Gordon Ramsay Accepts Singapore's Hawker Challenge!

WOW! The famous Michelin-starred chef will be making his way to Singapore to take on 3 local hawker dishes. I would love to see and hear his reactions to them first, and then see how he tries to improve on it and try to make a better version!

Check out his acceptance video here:
<div class="freq-embed" style="width:640px;color:#666;font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial;font-weight:bold;font-size:640px;"><div><iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=10152932405410655" width="640"  height="360"  frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div style="text-align:right;font-size:0.02em;margin-top:3px;">Watch more <a  style="color:#0095DD;text-decoration:none;"  href="http://www.frequency.com/topic/food?cid=5-1309">Food</a> videos on <a  style="color:#0095DD;text-decoration:none;"  href="http://www.frequency.com">Frequency</a></div></div>

And click here for the write-up on this endeavour:

And finally, click here to vote your top 3 hawker dishes that you want Ramsay to take on.

Currently, at the top are Char Kway Teow, Chicken Rice and Chilli Crab.
Mky's views are that Ramsay may not understand "wok hei", which is the taste that comes from a well-used hot fired wok to do a fry-up. Secondly, although he will likely be able to replicate the chicken in the chicken rice dish, he might have trouble with the rice itself. He may not be able to make it smooth and greasy enough. The famous Chilli Crab dish, however, could be his easiest challenge.

This is all very exciting stuff, and we look forward to watching Ramsay take on the hawker centre! Thanks Singtel for making this possible!

Home-made: Healthy Quinoa Lunch

Our healthy lunch made by Mky! Quinoa with brussel sprouts, chestnuts, sweetcorn and carrots, and topped with toasted walnuts!

Photo credit this time courtesy of Mky's post-processing and her dad's iPhone.



Home-made: Roasted Spiced Beans

For a healthy snack, try roasting your own beans at home!  It's healthy and very addictive!

From Mky:

Ingredients used are red kidney, white cannellini and garbanzo beans.

Method:
Drain the three tins of beans and then rinse them thoroughly. Drain again and pat dry with kitchen towels. Place beans in single layer on cookie sheet lined with tinfoil or baking paper, Silpat etc.

Toss beans thoroughly in 1+tbsp olive oil, followed by your choice of dry spices to coat. Today I used white truffle oil and truffle rock salt, paprika and a bit of turmeric for colour. Roast at 200-220 deg Celsius for 45-60 mins depending on your oven. It can end up crispy or firm and bitey in texture, depending on your heat and duration of roasting.

In addition, you can try salt, garlic powder and black pepper as a combo, or cinnamon and sugar for a sweet version, or a variety of "Italian" herbs, or rosemary with truffle oil, etc. The variations are endless!


Update (3 Jun '12): One of our friends tried the following mix and commented that it was "so easy and addictive!"
Garbanzo beans, butter beans and cannellini, seasoning was hot curry powder, garlic oil and pink salt.

okb - one kampong bahru

one kampong bahru is located at the corner of Kampong Bahru Road and Spottiswoode Park, right beside Savor Rey La Mian (which we learned is no longer there!!). From what I've heard, they have an interesting assortment of baked goods by day, but by night it becomes a bistro, serving wine by glass and beer as well. Each dish in the menu has a suggested wine pairing to go with it, for those who like that sort of thing.



The sharing plates concept reminds me a lot of Ku De Ta, but perhaps on a slightly less opulent end of the scale. You also don't get to enjoy a panoramic view of the Singapore city skyline, but hey, our favourite dog groomer is just a few shops down the row, and if you can get a lot, coupon parking is a plus. Chill music can be heard over the speakers, not loud enough to drown out casual conversation, and the vibe of the place is just relaxed with more than a hint of class. The clipboard menu isn't very extensive, with about 10 items on the menu, excluding the side dishes and drinks, just right for a gastronomic tease.

The seared scallops ($9) should be advertised as just seared scallops with secret sauce, rather than blatantly stating 'buah keluar oil' - it's actually really good with the seared outer and semi-soft inner, flavoured by the oil, but I keep wondering how it's supposed to taste like buah keluar, thus diminishing the wow factor. Comes on a bed of salad.

The sliced angus beef ($18) is garnished with raw onions, coriander and a sweet sauce. The best bits were the pure unadulterated fat, which was almost foie gras like, unfortunately I only came across 1 slice like that.

