Showing posts with label middle eastern. Show all posts
Showing posts with label middle eastern. Show all posts

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Sultan Kebab, Inglourious Basterds, Food for thought

It was a Friday and after morning rounds we were supposed to attend happy flower's tut at 2pm but when we found out it was an invite to join another group (no need for so much vigorous thinking of ways out) and that my effort to ask around for other groups' happenings (another case presentation at 1pm) were to naught, we decided to head far away for lunch. Anyway the journey here was most roundabout. We thought of Whampoa Market again, but somehow we went to Little India - got lost, not finding the Tekka Market carpark and landing up instead at Mustafa, curse the one way roads, and cos the other car decided not to have lunch at Komala's and suggested a pay-as-you-deem-fit vegeterian place which didnt pick up calls, we landed at Sunshine Plaza where the Thai food was closed and finally we ended up walking over to Sultan Kebab (1 Sophia Road #01-15 Peace Centre). Hell of an unexpected journey.

What Kelly and I wanted to try was the beef kebab here, cos the first time we were here in the evening for dinner only the chicken was left - so we tried the chicken with rice and the iskender chicken. Hence this time, we tried the beef kebab roll - and it was lovely, with the tortilla being toasty and warm, with generous slabs of beef kebab. It seems really healthy though, with no compromise to taste - it was extremely tasty.

The iskender beef, on the other hand, packed even more beef on the plate - and is on a piece of toasted bread. If you eat it fast enough, you might be able to eat some toasted crusty bread before the sauce sogs it all up.
Along with some old school kacang in a cone from the uncle hawking outside...
We then walked over to Le Cafe Confectionery & Pastry (264 Middle Road Elias Building) to try the soya bean tarts - as strongly recommended by Dedrick who said that it was like a taste of heaven - and it seems popular for each customer was only allowed ONE box of eight tarts (preferbly to call before collection). They sell a range of pastries of which their pineapple tarts in the shape of golf balls seem to be most popular.


The soya bean tart was a contrast of textures - really smooth, wobbly silky soya bean custard on a hard buttery crust. It was almost as if the crust was premade and the custard was just poured in on order. There were other flavours for the soya bean egg tart and we'd love to try the grass jelly soya bean egg tart the next time round.
Kelly got innovative and cos we moved onto Rochor Original Beancurd (2 Short Street) for tauhuay later on, she scooped some of her tauhuay into the hard crust (after she sucked up all the original custard) and concluded her own invention was tastier! Note that the hot tauhuay here is much better than the cold (probably in storage for too long).
Looks like our CG mates were getting really too innovative. (and he was then having tauhuay-orrhoea through all the created orifices....gross) Marc's dad unknowingly finished this up when he saw this tart....lol ignorance is bliss..
Luckily I decided not to join any of the 2 tutorials cos they ended up being 1/2 hour apart from each other so decided to hurry to watch Inglorious Basterds with Kelly at the Cathy (yes this is a dated entry, this was way before surg started), and we were amazed by how sadist we were at the sadism. I mean, I was wincing from my behaviour. This movie comes in 5 parts, in each character's perspective and talks about how it all finally culminates in an act, which was reminiscent of War of the Worlds - this movie, if you are a movie buff, has plenty of references to other films, Quarantino style.
Introduced Kels to my new finding.....the Diet Cream Soda Root Beer is DAMN FRIGGIN AWESOME.
Tried the portuguese egg tarts at the Mooncake Festival at Takashimaya at this stall called Yah Weh Confectionary. This is almost like eating a sweet eggy curry puff for the crust was extremely flaky yet thick, and the custard itself was also blowtorched to form this lovely crust. The main outlet is at a really secluded place in Yishun so I guess this is the first and last time we're having this.
Took the train down to Raffles City cos we were still on a quest to find that kaya toast at Beach Road when we stumbled upon these creatures..... there are almost always strange walking advertisements around - the last time round we spotted naked people in cardboards advertising for Ikea.
Finally nailed down YY Ka Fei Dian (37 Beach Road). This is the row of shophouses along Beach Road that is behind Raffles Hotel, on the way to Shaw Towers. The teh ping (Kelly's) and my hot yuanyang was really shiok! They still use stockings to brew their coffee, no less.
Their kaya buns are just what you expect - lightly toasted, with steamy soft bread within. Not spectacular - for I think if I practise enough at home I can achieve this too! Note that they do not have the thin kaya toast here - if you want the flat bread its pretty much the normal Gardenia variety they use. Popped by the National Library again and managed 3 books - The Pig that wants to be eaten, Book of God and Physics, The Thing around your neck. I just finished the Hour i first believed... not great.
After the library visit, we went to Food for thought (420 North Bridge Road #01-06 North Bridge Centre) . I dined here with Matt and Chiara (desserts only), and subsequently Jillian (dinner - sandwich and soup set), so I roughly knew what I liked at this place. What I didnt try though during my previous visits, was this very interesting tomato garlic soup - this had a layer of olive oil atop the soup and when stirred around this was a symphony of all the condiments as mentioned, and was lovely with the chewy bread that was provided, which soaked up the soup very well.
The mushroom soup here didnt come with any cream, and you can taste the earthiness of the mushrooms in this soup.
We then had desserts - if you get a chance try the Brownie-Expresso-Marshmallow-Chocolate-sauce-icecream this dessert rocks my world. But I decided to try something different and had this peach butterscotch crumble which turned out to be rather disappointing. Warm peach pieces taste strange (prefer the frozen cold ones in condensed milk!), and the butterscotch got too cloying amidst the (very little) crumble pieces.
But the red velvet cake tasted as good as ever - sour cream cheese layers amidst the red flour - its a tad like a carrot cake minus the nuts and other condiments. Kels said the colouration is cos of the vinegar treatment to the flour. Imagine your friend's surprise/horror as she slices the whole cake to find the cross section to be as such!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Sultan Kebab, Lion City Geylang Lor 9 Porridge, Soybean City

