Culture shock — the ‘dumpling’

Aside from Neil’s nickname for one of his pals, I’m not getting this British ‘dumpling’. To me, a dumpling is meat wrapped in a dough or pastry skin, then steamed, pan-fried, boiled, or deep-fried. In my Co-op brand snack-size ready meal, their ‘dumplings’ are two lumps of cooked dough.

The difference in the interpretations of dumplings between East and West, I think, is a major stumbling block to world peace. If it wasn’t for

  • pizza
  • steak
  • pâté
  • olives
  • anchovies
  • pies
  • pasties
  • biscuits
  • chocolate ice cream
  • Oreos
  • Tootsie Rolls
  • crisps

I would say food from the West could not hold a candle to the East.

Foodie Friday — Steak

steak, public domain image on Wikimedia

Mmmmm… cow. I know it’s not very PC to be all carnivorous, but I adore steak. My favourite is a nice, rare piece of beef. My top beef steak restaurant in Singapore is the decidedly unglamorous Shaslik, and prime rib is best had at Stuart Anderson’s Black Angus with their lunch deal ($17.90 for three courses). So here is a recipe for marinated flank steak, and I hope that I get to eat a good steak soon.

At the moment, there isn’t a lot of beef being consumed, it’s just not in the lifestyle I have been absorbed into. I know that’s better for me, but I miss steak. I get mince and roasts once every fortnight or so, but it’s not the same!

Cow. Mmmmmmmm.

Packed lunches, or one of the four most important meals of the day

Klip It lunchbox, on my wishlist!

I’ve been thinking about lunches. A lot of money is saved by not eating out, so I’m casting about for ideas on what I can prepare and/or eat without giving myself food poisoning.

It’s been a couple of months since I’ve arrived in Scotland, and I didn’t touch any Maccas while I was in Singapore (I’ve had a McFlurry at Livingston, but it was disappointingly unflurried). I’ve been to Burger King once and have eaten loads of suppers from the chippy, and Neil and I have even been to Subway twice (after a late movie).

(I had a bad experience with a Subway franchise in Singapore and only ate my next sandwich earlier this year.)

Cheese Steak SubwayThe perfect sandwich, IMHO, is their cheese steak on the parmesan oregano roll, with all the salad but for green peppers and jalapeños. It’s got all the main food groups and my favourite things, steak and cheese. Oh, and olives. The only thing about a Subway sandwich is crumbs go everywhere, we (well, I) messed up Neil’s sister’s car last time. I have amazed myself twice by finishing a six-inch sandwich. I haven’t done that in years!

Then there’s my old favourite, a ham and cheese sanger. No more cheese (pre-)slices for me, it’s got way too much salt. I could put great Scottish cheese on some wafer thin ham slices (or salami… mmm), I reckon it would taste rather good. I want to do something with chick peas — maybe add some chicken and lettuce to make a salad? This Greek-Italian chopped salad sounds good.

My mum’s former maid used to pack the previous night’s spag bol for my lunch the next day, and I loved it. I think she had some sort of secret recipe, as I’ve never tasted the same since. I can get egg noodles and pre-cooked chicken at the local supermarket, so I might make some chicken and vegetable noodles, mix in sesame oil, soy sauce, and maybe a touch of something spicy for a kick*.

Maybe some day-old mac and cheese, Neil’s mum makes good mac and cheese. Not Kraft, it’s homemade. Yummy. Her tomato soup also deserves legendary status (hopefully I’ll get the recipe soonish). This quick bacon pasta from Cheap Eats looks good. I like bacon.

bagels and loxAnother sandwich I’m a big fan of is smoked salmon on a bagel with cream cheese and a few capers for that extra bite. When I was a kid, I was under the impression that smoked salmon was extremely expensive — so, of course, I adored smoked salmon. Spinelli Coffee Company in Singapore (at Caltex House) did a decent mini bagel, and I’ve not had a great smoked salmon bagel since I lived in Australia.

Of course, my main goal is to get someone else to do this for me, since any time I make an attempt at what I laughably describe as ‘food preparation’, it ends up tasting quite, well, not good. I think it has something to do with my attention wandering after 30 seconds of doing something mundane, like stirring. There is an inverse relationship between my love for food and eating and how much I loathe cooking.

Asda sells a curried chickpea and lentil stew thing, it’d be quite good with some plain taco chips. Or mix some Dorito’s salsa with chopped salami or chorizo and make a sandwich or salad with the result. Even I could manage these things.

Anyone have any ideas for simple, not completely unhealthy lunches I can make?

* OMG I can’t believe I typed that. Something SPICY? Da-yum!

No need to miss China’s food

My uncle and aunt took me out for dinner tonight. We were supposed to go to East Coast Park to ‘whack’ the beef noodles, but we ran into the small obstacle of heavy traffic leading to the ECP, compounded by the petrol tank light being on. So we needed to find a Shell, and fast.

Tanjong Katong has one. Tanjong Rhu has one. Oh wait, Geylang should have one.

We drove along, not spotting any petrol stations, until we reached East Coast Road (or thereabouts — since I don’t do much driving in Singapore, I’m pretty clueless about how to get places). A Shell came into view. Having fed the car, it was now time to feed ourselves. There were loads of restaurants we spotted along East Coast Road, and my uncle was particularly curious about one called Charlie’s, although we eventually decided to try someplace new, the Northern & Eastern Dumpling Restaurant (Charlie’s had barely any patrons on a Friday night, while the dumpling place was pretty jumping).

Northern & Eastern Dumpling Restaurant

I am truly Singaporean, so I expected that the only thing I would miss about not living in Xiamen is the variety of Chinese cuisines. There are some pretty good Dongbei places in Xiamen, so imagine my surprise to see dishes like Beijing pork rolls (京酱肉丝), shredded potato (土豆丝), braised potato, eggplant, and peppers (地三鲜) — something I did not expect in Singapore. I got a bit excited and sent Neil a text, since he loves the Beijing rolls.

Mutton skewers

Hot and sour soup

Dessert

By the way, their menu has a picture of some Chinese basketball player (not Yao Ming) on the front. The same picture, plus a few more, were framed up on the wall near the kitchen. A relative, perhaps?

And damn, was it good. We ordered way too much: for just the three of us (granted, my uncle and I can eat like it’s going out of fashion, but a human body has limits), there was seafood and pork stuffed biscuits (三鲜馅饼), pan fried dumplings (锅贴) soup dumplings (小笼包), minced pork noodles (炸酱面), fried green beans (四季豆), braised eggplant (红烧茄子), hot and sour soup (酸辣汤), mutton skewers (羊肉串), and sweet potato in caramelised sugar (扒丝地瓜) for dessert.

As you can tell by the photos above, we couldn’t wait for me to snap a photo before tucking it, it all smelled and tasted so good. The proprietors (or at least the managers) appear to actually be from the north, which explains the accent and why their food is so damned 正宗 (authentic).

What a bargain

Then I shared a Tsingtao with my uncle and it cost a whole $3.50! With the exchange rate, it’s not much more than a bottle of the same at The Londoner or The House (15RMB).

And the bill? With the 10% service charge and ordering twice what we could realistically manage to put in our bellies (half a wafer thin mint would kill us), it came to $62. Bargain.

It was just about the best Chinese meal I’ve ever had in Singapore! Well, not counting seafood. Seafood is in a league of its own.

Eastern & Northern Dumpling Restaurant
218/220 East Coast Road
Singapore 428917
Tel: 63447002