food

Shark tale

It didn’t occur to me that Edwin’s a diver. When the 2nd dish was served, M went out for some “oxygen” (read: hoon kee). I called out to him, reminding not to miss the shark’s fin soup. One of the ladies at the table reminded me that it’s not shark’s fin soup as Edwin “the diver” will not have any of it.

I went “ah….”. And my twisted mind thought of something. Chinese are blamed for depleting the population of sharks in the ocean. But! What if chinese came up with a mock shark’s fin? Fake, original imitation, replica, vegetarian… whatever you want to call it. I was just thinking, if the chinese can make soya sauce from hair, eggs from flour… it shouldn’t be too difficult right?

Imagine one day, the chinese are credited for saving the sharks. How ironic.

M came back, refreshed with oxygen, took the soup and said, “not bad eh, the shark’s fin”. See! he can’t even tell the difference.

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posted by wansheng on September 9th 2008 in food, voices, weddings

More on 猫山皇

Over the past few days in camp, I found out alot more on durians, the good, the bad and the ugly. It seems like alot of people know about “that cut throat durian shop in the east” (as Glenn Ong on Class 95 said it this morning).

I was home last night and I told my dad how much I paid for that 3 spikey fruit. He went silent for 10 secs. I can hear “dumb son” somewhere between that 10sec of silence:P I would have said that. Then I told him it’s “猫山皇”. Apparently he have never heard of it. “I’ve heard of 老虎山, but never 猫山. Maybe the 老虎山 is gone, so they call it the 猫山.” Very smart. I’d have said that too:P Next year, it might be 老鼠山.

He went on to ask me how many of us took the 3 durians. I said 3. 10Kg of durians for 3 people, no wonder I get nose bleed. On Class 95 morning show today, Glenn mentioned that he has a very stupid friend that paid S$60 for one durian at the same shop. I was going to sms Class95, but I thought maybe not. At S$66.6 per durian, it’s going to be more than stupid.

Today, I took my IPPT. One run reveals everything about my age. The route seems to be longer every year. Luckily, my trusty pair of legs and lungs still manage to give me a nice S$200 reward. Powered by durians, driven by money.

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posted by wansheng on August 1st 2008 in food, personal

猫山皇 – the aftermath

Out in fields today, my nose bled twice. First I paid for the devil’s ($66.6/pc) durians, then I lost blood!:s

I wonder how it sounds like…

“Lelong Lelong!! Durians!! 3 for S$200!!”

*cringe*

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posted by wansheng on July 31st 2008 in food, personal, voices

I am 猫山皇!!

I’m sure most of you know durians. But, do you know 猫山皇 durians?:) I didn’t know, but I after today, I don’t think I’ll forget it.

After talking about having a durian feast for a couple of weeks, Chris, Pris and me decided we’ll do it today. I told them we’ll have them at the new durian joint near Joo Chiat Pl.

me: Boss, durians for 3 person. Can recommend something good?

DS (Durian Seller): (in that familiar JB accent) SURE!! You must try 猫山皇, yellow creamy flesh, sweet or bitter ones, small seeds… best!

me: orh ok… how much?

DS: 1kg 20 dollar.

me: hmmm… (discuss with Chris)

me (to DS): We’ll take 1 each from different grades (some cheaper ones).

DS: Don’t bother lah, you take 猫山皇, you won’t want to try others!

me: erm… ok.

DS opened one, said that’s a bitter one and asked me to try it (which I did). Opened another one that’s sweet and got Chris to try it. Then opened the last one which he said was “bittersweet”. He then put them into a basket and have them weighed.

I looked at the scale, blinked a few times. Damn! Nothing changed. The scale pointed to 10Kg. I looked at Chris. Our facial expressions looked as if a durian just dropped on our feet.

me and Chris: Can we take one out? Two will do fine.

DS: (waving his hand at us… which coincidentally, was holding the knife) 小弟，开了不可以不要… (you must buy it since the durians are already opened)

me: orh…

DS: I give you one small one for free lah.

DS to fellow DS: 来！两百块！收钱！(200 dollar for this guy)

We spent the next hour stuffing ourselves with 猫山皇 durians, making sure no flesh was spared. I tell you, for once, I felt like a tourist in Singapore. I don’t know was it the sugar in the blood, we laughed so much on 猫山皇 jokes that people around us must’ve thought we’re crazy. Laughing at our own expense, literally. Two of the durians were nice, the other one was so so. Well, we had a good time, at a price.