After an insipid breakfast with the respi team and another insipider part2 lunch with a huge M4 group at the TTSH Kopitiam, and 2 more failed attempts at the Whampoa market and the Departures at Plaza Sing, Kelly and I decided to vent it off by this mighty flight of stairs next to Cathy. It leads to..... *huff puff cramps*...
This! A very very interesting mix of tenants here, and we wondered into a film exhibition by the graduating cohort of the digital academy of (we think) a polytechnic. We checked out Sinema@ Old School (its actually a side entrance) and we will be back to watch a local film when the ones we marked out are showing. They are a small local art-film cinema and will be showing films from the region in time to come.

We also walked by Timbre @ Old School - and it was open! (at around 5-6pm) Strange to see so few groups of people here - okay, its even stranger to see Timbre in daylight!

Truth is, we were intending to take a short (and rather high) cut thru to Peace Centre where we intended to have dinner. We love the eccentric architecture here. Do you spot the similarities and striking differences between this pair of semi-ds?

And we walked into Air, this furniture shop at the foot of Mount Sophia. Again do you see the contrast between the tube box and the modern designer furniture?
And this architecture of the building by the side of Peace Centre is brand new - many food tenants on the ground level - this Korean place we almost wanted to try (but sounded too healthy for us - their slogan was no spice (what!!), no pigment -very healthy and natural!), Starbucks too.
There were many art figures in the empty spaces future tenants will fill. How many people do you see here?

We finally finally reached Sultan Kebab (Level 1, Peace Centre) to find it really packed. There was a long queue (and many bystanders waiting for their orders to be prepared) and by the time we arrived the beef kebab already ran out.

Basically there are only 2 meats- chicken and beef, and it comes with rice, in a roll, with bread or iskender. Since we had no choice but chicken, we had one with rice and the other one done iskender style.
Chicken Kebab with rice, $8

I really liked the mildly flavoured (seemingly coconut-flavoured to me and seemingly chicken-flavoured to Kelly) short grained rice, but Kelly thinks the cold rice is a put-off. The sauce was really very good! It has subtle hints of tomato in the savoury, slightly spicy gravy. The meat was tender and there was alot of it.

Iskander Kebab $8

This comes with yoghurt and tomato. And the chicken meat is on toasted crisp bread. We liked this better.

When we were recee-ing Sultan Kebab (we were at the side of Peace Centre at first, Sultan Kebab is located at the main front entrance), we passed by a food court in Peace Centre with this huge signboard saying Shi Cheng (Lion City) Geylang Lor 9 Porridge and we told ourselves we will go back to try in case we cant find Sultan Kebab....Well guess what...we still went back to try DESPITE having tried Sultan Kebab!
Lion City frog porridge - chilli version $8

We really loved the sauce - it was packed with flavour and the chilli was super good! The meat was so smooth it has the texture of scallop. We really really liked this we must go to the original outlet to try it again - not sure if this is a franchise - but it is still tasty anyway.
We ordered the $2 porridge - you should eat the porridge with the sauce otherwise it will be too salty. The grains are slightly rougher and flavoured with ginger - but overall nice to eat with the sauce.

