Tree Frog

I have posted photos on this tree frog before but they are just so photogenic that I could not resist in photographing them again. This time they were out in the evening after the downpour looking for breeding partners. These photos are from just one active individual that moved around for me till it got tired of me and the camera.

Forgotten Chinese Dish - Loh Kai Yik

Loh Kai Yik is an old Chinese dish that you can hardly find at hawker stalls no more. My mom use to make it but with her illnesses today, she can hardly tell me how she use to prepare it. I tried cooking this from memory of how it use to taste and have adjusted it as I want Lilik to be able to enjoy the dish as well. My version has no pork or pig's skin in it to give the gravy its gelatinous consistency but it still is pretty tasty.
The recipe below is for the traditional version with all the trimmings.

Ingredients
(serves 3 to 4)

1 litre stock
6 cloves garlic
2 thumb size ginger pieces
30g red tau joo (red preserved beancurd)
80g red sweet sauce
2 Tbs cooking oil
20g tau cheoh paste (brown bean paste)
1 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs light soya sauce

Blend or pound ginger with garlic.
Mash the red tau joo in a bowl and add in red sweet sauce with 100ml water.
Heat wok, add oil, stir-fry garlic, ginger and tau cheoh paste till fragrant.
Add stock and tau joo paste into the wok.
Cook for 15 minutes and add sugar and soya sauce to taste.

TO ADD TO STOCK
300g belly pork
300g pig skin
10 chicken wings
100g liver (sliced)
10 tau pok (fried beancurd)
200g young kangkong
1 cuttlefish (sliced)
1 Tbs cooking wine (Hwa Teow wine)

Simmer belly pork, pig skin, chicken wings, and ta pok in stock till tender .

BEFORE SERVING
Add cuttlefish, liver and mini rolls of kangkong and 1 Tbs cooking wine.
Cook for about 1 to 2 minutes.

Thai Olive Rice

The salted black olive for the Thai olive rice does not come from Italy or Thailand but China. The olives used in this dish are preserved salted black olives that are large and elongated in shape, tapering at both ends almost to a point. Even the hard seed is sharply pointed on both ends. These olives are preserved either as a sweet-and-tart dry fruit your "kah nahs" that are wrapped in paper, or as salted black olives packed in brine used for cooking.

It took me a while to figure out they were what the dry goods grocers here would refer to "kiam kah nah"', literally salted olives. This is different from the bottled olive vegetable that you find on the shelves of supermarkets. Kiam kah nah is only found at your mom n pop shop at the wet market.

Teochews and Hokkiens migrated into then Siam to work, trade and search for a better chance to improve their lot in life. Large numbers of them settled in South East Asia, from Thailand into Malaysia and all the way to Singapore. Among the foods they introduced was the preserved salted black olive which, like many salted foods, provided an inexpensive way to flavor a lot of rice and porridge for those yet to find their fortunes.

My first taste of the Thai olive rice was at Yhingthai, a Thai-Chinese restaurant on Purvis Street. I have always longed to learn to prepare this dish and now I do. It's real simple and a good hearty meal on its own.

Ingredients
Serves 2

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup minced chicken meat
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups cooked rice
10-15 sprigs coriander, chopped
5 salted Chinese olives, pureed

Optional
lime pieces
Cashew nuts
Cucumber
Chili

Method
Over medium heat, add oil to a wok. Quickly add chopped garlic and stir. Add ground minced chicken meat and pureed Chinese olives.
When the meat is cooked, add rice and stir. Gently break up small clumps of rice with the back of your spatula to coat it with the olives. Your rice will turn brownish black at this point. Taste and see if the fried rice is not too salty. If it is too salty, add more rice. Conversely you can also add more fish sauce, but I normally find the salted Chinese olives contribute more than enough salt.

Put the fried rice in a plate. Sprinkle the chopped coriander on top. Add lime pieces, cashew nuts and cucumber on the side. Add shrimps if you wish.

Traditional Singapore Bread Bakery

This is one of the few traditional bread bakeries left in Singapore. They bake local bread that you find at the kopi tiams where you would order kaya, butter toast and a cup of kopi. I walked into the bakery and politely asked permission to photograph these men at work. Ghee Leong is a Hainanese bakery that has been around for over 50 years.

