justin’s Signatures for fine dining experience. Chef Justin Quek who established the well-known Les Amis in Singapore found Justin’s Signatures in Taipei.  I will write a separate post for Justin’s Signatures. Stays tune folks.

I had a Date with Yakiniku

Ulsan, Korea

7 October 2010

Folks, I finally had the opportunity to fly to South Korea to commission a project. I traveled to Ulsan, a town that famous for whales.  Again I was working on a steam turbine project. I would not miss the opportunity for great Korean cuisine for my four-day working experience in Ulsan.

I have a beautiful Korean friend by the name of Ji Yeon, who is studying in Scotland. She is one of the best photographer and digital artist I know so far. She is extremely cute, beautiful and talented. I asked her what dishes represented Korean cuisine other than kimchi, she told me that would be Yakiniku (grilled meat), Oritang (soup with simmering duck and various vegetables) and Jajangmyeon (noodles with black bean sauce, and meats and such of my choosing). She also told me I must tried Yakiniku above all else. I headed for her advise and tried Yakiniku.

I was told that Koreans were not particular about food. Their food were just rice in soup with kimchi basically. The most well known dishes I heard so far in Singapore were Ginseng Chicken Soup with Gluttonous Rice and Yakiniku. I tried the Ginseng Chicken Soup with Gluttonous Rice and I liked the dish very much. The soup was clear and tasty. The abalone added sweetness to the soup. The glutinous rice and the chicken absorbed the flavour of ginseng, abalone and other herbs.  I will definitely find a Korean restaurant in Singapore to taste the dish again.

My customer knew that I loved pork. So he brought me to different restaurants in Ulsan for Yakiniku every day. I fell in love with Korean pork. I could see the fats within the meat and these made the meat so beautiful. It could be mistakenly by others that it was marble meat, Tokyo X. In fact the meat is the pork belly. If I grilled it perfectly, the meat was soft and tender. If I overcooked it for too long, it became crispy, just like bacon. The best way to eat with the grilled pork was to warp it with the grilled kimchi and a special sauce together by veggie leaves. The special sauce consisted of sesame oil, fine salt and pepper. The sauce did justice to the grilled pork and perfect the taste. The sesame oil added nice fragrant to the grilled pork, the fine salt enhanced the pork flavour and the pepper added spicy flavour to it. I loved the dish very much. I felt guilty because I had too much pork fats during my four-day trips. But the guiltiness would not stop me for tasting the grilled pork. =P

Who wants to try these? They were Beondegi, the silkworm pupa, and they were quite popular in Korea cuisine as side dish. I guessed my good Scottish friend, Andrew would like to try them.

Folks, time for me to sleep. I needed to go to the dreamland to taste my Korean grilled pork once again. Catch later.

East meets West again.

Chef Daniel's Kitchen, Singapore

1 October 2010

I always dream to return to Chef Daniel’s Kitchen. Chef Daniel is truly a master in East-meets-West fusion cuisine. If my memory serves me right, my first time tasting Chef Daniel’s artistic creations was in 27 April 2010. I ordered Foie Gras Amandine and the award-winning Wok Charred Salmon. Work Charred Salmon is truly an awesome dish and I will definitely return to Chef Daniel’s Kitchen for this dish if I station in Singapore temporary.

I was there again but this time I would like to try something else. I was wondering if there was any dish from Chef Daniel that taste far beyond his legendary Wok Charred Salmon. I decided to taste his Six Sense Mushroom Soup with stir-fried cabbage and spinach and Spring Chicken with Pan-Fried Foie Gras.

Six Sense Mushroom Soup, I could not believe what I saw in the menu. Chef Daniel turned the ordinary Chinese herbal soup into a western style mushroom soup. Folk, let me introduce this Six Sense Soup (六味汤). Six Sense Soup is a popular and common Chinese herbal soup in the Chinese community. The ingredients consist of Xiang Lian (湘莲), Qian Shi (欠实), Huai Shan (淮山), Yu Zhu (玉竹), Bai He (百合), Dried Longan (龙眼肉). This soup improves digestion, appetite and nourishes the lungs. The soup can be cooked as a dessert. I never thought the soup could be transformed in the form of mushroom soup. I must admit I am a fan of Chef Daniel now. Six Sense Mushroom Soup was tasty; the herbs gave nice scent and sweetness to the soup. The soup was just like the common mushroom cream soup but with a slight herbal flavor. I think non-herbal-flavour dinners may like this soup. The flavour of dried cabbage and spinach harmonized the flavour of the soup; I really like to consume the veggies with the soup.

Spring Chicken with Pan-Fried Foie Gras was also another artistic creation too. It was specifically designed to bring out the sweetness and saltiness of the two main ingredients that were spring chicken and foie gras. The dish actually consisted of oven-roasted spring chicken on assorted bean and pan-fried foie gras on caramel onion. The spring chicken was a bit salty. Folks, as you all know the flavour chicken was quite bland, the saltiness in the spring chicken actually enhanced the flavour. The foie gras was creamy and was melt-in-mouth tender. The caramel onion added sweetness to foie gras and this gave the later the ultimate luxury taste to the diners. I really like the dish but I like Wok Charred Salmon better.

After my dinner I attended the outing with the members of the Photographic Society of Singapore to take some “fishy” photos in Jurong Fishery Port. The outing was great and so the seafood. It was a pity for not doing any “fishy business” with the fishmongers because I had no opportunity to cook the following weeks because I would be flying to Ulsan (South Korea), and Taipei and Taizhong (Taiwan). It would be pity if I bought the seafood and the seafood was left in my fridge for several weeks and loss the freshness by the time I return to Singapore.

Folks, stay tuned to Allez Cuisine and wait for my “eat-venture” in Ulsan, Korea.

Chef Daniel’s Kitchen
#07-02 Iluma,
201 Victoria Street
Singapore 188067

Opens: Mondays to Sundays, 11.30am to 10.30pm