I brought the “free” durian that I got back home and offered it to my housemate. He put it in the fridge and said he’ll have it later. I’m going to check on him in a while. Once he take the first bite, I’ll charge him S$50:P *evil laughs* I am… 猫山皇!!!:D *LOL*

*MEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!*

Durians 1 – 0 Radish (菜头)

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posted by wansheng on July 30th 2008 in food, personal, voices

Hotpot! Hotpork!:D

Another food recommendation. I met Chris and Pris again for one of our many foodie outings. This time we decided not to leave an arm or leg at the restaurant (unlike the last time round…:P), we headed for Paradiz center for some steamboat at Hey Hey Hotpot.

Heard it’s opened by one of the local celebrity. That aside, the food I say, it’s pretty good. I’m not usually into steamboat because I have the impression that the ingredients are always the same. But this place proved me wrong. The soup base is surprisingly delicious, unlike the usual MSG soup we get at other steamboat buffets. The must have in the menu will be the fried fish skin. Just a warning, it’s bloody addictive.

The yesterday, I joined my ex-colleagues at Brotzeit at Vivocity for some german cuisine. What better way to have dinner, since most of us have at some time in our career travelled to Germany for work before. We weren’t really adventurous, so we stuck to the tradition, pork knuckles, sausages and good ol’ beer. What can I say? It’s as close as you can get to the real thing. For beer, I tried the Roggen… woooo… that thing is goooooooood:D

So, two places recommended this week, Hey Hey Hotpot and Brotzeit at Vivocity. Tune in to our next issue… if I don’t make it to Manado that is:P

Next time I’ll provide pictures… I try to promise:P

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posted by wansheng on June 20th 2008 in food, voices

The weekend eating escapade

Last Saturday, I met Cindy and Dennis and another couple friend of theirs for dinner at Eng Seng Coffeeshop. For those who don’t know, this is no ordinary coffeeshop. It’s where you will find the best (best is subjective) Black Pepper Crab in Singapore. We met at 5pm and were lucky to get a seat. In less than 15mins, there were more than 20 people in the queue.

I’ve only tried them once, when my friend packed it to his place. I remembered it tasting fantastic even though it was a little cold. This time round however, it’s served sizzling hot and it’s freaking amazing. It’s so good it’s almost a crime. How can someone make such sinful food taste so good. Damn!!

After that, we decided crabs aren’t enough, so we headed down to 717 at Highland center to get some durians before heading to their place for a durian feast. He he he! While the durians taste really good, but I have to say, the shell weighs alot more than the flesh!! Really wished we bought more.

After we had the fruits, Cindy said we can get rid of the smell on our hands by running water through the insides of the shell before washing our hands with the water. It doesn’t make sense to me, but I tried anyway. Now my question is… how did it happen?!?! The smell was gone!! I mean, gone!! no smell. No traces of durians on my fingers. Does anyone know why? Is there any scientific explanation to it? Or has it got something to do with Zheng He?:P

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posted by wansheng on June 16th 2008 in food, voices

Japanese good

Finally I got to sleep before 2am for the past 3 weeks? Things are slowing down abit on my side as I recover from the 3 weeks of editing/shooting/website updating. Finally I can take my meals at normal times and leave the house to get some fresh air. The only time I left the house for the past 3 weeks was to run errands and meet clients for dinner.

The other day, me, Chris+Pris checked out this Japanese restaurant, which Nick told me was really really nice. According to him, he wasn’t shown a menu and the chef recommended him based on what he likes. To him, that’s the best ever japanese food he ever had in Singapore. When asked about the bill, I realized it’s one of those “it better be good” prices. So we decided to try it out. I reached a little late and both of them were already seated. First thing they said was, “there is a menu!!”. I’m like… ok. Browsing through the menu, I understand how they could chalk up that “better be good” bill.

We picked out food randomly with some recommendation from the waitress. Had yellow-tail sashimi (die die must have), sea urchins, soba (since when green noodles taste so good?), tomatos… etc. The prices of sashimi is well… “better be good”. And it turned out to be freaking good!! I never knew sashimi tasted like that ever?! I used to think they all taste the same.

Ok, so where’s this place. It’s at Devonshire road (just beside the SPC kiosk along Killeney Road) and it’s called Sushi Yoshida. It’s right beside this restaurant called “Bar-Stop”. If you don’t mind paying a little premium for good japanese food, this is the place to go.