You will find shirtless men at work in the bakery with archaic ovens. They produce over 1,000 loaves of white, brown and French bread (all $1.10 a loaf) a day and you can pick up a loaf at its counter. This bakery is open 24 hours daily. Trimmed bread lined up on open shelved along with bottles of kaya. Dough stacked up neatly on shelves and baked bread stacked up all over the place. It was fun watching the daily grind but the men weren't very talkative and I couldn't coax them to tell me more about the shop. Either way they were good enough to allow me to stay in the shop and photograph them while they went about their work. Here they are making french loaves which they wrap in burlap to let the dough rise. Below are the sweet loaves which have risen.
This is the oven that they use to bake the bread in.
Bread coming out from the oven.
French loaves heading into the oven.
Baked goods

Whampoa Road

I thought I'd take a walk along this area, capture some of the sights before the current en bloc craze takes hold and more old buildings get torn down. Hence, visit to Ghee Leong which is in the next post to photograph a traditional bakery that has been around for over 50 years.
These spiral staircases on the back of old walk-up apartments are rare these days and I found one that was not locked to photograph the structure. Next to the old block of walk-up was the market and food center but they have been torn down and currently being rebuilt.

The transit market and food center is located at the back and I had some time to walk around it today before sitting down for lunch.
The soy bean seller tucked away in a rather dark and humid transit market having her lunch. It was past 1 pm and almost closing time for this lady. Next to the wet market is the temporary hawker center and here's my favorite rojak stall.

I grew up eating this rojak man's rojak as my mom thought in a school at the other end of Balestier Road.
The uncle mixing his rojak with a queue at his stall. In the lane behind his stall are the other famous hawkers the duck rice, hokkien mee and the nasi lemak stall.
This is what we ended up eating for lunch.

Breakfast Comfort Food

Typical comfort food for me, when I have too little sleep and feeling sluggish in the morning. This is what perks me up a cuppa of kopi kao sui nai (thick coffee with less milk) and a bowl of mee pok tah with crunchy pieces of lard in it. Ha! Ha! I only have this after having my workout.
I like my bah chor noodles with lots of spring onions, vinegar and a squirt of tomato sauce. Where do I get my noodle fix Suntec's food court. The coffee is also from the food court but Jim Fook make traditional Chinese Coffee and there is usually a queue every morning for their set of two eggs, kaya butter toast and a cup of hot beverage.

The other comfort food for me during and after long flights instant noodles - salt fix.

Thai Pomelo Salad

Thai pink pomelos shredded up and ready for my pomelo salad. It's been a while since I made this and I was looking forward to enjoying the salad. It's simple to mix up if you have all the ingredients needed.
Ingredients 500g pomelo wedges

Sauce:3 limes, squeezed for juice
1-2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons palm sugar
3 tablespoon nam prik

Topping:
1 tablespoon peanuts, roasted and coarsely pounded
1 teaspoon toasted, grated coconut
1 tablespoon fried shallot crisps
1 tablespoon dried shrimps, washed, roasted and lightly pounded

Method
Peel the pomelo and separate the sacs into a mixing bowl. Toss with the lime juice, fish sauce, palm sugar and nam prik. Dish onto a serving plate and top with the peanuts, grated coconut, shallots and dried shrimps.

Tau Sar Piah on Balestier Road

Loong Fatt Eating House & Confectionery
No. 639 Balestier Road S(329922)
Tel: 62534584
Loong Fatt is suppose to be the best tau sar piah along Balestier and there are a number of them along Balestier. I've gotten boxes of these Chinese pastries but I've never eaten them till this week and wow! they were good. They were still hot when my aunt brought the box to me.
This is what is inside the pastry.

Stink Beans and Prawns

The typical way to use petai is in sambal udang petai where the petai is cooked in sambal with prawns. For those who have not eaten petai before, these beans have a strong odor. When you eat the beans everything you excrete the day after has a pungent petai odor but these beans are suppose to be good for you.

Ingredients250g petai seeds
300g medium-size prawns, shelled but leave the tails on
1 big onion, cut in rings
1 red chilli, seeded and cut in slanting slices
1 tbsp chopped garlic
2 tbsp cooking oil

Sauce:
1 tbsp tamarind paste and 3 tbsp water - mix these ingredients and strain to get the tamarind juice
2 tbsps Nam Prik Pao (chilli paste in oil)
1/2 tbsp Nampla (fish sauce)
1 tbsp Maggi chicken stock granules
2 tbsp sugar
A dash of pepper
Salt to taste

Method
Heat oil in a wok and saute chopped garlic until fragrant. Add in onion rings and stir-fry lightly. Add in prawns, petai and the rest of the ingredients.

Mix in the sauce ingredients and fry till heated through. Dish onto a serving plate and garnish with coriander leaves.

Petai Omelette
Ingredients100g petai seeds, skinned and chopped coarsely
3 eggs
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp plain flour (combine the water and flour to make a paste)
1 tbsp chopped red chilli
1 tbsp chopped spring onion
3 tbsp oil

Seasoning:1 tsp light soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
Dash of pepper
Pinch of sugar
1/2 tsp chicken stock granules

Method
Whisk eggs lightly, add in seasoning, flour paste and mix well. Add in petai, red chilli and spring onion.Heat oil in a non-stick pan, pour in egg mixture and fry omelette over medium heat for three to five minutes. Flip over to the other side and fry for three to four more minutes until omelette turns light brown. Dish up and serve with plain rice.

