Paris - Sensational French-Chinese Cuisine

The signature roast duck was a showstopper on the table

Chef Samuel Lee has lived in Paris for over 10 years. He was the head chef of Shang Palace, the fine dining Chinese restaurant at the Shangri-La Paris, which earned a Michelin star during his tenure.

After a decade, Lee wanted to continue living in the French capital but open his own restaurant, creating dishes that paired with wines.

Crispy shrimp croquettes with spicy mayo

The result is SENsation, with Sen a play off of the Mandarin pronunciation of his Chinese name, meaning forest.

I had interviewed him about his restaurant when he opened it last February and found it very intriguing when he described the various dishes on the menu.

So when I knew I was coming to Paris, I immediately booked a table to try his food. 

Sensation is tucked in a residential area in Le Marais, so it's very casual and Lee himself greets us wearing a T-shirt under an apron, while his other chefs in the small kitchen are wearing chef jackets.

We were the first party to arrive just after 7pm, but soon after we sat down, other tables were occupied; by 8pm the restaurant was full.

Mapo tofu, char siu, meagre, and fried rice

The restaurant interior has character, some walls are not finished, the wall by the kitchen has a wooden bookshelf with books and Chinese knick knacks, by the entrance is a Tang dynasty print and above it is the slogan in Chinese roughly translated as "keep the wine flowing."

We started off with some appetisers, shrimp croquettes, crispy and light, with Lee's pairing of spring rolls with finely shaved Comte cheese. He explained it was kind of a riff off of a croque Monsieur, with the cheese melting on top.

The cheese didn't exactly melt, but we thought it was an interesting idea. Same goes for the roast pork marinated not in a sauce made with Chinese rose wine, but Cognac! The char siu was a bit on the tough side (not fatty enough), but had the lingering Cognac flavour and woody finish.

We also had a small bowl with one wonton in a consomme that was like a warm hug.

Sweet "guo ba" and mango cream

Next came the signature roast duck dish called "I am not a Beijing duck!" It was a beautifully roasted half portion French bird with the crispiest skin and tender meat underneath. It came with thin steamed pancakes and julienne of cucumber and scallions. Absolutely delicious, with no fat stuck to the skin.

Mapo tofu heated things up with Sichuan peppercorns, chillis, minced beef and mushrooms, while fried rice featured plump shrimps and bits of char siu. We also enjoyed the steamed meagre, perfectly cooked, and had a topping of not only cilantro, but also fennel.

Craving cooked vegetables, we had a plate of stir-fried mixed greens like choi sum, cabbage and bean sprouts with goji berries.

We somehow managed to finish everything and found room in our stomachs to try two desserts, chilled mango cream with pomelo and tapioca, and the sweet version of "guo ba", with a caramelised rice pudding with crispy rice and ice cream.

When we praised Lee for the quality of the food, he humbly said it was all about getting the freshest ingredients. He said the restaurant was about offering simple dishes, and with so many Chinese restaurants in Paris, he wanted to stand out through getting the best ingredients.

Chef Lee in casual 

And with that, our gourmet experience at Sensation was over and our tummies sated, we waddled back to the hotel, savouring the incredible meal we just had.

SENsation

32 rue Saint-Maur

75011, Paris, France

+33 1 40 31 32 24

Picture of the Day: Fish and Chips

Three fish fillets with a generous side of French fries

My weekly lunch in Chinatown today was decidedly different.

At Big Boss Bakery & Restaurant, the specials listed included fried vermicelli, baked seafood rice, Vietnamese style pork chops, and duck meat with rice noodles. Also on there was fish and chips, and I wondered what they would taste like.

I decided to take a chance and find out.

What arrived was a plate of three lightly deep-fried basa fillets with some tartar sauce and a side of French fries with ketchup.

The fillets were super hot, but cooked just right so that the fillets were moist in the middle. I ate two of them and then figured the third one wouldn't taste good a few hours later so I finished the whole plate!

One of the rare times that I actually finished a whole portion at The Boss, which is known for its big plates of food!

Wasians Having their Moment

The music video has a 1960s theme and setting

At the Golden Globes this year, singer Laufey was on the red carpet, but the photographers didn't know who she was.