After that we walked around Prinsep Street area (went to recee Creperie Des Arts and the Japanese Manga Cafe near it but that'd be for another time) then we went back to the Selegie area again to eat beancurd at Rochor Original Beancurd( 2 Short Street) I've come here numerous times over the years as the default tauhuay cum supper place, unfortunately I've tried much BETTER tau huay over the years as well (the old airport road one takes the cake). Here the tau-huay comes in 2 sizes - 60 cents and $1 and all come prepacked in the plastic containers even if you dine in. The portion is puny! We took the hot version, $1. But it is not very smooth and was a rather dense curd - overpowered by alot of sugar syrup.
The grass jelly ($1) was firmer and sturdier and drowned in sugar syrup as well.

I ordered another soy bean (thirsty from all that walking) and Kelly bought youtiao and butterfly which we shared. The you tiao was bready and slightly crisp - we agreed that snacks like fritters don't make us go wow but its very comfort food for us. Dipping it in soya bean, chilling by the roadside is so old school.(provided it is not too hot)
I had this Sesame ball with Peanut paste . I like anything with sesame seeds and peanut so this was really one friggin delicious fritter

After chomping through most of it I realise I should show you how delicious the inside is. It is actually a chewy Muah Chee (its not the same dough fritter breed as youtiao) with a sesame batter coating and the thick sticky dense peanut paste is n the centre. It is like a deepfried cross between a peanut pancake and muah chee - yumm!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Kazbar

we stumbled into this place when we were checking out the newly renovated Cuppage terrace and we were lured by the bellydancers here (and eventually by the boss' enticing of free drinks) and since our original plan was to check out middle eastern food at bali lane anyway (but didnt go there cos stupid halloween costumes shop at bugis closes at 5pm on sat) we decided to venture into this place instead of Kazu at Cuppage...

everything here is imported from the middle east....from the furninshings to the chef to the portraits to the plates...not sure about the belly dancer (who knocked off early so i couldnt grab a picture of the hottest stuff in the restaurant)

Mixed Mezze Platter $18

Combination of hummus, moutabel, babaganoush, cheese borek & falafel

sounds as greek as can be for the ininitiated, this platter is a mixture of cold dips (to be eaten with the pita bread) and hot starters. For the cold starters, i liked the moutabel most (its a smoked eggplant dip with tahini and lemon juice). i havent tasted babaghanaoush before (which is grilled eggplant, tomato and capsicum salad) but it had a rather tangy taste - and it was the last to finish (ie we werent fans of it) . humus is the usual normal chickpea puree like in other middle eastern restaurants.

the 2 hot starters are the cheese borek (the 4 spring rolls sticking out - they are herbs and feta cheese pastry) and falafel (the 4 balls of chickpeas and beans tossed in spices beneath the spring rolls)

Mixed Grill Platter. $35

lamb chops, shish taouk, shish kebab and kofta kebabs served with 3 sauces

sounds greek to a layman again. okay, shish taouk is char grilled marinated chicken, whilst shish kebab is char grilled lamb cubes. i liked the shish kebab best!! i like lamb alot, but i thought the lamb chop was a little anorexic.


Royal Cous cous $25

cous cous with tender lamb shank, shish taouk and lamb merguez served with vegetable stew( picture below) and harissa sauce

i liked this main the best, simply because the lamb shank was really tender. the lamb merguez is a lamb sausage. the cous cous itself was well fried yet not oily, and very flavourful.

the vegetable stew looked like a curry but nope, its that colour because of the spices and there isnt actually any curry powder inside. the cabbages and capsicum soaked up the spicy stew and was went really well with the cous cous.

Baklawa (complimentary)

Filo pastry with assorted nuts and honey syrup

this is like middle eastern bread and pudding, except that there were pistachio nuts swimming about the layers of milk and cream!! i love the pastry bits as well.

Strawberry fondue (complimentary)

Strawberries and cream to wrap up the evening. It's really sweet of the boss to buy as drinks and desserts (and even an invite to shisha but we turned him down =p) but can see why because cuppage terrace was rather empty for a saturday evening, compared to the nearby emerald hill, perpetually infested by expats. it was only day 10 of opening day for kazbar, so they're still trying to iron things out (like the belly dancer knocks off too early on a saturday night!!!!!) but overall the food and service (the boss was really friendly, chatting with us throughout dinner telling tales of how he started off at Postbar at Fullerton to how he has the best job in the world of dining and wining his guests) is commendable and worth a visit.

I must go and check out Alaturka Turkish restaurant (as recommended by kums) and El Sheikh soon !

Kazbar (Cuppage Terrace)

33 Cuppage Road Cuppage Terrace