Hungry Ghost

“La” means “the” in French so I thought La Cafe & Bar by Masterpiece is a French restaurant. French food is known to be notoriously expensive, I was hesitant about visiting this restaurant.  A closer look at the menu reveals that La Cafe & Bar is actually an Asian restaurant. This restaurant serves not only 1 cuisine, but 3 cuisines. You can find Western, Filipino and Asian dishes at La Cafe & Bar by Masterpiece.  From the Western menu, I chose to have   Spring Chicken   [Half S$13.90, Whole S$18.90].  I can tell from the crispness of the skin that the chicken was cooked upon order. The chicken meat is tender and juicy. The chef has thoughtfully cut the chicken into smaller pieces which made it much easier to eat.  Even the fries are some of the best I have had in a while, they are light and crispy without being oily.  Sweet & Sour Fish   [S$12] is a good example of Asian cuisine. The seabass used is very fresh, which is then cooke...

  Hidden in the labyrinth of shops on the third floor of Square 2 @ Velocity, Hansang Korean Family Restaurant is not the easiest to find. The name says “family restaurant” so I was expecting a cosy family-style restaurant but it turned out to be a grand modern restaurant in dark brown wooden colors. The 12-page menu showcases over 80 Korean dishes and snacks, many of which are not commonly found in Singapore.   Most Singaporeans are probably only familiar with Korean kimchi pancake and seafood pancake. If fact, there are more than 10 types of Korean pancakes with different ingredients.  Modum Jon   [Small S$18.80, Large S$35.8] lets you taste 4 different types of pancakes in one sitting. I got 2 pieces of mushrooms, prawns (saewoo jon), mushroom filled with minced chicken (busut jon), fish fillet (saengson jon) and zucchini pancakes.  Hansang Korean Family Restaurant makes their own tofu in-house everyday. Besides having tofu in the form of sundubu, you can als...

Din Tai Fung is my favorite Chinese restaurant. The food quality at Din Tai Fung is consistently good.  Out of  10 of My Favorite Din Tai Fung Dishes , I want to put the spotlight on Steamed Chicken Soup. Everytime I order this soup, I am always amazed how such a clear soup can have such depth of flavor. I decided to try to make this soup at home. After trying a few times, I realize this soup is not as difficult to make as I imagined and it can be easily made at home.  I present to you:   Din Tai Fung’s Steamed Chicken Soup (Home-Cook Recipe) Ingredients:  2 drumsticks, chopped into small pieces (IMPORTANT: make sure to use fresh chicken, not frozen chicken)  2 stalks of scallion/green onion, wash and cut into short stalks  7 slices of ginger   2 tablespoons rice wine   1 teaspoon salt  Let’s start cooking: Fill a small pot half with water, put in chopped drumsticks and 2 slices of ginger, bring to boil.  Once the water boils, take ...

On a recent visit to Tai Cheong Bakery at Square 2 @ Novena, I was feeling generous and treated my colleagues to their famous egg tarts. As we sat down to enjoy the delicious egg tarts, the conversation strayed from Hong Kong egg tarts to Hong Kong bolo bao (pineapple buns).  Bolo bao, otherwise known as pineapple buns, are named so because their checkered top that resembles the skin of a pineapple.  Bolo bao is not as famous as Hong Kong egg tarts, but it can actually be found in every chaa chan teng in Hong Kong.  I present to you: 5 Places for Bolo Bao in Singapore (in order of my personal preference).    Tai Cheong Bakery (Holland Village)  I place   Tai Cheong Bakery (Holland Village)   first not only because it was the first place I had bolo bao in Singapore, it is also the only Tai Cheong Bakery outlet with seating.  Bolo Bao is best served hot with a slab of cold butter that melts into the bun. It is best eaten on the spot so having a...