They repeatedly called her "Megan" to get her attention, but she told them, "My name isn't Megan," with a smile, but inside the two-time Grammy winner must have been fuming.

The singer wears a cheongsam

Meanwhile at the same event, Heated Rivalry actor Hudson Williams was the man everyone wanted to photograph or talk to, along with co-star Connor Storrie.

Nevertheless Williams and Laufey have something in common -- they're both Wasians, or those who identify as half Asian and half white.

Somewhere along the way, Laufey conspired to bring the Canadian actor into her orbit, along with her other Wasian pals, Olympic skater Alysa Liu, Lola Tung, and Megan Skiendiel.

They all took part in Laufey's latest music video Madwoman, in a 1960s look.

"Growing up, I felt a general lack of representation for people who looked like me in music and media. With the 'Madwoman' video, I wanted to be that representation," she says in a statement.

There was a lot of hype in the countdown to the video's release, and today fans were poring over it, dissecting all the details.

In one scene the women gawk at Williams' abs, and there's a fun scene of Laufey getting angry at him and using a fish to slap him across the face, landing him in the swimming pool.

Choreographed dancing in the video

Meanwhile there are hints of Chinese culture in the video, from green onions and bamboo steamers, egg tarts, and lychee martinis.

Strangely Liu and Tung play mahjong poolside on the floor which is bizarre, as you need two more players and why not play at a proper table?

Then there's a nod to Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love, with Laufey in a gold cheongsam (bought in Chinatown) at her vanity table (with Chanel makeup product placement), and Williams sitting on a bed waiting for her in a suit.

The video's fun, but it feels contrived, like a "this is our party and you're not invited" vibe.

In any event the Madwoman video keeps Williams' fans occupied until filming the second season of Heated Rivalry begins, and Laufey rides high on her Coachella debut. Just over 2.8 million views in 17 hours...

How mutually beneficial...

Nostalgic Tomato-Flavoured Lunch

Straight from the oven, baked fish fillets in tomato sauce

Today we headed to Vancouver's Chinatown and to our usual eatery for lunch -- The Boss Bakery & Restaurant.

It's categorised as a cha chaan teng, with its extensive menu filled with all kinds of dishes from Hong Kong-style borscht soup to pork chops with cream sauce to fried rice. Wash the meal down with yuen yeung (mixture of coffee and tea), milk tea or Horlick's, and finish with egg tarts or cocktail bun.

I ordered the baked fish fillet with tomato sauce, a stainless steel shallow round pan filled with rice mixed with bits of scrambled egg, a few spinach leaves and two small fish fillets that are smothered in a kind of Campbell Soup-flavoured tomato sauce and baked.

Because it's in the oven for a while, it is a test of your patience, while everyone else at the table is already tucking into their plates of food.

Finally it arrives, piping hot, but after blowing a spoonful to cool it down a bit, it's comforting to eat, a reminder of when I was a kid and after school made Campbell's Soup from a can and added instant noodles. But this version is healthier with the fish and spinach.

No way can I finish this serving -- the portions at The Boss are huge and we always bring food containers to bring them home.

The Boss Bakery & Restaurant

532 Main Street

Vancouver, BC

604 683 3860

We Didn't Jump on the Tai Bo Cafe Bandwagon

Steamed pork patty at Sang Kee in Wan Chai

After I came back from Hong Kong, a Vancouver friend told me about Tai Bo Cafe in Yuen Long, which has become a viral hit. Someone on social media raved about the cafe's pork patty rice, and now there are 2-hour queues for it.

Seriously? 

Legit prawn toasts covered in sesame seeds

Apparently it started back in March when someone asked for a restaurant recommendation and one of the comments replied, Tai Bo Bing Sutt.

Then a few months later, that same commenter would mention the cafe when others posted about things not even related to food, from complaining about academic stress, asking for job vacancies, or raving about their favourite music artist.

People saw Tai Bo Bing Sutt mentioned so many times that they had to check it out themselves, hence the super long queues.

Apparently the person suggesting the bing sutt is a friend of the owner's daughter.