The divine Sheperd's Pie - is actually a meatball covered with mashed potato and pumpkin mix, of the very soft and moist kind. Because it was baked, you also get a little of the charred crisp bits. Really outstanding dish! (at $8, it's the cheapest of the three too).

The dishes came one at a time, allowing us time to slowly savour and discuss the flavours, then musing about other similar dishes we've had elsewhere. Water is provided from the onset and constantly refilled, something that Mky and I appreciate in any restaurant. The waiters are polite and fade into the background, and inquire your views on the food when you pay for the bill. Good service. Since I wasn't there with Mky this time round, I'll probably bring her here the next time Roxy needs her nails trimmed, if at least, just to savour the Sheperd's Pie.

okb

1 Kampong Bahru Rd, Singapore 169339
Tel: 6220 4711

A look in at Homebodies

The creators of our favourite cafe, Henry Congressional, have started a side project at Boat Quay called Homebodies. No, they don't have the awesome pandan chiffon cake or flourless chocolate cake, but they do have some fantastic coffee, specialty hotdogs and, of course, craft beer!

 

Homebodies
60a Boat Quay, Singapore

9169 2821

Accomplished Italian Dining at OChre

OChre has some fantastic Italian food that brought back fond memories of our Italian honeymoon over a year ago. Located at the top of Orchard Central, seating at the restaurant surrounds the open kitchen where the chefs can be seen doing their stuff. Surprisingly, the ventilation is pretty good and so you won't get blasts of hot air, or get choked by the smoke etc. Instead, you get to watch how the chef prepare their dishes, and sometimes, hear the banter of staff too.

For the starter, we went for their Burrata dish, which is a concoction of mozarella cheese and cream. OChre's Burrata arrived on a bed of proscuitto, It was nice and soft, and when cut open, cream/butter oozed out slowly. The menu said there was supposed to be tomato slices so we were a little disappointed that there weren't any tomatoes to be seen. Imagine our surprise when we found the baby tomato slices folded WITHIN the mozarella cheese itself! What a gem! You can also flavour the Burrata with a choice of sea salt, vinegar, pesto or herbs, giving a nice variety of tastes throughout the whole course.

Our first course was a seafood linguine pasta that we asked to be portioned into two (we learnt to share one of the courses if we were going to do the full Italian 2 courses + dessert). Pictured is one portion of the order of pasta - can you see how much ingredients it has? The quality of the squid, clams and mussels were top notch, apart from the type of prawn used. Sorry to say, crystal prawn (low on flavour but full of bite), seemed out of place in this seafood dish. But the white wine sauce and other ingredients more than made up for it, and we both savoured the dish joyfully.

Moving on to the second course - Mky ordered a Tristecca, which is OChre's version of a beef steak (ours might have been a ribeye - no bone), seared on the outside like a bistecca fiorentina, and medium done on the inside. It was full of flavour and bite. Excellent! For under $50, this is a more affordable version of beef steak than the one at Valentino's, and one that definitely satisfies! The truffle potato slices that came with it did not lose its aroma the more one ate of it, unlike some other truffle dishes we have eaten elsewhere. It was soo good and very moreish. 

I went for the Osso Bucco, which was stewed veal shanks on a bed of saffron risotto cake. Ordinarily, this would be a dish that I would really enjoy, however, compared with the linguine and steak earlier, the Osso Bucco just didn't sing for me. As Mky said, by itself, this dish was excellent, with the veal meat gently breaking off the bone with only a little coaxing. She particularly appreciated the slightly crisp and very fragrant saffron risotto cake. Unfortunately, the Tristecca and Seafood Linguine were just that good, and the stew was totally outshone!

 

I have to say, OChre has some delicious Italian food that is priced just above your regular restaurant fare. For the quality of the ingredients and the perfection of execution, this restaurant deserves the attention of more patrons who are looking for great tasting Italian food without having to burn a hole in their pockets. The only complaint we had was the presence of flies. Don't ask me why a restaurant on the 11th floor has those small annoying pests, but it did reduce our level of enjoyment a tad. A little more effort with that issue and we would definitely be back for that Tristecca!

OChre

181 Orchard Road

#11-03/04 Orchard Central

 Tel: 66340423