Strawberries with Balsamic Vinegar

Strawberries are truly in abundance at the supermarkets this year and they weren't too expensive. Bought a punnet, cut them up added vanilla sugar and balsamic vinegar. Adding balsamic vinegar to the strawberries does wonders for the flavour and produces delicious juices. Please invest in a good bottle of balsamic vinegar is it worth every cent.

Ingredients
1 punnet strawberries
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Method
Hull the strawberries and combine them with the sugar and balsamic vinegar.
Leave for 1 hour before serving.


Serving suggestion - Strawberries with vanilla ice cream or just get creative.

Fish Head Curry

I got my fish monger to reserve a large red snapper for me last week and not a single part of the fish went to waste. The head which is about a third of the fish was turned into fish head curry today, when it's still fresh. The rest of the fish was filleted and stored. The bones will be fried up for my three cats, and the dog that insist on being a cat later for their dinner.
I like seasoning the fish head first with the curry paste.This is the curry paste that I use all the time now after going through some of the other curry pastes that are available.
Here are the other fresh items that go into the curry pot.
Another must have are papadums.

Voila.....
Here's what you need:-
2 packets of Chanhong curry fish head paste
a good size fish head (snapper or thread fin heads are best. Have the fish monger split the head open)
3 big Onions
4 egg plants
5 tomatoes
1 pkt lady's fingers
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp fanugreek seeds
3 tbso tamarind paste
1 pkt fresh yoghurt
1 tbsp coconut milk
2 sprigs curry leaves
1 pkt papadum

Method
Heat oil in pot, add mustard seeds, add curry paste fry till fragrant. Add Cut up onions and fry till the onions are soft.
Add in cut up vegetables next to fry. Add water and cook till vegetables are soft.
Add curry leaves, tamarind juice, yoghurt and add in the fish head.
When the fish head is almost cook add the coconut milk stir in well and bring to a boil.
Lastly, sprinkle in ground fanugreek seed powder just before turning off the fire.

To fry the papadums
Sun the papadums first so that they will expand during the frying process.
Heat oil till hot and fry the papadums individually till light brown.

Century Eggs

I haven't bought century eggs in a while and decided to buy some today as I was going through some recipes last night that featured century eggs. What surprised me that prices of these preserved duck eggs have gone up in price. Each egg costs $0.55 now, price just went up by $0.05 according to the vendor. These eggs come from the Fu Jian province in China and this batch that I bought were good. Sometimes, you do get bad eggs in the batch.
A good century egg is black and shiny like this one and when cut open the york should also be firm and not runny.

Dumpling Festival

Duan Wu Jie (Dumpling festival) is around the corner and I wish, I had brought my camera with me to market today as every where I went every stall was selling chang (dumplings). The festival is also known as the Dragon Boat Festival, falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Lunar calendar (this year it falls on 19th June).

It is a day to remember the poet Qu Yuan, who was a loyal official in the court of the Chu Kingdom in old China. Other officials told the emperor lies about Qu Yuan. The weak emperor believed the evil officials and asked Qu Yuan to leave his court. Over the next 20 years, the Chu kingdom got weaker. Qu Yuan was very sad that his beloved country was controlled by another country, the Qin Kingdom. He decided to end his life by jumping into the river. Fishermen who heard that Qu Yuan drowned himself in the river set sail on boats to look for his body. When they could not find it, they threw rice wrapped in bamboo leaves into the river so that the fish in the river would eat the rice instead of his body. The traditions of dragon boat races and eating rice dumplings on Duan Wu Jie thus began. Duan Wu Jie is also known as Dragon Boat Festival or Dumpling Festival.

There are so many versions on sale today, that one is spoilt for choice. This one is a sweet version which contains red bean paste. I bought these from a neighbor who makes them for sale. She was alittle stingy with the red bean paste this time around.
My personal favorite is still the nonya bak chang (pork dumpling) which contains fatty pork that has been fried with sugared dried winter melon, dried shitake mushrooms and lots of spice but the main one is coriander powder. This nonya bak chang was bought from a side walk vendor who is very popular with the residents near the market. She is very generous with her ingredients and $2.20 a piece didn't seem to bad. On usual days, it's a dollar a piece.

Mee Jiang Kueh (Chinese Pancakes)

In order to buy these pancakes pieces for breakfast, I placed my order in advance and went about my marketing at Ang Mo Kio. This kueh maker has only one pan and he takes forever to make the pancakes but they are very good as he uses lots of ground peanuts. There is always an invisible queue as the residents around the hawker center will place their orders and go about their business first. However, I never did take to his red bean version. Each piece is 50 cents.