True or not, it has helped this eatery become super popular with the term "tastebud nuke", where the flavour of the patties explode in your mouth, overwhelming your oral senses.

Lovely steamed threadfin fish with chicken oil

I obviously didn't go to this place as I hadn't heard of it until I returned home.

But I did have a pretty good steamed pork patty at Sang Kee, a restaurant known for Hong Kong specialties. Opened in 1976, the place is now located in a non-descript office building on Lockhart Road in Wan Chai.

On the third floor you can hear the hustle and bustle of the place, the small dining room packed with mostly large tables. The one next to us was celebrating a birthday, and there was even a table filled with Europeans enjoying the food with red wine.

Not long after we ordered the food arrived fast and furious. We started with braised duck tongues, nicely balanced, not too salty, and we munched on those until our plate of prawn toasts came. 

Cold starter of braised duck tongues

These beauties were perfectly deep-fried and generously covered in sesame seeds. Another dish was a half portion of a roast piglet, the skin was very crispy, and a thin layer of tender meat underneath. 

Then came our steamed pork meat patty. It was a large portion for the five of us, drizzled with diluted soy sauce and spring onions. You could easily tell it had been hand chopped from the mouthfeel having a bit of a bite to it. 

Another outstanding dish was the steamed threadfin seasoned with chicken oil and Chinese ham. The fish looked so plain, but its taste was so flavourful -- we couldn't stop eating the tender delicate white meat that was perfectly seasoned until we were left with a plate of bones.

The pork patty would have been good with white rice, but we had ordered congee with meatballs and a fish called mottled spinefoot. The congee had been simmering for hours, the grains totally broken down and had chunks of the fish and meatballs.

Simple steamed rice cakes for dessert

Finally for dessert, steamed rice cakes that weren't too sweet, and had a honeycomb-like texture.

The dining experience was not "tastebud nuke", but definitely memorable! 

Sang Kee

3/F, Sunshine Plaza

353 Lockhart Road

Wan Chai

+852 2575 2239

Next Level Cantonese Dining

Whole roasted piglet presented before it was chopped up

Last night we had dinner at Congee Noodle House on Broadway and Main Street. It's a Cantonese-style institution that has been open for over 20 years, though it was temporarily shut for three years from the end of January 2020, when the retaining wall at a nearby construction site collapsed during a heavy rainfall, which caused a sinkhole. As a result part of the parking lot in the back caved in and fell into the excavation pit.

Braised goose webs, fish maw and pea shoots

At the time people worried this restaurant, which mostly serves piping hot tureens of congee, fried noodles and fried rice, and other family-style dishes was closed for good.

But in May 2023 Congee Noodle House was back open, complete with renovations inside and since then has had a steady stream of business despite construction of the subway on the road right in front.

The restaurant doesn't just serve basic dishes; at the back, groups of diners in private rooms can eat classic Cantonese dishes, like whole roast piglet, stir-fried lobster with vermicelli, deep-fried shrimp meat on crab claws, steamed fish, and salt-baked chicken.

We had some of the aforementioned menu items, as well as braised goose webs with collagen-rich fish maw artfully decorated on a bed of dau miu or pea shoots, and plump sui gao or dumplings filled with shrimp, pork and vegetables with egg noodles in soup.

Caramelised eggplant is next level culinary skill

However one dish stood out -- an off-menu item -- caramelised eggplant. Much in the same vein as caramelised banana, the eggplant chunks were probably steamed and then pan-fried in sugar that was starting to turn into a caramel colour.

The end result is a slightly crunchy exterior, and soft, tender interior. Not easy to make, but boy the result was amazing.

Congee Noodle House

141 East Broadway

Vancouver, BC

604 879 8221

Chinatown Eats Lunch Special

Baked sole fillets with spinach and rice in tomato sauce

Every week we head down to Vancouver's Chinatown and have lunch at The Boss Bakery & Restaurant. Sometimes it's busy and practically every table is occupied, other times it's very quiet.

Today it was bustling and we had to sit in a booth at the back of the restaurant. For lunch there is a menu that includes a daily soup, the main dish and a beverage. A cold one will set you back an extra dollar for ice cubes.

I've had spaghetti with beef, but it's not ground meat, but instead slices of sauteed beef with a tomato Campbell soup kind of sauce.

Flaky Portuguese-style egg tarts

That said Vietnamese pork chops with lemongrass is delicious, thin medallions that are pan-fried and dipped in a light fish sauce and complemented with sliced cabbage and tomatoes.

This time I had sole fillets over rice with a few spinach leaves that is doused with that tomato Campbell soup sauce and baked.

Since it's baked it takes longer than stir-fried dishes, but well worth the wait. It comes piping hot and tastes like comfort food even though I didn't grow up eating it.

For dessert we got Portuguese-style egg tarts. They were not pastel de nata, but rather egg custard in fancy flaky layered shell. The custard wasn't too sweet -- they didn't sprinkle sugar on top of the custard before torching it, nevertheless we loved the crunch on the flaky crust!

Other desserts we've had are the Cantonese egg tarts, sesame balls filled with black sesame paste, and even Taiwanese-style pineapple cakes.

Picture of the Day: Steamed Crab and Pork Patty

Steamed pork patty surrounded by crab legs

Tonight we went out for dinner at Golden Paramount Seafood Restaurant in Richmond and had some staple dishes, like winter melon soup, crispy chicken, sweet and sour pork, and steamed fish. They were all very good, perfectly cooked. 

The winter melon soup was perfect for today, which reached a high of 27 degrees.

We also ordered steamed crab -- with pork patty cooked together with the chopped up crab.

One of our friends at the table had seen this combination on a TV cooking show in Hong Kong where a top chef made it, and it looked so delicious that they asked the Golden Paramount manager if this could be done for us.

My picture is of the dish half eaten, but you can see the pork patty has soaked up the sweet juices of the fresh crab meat. 

Will we see this variation in other Chinese restaurants around town? Very high chance. 

Steveston Treats

Fish and chips served in a cone at Pajo's 

Yesterday I was in Steveston, the southernmost tip of Richmond, and decided to check out Pajo's Fish & Chips, which just celebrated its 40th anniversary. It was started by two women, Patricia Branch and Joan Wettlaufer in 1985, making battered fried fish from the catches made by Branch's husband Larry, who was a fisherman.

Since it was overcast and a weekday, I figured I should take the opportunity to check out Pajo's, as it's quite popular and there was no lineup.

Picnic tables have holes to place your cone

Located down on the waterfront, customers need to walk down the gangplank to the shop on the water. The menu is extensive, with fish and chips made from wild rock snapper, cod, sockeye salmon, and halibut, and burgers, tacos and hotdogs.

I got one piece of the cod and it was presented in a cone with fries at the bottom. At first I wondered how I was going to eat it when I quickly realised there were holes in the picnic tables for people to place their food! How ingenious.

However, when you're eating outside, you need to beware of others keen on having some of your food. I had two crows eyeing my fish and chips. They paced along the railing and at times came closer. I looked them in the eye and put an arm around my cone to show I wasn't sharing.

The fish was a thin fillet that was bland and under seasoned, though the batter created a thin casing around the cod. The fries underneath were a bit on the soggy side, but again appreciated they weren't too salty.

Another cone... of ice cream!

For dessert I headed to Sally's Homemade Ice Cream and had a scoop of the passionfruit sorbet, a deep golden colour and tasted slightly tart and not sweet. As I was eating my ice cream cone, one local came for ice cream and admitted he was swinging by there twice a day!

Taste of Northern Chinese Spice

The eatery is known for its multicoloured dumplings

Last week two acquaintances and I were going to eat dinner in a Hong Kong-style restaurant in downtown Vancouver, but when we got there, we were surprised to find it was closed! The restaurant had just changed its operating hours, but the chef-owner didn't update the website.

So we walked a couple of blocks to the Robson Public Market, where there is a well known Chinese eatery called Nine Dumplings or 九个饺子. 

Fish fillets submerged in dried chillis

I hadn't been there since the late 1980s when a high school classmate's father ran a French bakery franchise. At dinner time on a weekday the place was pretty dead, except for this northern Chinese eatery. 

The chef-owner Yue Shen wasn't there, except a middle-aged woman who seemed overwhelmed with orders. At first she told us to come back another day and then changed her mind and asked us to wait about 15 minutes for her to clear the backlog of orders she had.

We patiently waited at the last food court table available when my friend went up to order some food. Nine Dumplings is best known for its multi-coloured dumplings, dyed with natural food colouring like spinach for green, squid ink for black, and butterfly pea flower for blue. 

The dumplings are popular, but it's the other dishes my friend ordered which were next level -- 水煮鱼 shui zhu yu, or spicy boiled fish, and 凉皮, liangpi or spicy "cold noodle" salad, that are typical northern Chinese dishes.

Refreshing salad of cold noodles with cucumbers

The fish arrived in a giant bowl covered in dried chillis with Sichuan peppercorns and pieces of fish fillets that were perfectly cooked. This dish seduces you because at first it doesn't seem too spicy so you eat another piece of fish and your mouth gets a bit spicier and tingling, but after another few bites you are hooked and eat more. Soon your mouth is on fire and like watching a car crash in slow motion, you can't help but look, and in this case, your chopsticks still continue to poke around for more spicy fish.

Meanwhile the liang pi is served cold and perfect for hot summer days. The springy noodle is made from flour and water, steamed and then sliced into thick rectangles. They are combined with chilli sauce, sliced cucumber, peanuts and sesame seeds, and a few dried chillis for good measure.

The cooling effect of the noodles counteract the spiciness, making it a more balanced dish compared to the fish one. Eating these two dishes made me feel like I was back in Beijing!

The owner Yue Shen came by and chatted with us, saying he had opened a small eatery in City Square on Cambie Street. He said business there was quiet and we asked what to eat there. Salted caramel ice cream he said with a smile!

We were intrigued and will have to stop by there sometime!

Nine Dumplings

204 - 1610 Robson Street

Vancouver, BC

(778) 246 1199

Review: Mui Ngo Gai Offers Singaporean and Vietnamese Dishes

Interesting decor choice for this Singaporean/Vietnamese place

On Thursday an acquaintance invited me to check out a relatively new restaurant on Kingsway near Victoria Drive called Mui Ngo Gai, which serves Singaporean and Vietnamese dishes. Walking in was a bit jarring because the decor was very western, with a colour palette of burgundy and teal, floral murals on the walls and chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. 

A white guy in a tank top came in looking for a cheap bowl of pho and was frustrated he couldn't get one and walked out, while another group of non-Asians also left when they didn't understand the restaurant concept.

Grilled eggplant with tomato and shrimp

It's interesting Mui Ngo Gai offers these two different cuisines pretty much equally and in this western-style interior, where the wait staff wear uniforms that make them look like flight attendants.

Flipping through the menu you are overwhelmed by how many dishes there are; some are carefully explained, while others assume diners know what they are. The menu has lots of pictures which helps see what's in the dishes, but in some ways makes it harder to decide what to eat.

My friend likes to sample food so we were over ambitious when we ordered and probably lucky for us, one that we wanted wasn't available, so we ordered four dishes. Since we requested so much food, the waitress suggested we change tables, and we moved from the back of the restaurant to the front, by the window with banquette seating.

First to arrive was our only Vietnamese dish, grilled eggplant with prawn (C$25) that was presented on a very pretty plate and the eggplant looked like a fish, its flesh (alternating pieces of shrimp and tomato) covered in a tomato sauce. The eggplant was delicious and didn't need the prawns, or tomatoes for that matter. 

A bowl of congee with frog legs and dried chillis

Next came two small claypots, one with "porridge" or congee, the other was a black concoction with frog legs and dried chillis (C$23). We were instructed to put some porridge in our bowls and then add the frog legs and mix together before eating. 

The frog legs were delicious, very tender and had a spicy kick. Because everything was covered in a black sauce (not explained in the menu) that I didn't know I had bitten into a chilli. I had to order another glass of sour sop to douse the metaphorical flames burning in my mouth.

We also had a plate of lady fingers fried with sambal (C$25) that were on the stringy side even though they were sliced lengthwise -- they could have been poached first. 

By this point we were pretty full when a giant pot arrived with our fish head curry (C$68)! It was a big head of a snapper, but it was unrecognisable except for a giant pectoral fin hanging off the bowl. The curry had pieces of more okra and eggplant in there. Again the okra could have been chopped up instead of in whole pieces.

Fish head curry with eggplant and lady fingers

The fish head actually didn't have that much meat and sadly was a bit overcooked. Nevertheless the sauce was pretty appetising; we used roti prata (C$5) to mop up the sauce, but it was a bit too buttery for our taste.

Our waitress explained the restaurant didn't have desserts available yet (even though they were printed on the menu), but we were much too stuffed to try any; she also suggested next time we try the chilli crab, which sounded tempting!

Perhaps Mui Ngo Gai is trying to make Southeast Asian food more upscale with this kind of decor and service. The food almost matches this ambition, though the crockery used is very inconsistent. Nevertheless we hope to be back!

Mui Ngo Gai

2052 Kingsway

Vancouver, BC

(604) 876 8885

Marimekko-inspired Finnish Food

The salmon chowder is served in a Marimekko bowl and plate

I have a friend in Hong Kong who is a devoted Marimekko fan. She wears the large dresses featuring the block flower prints, and has the tableware at home too. 

Like many people I was surprised to discover it is a Finnish brand, not Japanese! Marimekko is actually a textiles, clothing and home furnishing company started by Viljo and Armi Ratia in Helsinki in 1951.

The cafe has the Unikko poppy decor

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Unikko, or poppy pattern, and Canadian high-end retailer Holt Renfrew has a mini pop-up selling some Marimekko items from clothing to handbags to bowls and tea cups, as well as offering Finnish-inspired dishes at Holts Cafe.

Curious to see how they tasted, I went to the cafe today for brunch. Holts Cafe opens at 10am and I was there half an hour later, the only customer! It's a nice space, with lounge seating mostly for two and a dining room area to the left of the entrance. 

The cafe is decorated with a pillar in the grey Unikko design, as well as some cushions, alternating with blue striped ones from Marimekko as well. For the special menu, all the dishes are served on Marimekko tableware, a great way to promote the brand.

Perusing the menu, there are bites for the ladies-who-lunch crowd, such as a spring pea and cucumber salad, salmon chowder, and open-face smoked whitefish sandwiches called tartine. There's also cabbage rolls, and shrimp on toast.

Smoked whitefish tartine with salad

Keeping with the Finnish theme are drinks using Finlandia vodka -- but who is drinking vodka during the day, and especially at 10.30am? I asked for the non-alcoholic berry caipiroska, and it was served in a tiny (Marimekko) glass with lime juice, syrup and blueberries. Refreshing, but considering it's zero-proof, how about a larger glass or a discount on the drink (C$15)?

The salmon kasu chowder (C$18) arrived smelling fragrant from the fresh dill. The cream-based soup, featured chunks of kasu-cured salmon, leek, carrot, and potato. It was a delicious soup that wasn't too heavy on the cream, but the small potatoes were not bite-sized. Even though they were sliced in half, they had to be fished out and cut in half again.

I also ordered the smoked fish tartine (C$19) that came with small strips of smoked fish with thin slices of radish and red onion on yogurt and rye bread. The fish was a tad salty, but the flavour was flat -- it could have benefited from pickled red onion to elevate the taste. Nevertheless I enjoyed the mini butter lettuce salad on the side.

Finishing these two dishes left me feeling quite full for the rest of the day! 

The Marimekko pop-up and takeover is until July 31.

Holts Cafe

Holt Renfrew

737 Dunsmuir Street

Vancouver

604 678 0316

Army of Cooks Feeding Cruise Ship Passengers

Showing off some cool knife skills

We ate all our meals on the Ruby Princess this past week and I can attest as a cruiser that the novelty fades quickly; the breakfast buffet looks pretty much the same everyday, and in the fine dining restaurant, ingredients are used in different ways. It's best to eat something fresh on the menu -- and asking your waiter for tips on what's good that day.

Nevertheless we have to say running the food outlets on a cruise ship is no easy task. Executive chef Russell Clarke explained that half the staff are related to food and beverage, either cooks or waiters from some 50 different countries.

Pastry chefs busy making cakes for the day

During a culinary presentation in the theatre, Clarke quipped that he spoke Australian, not English, while all the other cooks and waiters spoke at least two or three different languages.

On stage, Clarke quickly made three dishes for the audience of passengers: shrimp cocktail with mango salsa, lamb chops, and pavlova with berries and coulis.

However, we weren't invited to try the dishes -- the pavlova looked rock hard and dense -- but to go to the galley kitchens to take a look. Apparently this is a popular tour and some people raced to the kitchens! In the end there wasn't much to see, except lots of empty work spaces, stainless steel everywhere and only a handful of chefs working at 11am.

Perhaps the cooks were shy, or Clarke wanted the area cleared out, we could only look at a distance though some areas were decorated with creative carvings of vegetables and fruits. Some were constructed to look like mice and birds, but the flowers carved out of the side of a watermelon were most impressive.

A hearty slice of prime rib with potato, beans

We were given a fact sheet on how much food is produced on the ship, and it involves ordering 110-115 tons of food delivered on a single cruise.

Three butchers clean and cut 1,700 fish into portions daily, while five butchers, three assistants and helpers prepare beef and poultry. On a cruise, 1,400lbs of poultry, 1,700lbs of beef, 1,400lbs of pork and pork products (like sausages); 300lbs of veal, and 200lbs of lamb are cooked daily.

While I had a large slice of prime rib that was pretty good on the last night, the lamb rack I had was overcooked. Interestingly the cream of whatever vegetable soup like cauliflower, or lentil, and the Alaska seafood soup were really good. These are made by 13 staff, preparing 550 gallons per day.

Some 1,600lbs of salad are served daily along with 400lbs of shrimp, 13 gallons of mayonnaise, and 1,500 sandwiches. The Caesar salad was consistently good and what I ate the most.

The bread served on board is made fresh daily by 10 bakers, including the bread rolls we ate everyday that had a light crunchy exterior and fluffy interior along with whipped butter. I did not try the pizza nor the croissants. The bakers use some 1,500lbs of flour daily! I saw some dough being proofed when we went through the kitchens.

Breads are made daily on the ship

And there are 13 people working in pastry making desserts, ice creams, cakes and pies. Around 6,000 pieces of pastries are made everyday, along with 100 gallons of ice cream, and 300 cakes and pies. The blueberry crumble with vanilla ice cream was a favourite at our table. The souffle on the first day was more like a steamed cake, but there was baked Alaska (a giant one sliced up, to individual ones that were sloppy). The safest bet was peach melba or ice cream with fresh fruit sauce like pineapple or strawberry.

Every morning I ate fruits -- honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon and pineapple. Sometimes there was papaya. Towards the end of the trip there was more canned fruit like apricot, peach and pineapple. I ate those anyway, and once had canned figs. Around 6,000lbs of fresh fruit is served daily, while 400lbs of butter are used everyday!

For those who drink coffee, 470 gallons are consumed, 62 gallons of coffee cream, and 400lbs of sugar for the coffee.

After consuming all that food, someone has to clean the dishes. Fifty-seven people wash china, glasses, silver, and pots and pans. Everyday 70,000 dishes are washed, while 21,500 glasses are washed. 

And that's just the passengers. There are also 1,1000 crew who need to eat too!

Review: Blue Smoke in Singapore

Crispy Iberico pork belly

A restaurant in Singapore I was introduced to is called Blue Smoke, run by chef/owner Ivan Yeo. It's located along Joo Chiat Road, on the east coast of the Lion City. Before dinner my friend and I wandered along the street checking out the various boutiques and shops. 

There were vintage shops selling clothes from the 1980s to antique brooches and jewellery, a biodynamic wine shop where the wines had no sulfites in them, and clothes made by young designers. 

Succulent miso shiitake brioche buns

At the appointed time we reached Blue Smoke, and it's a casual place with an open kitchen at the back. Yeo was there with a bandana on his forehead, as I can imagine it gets pretty hot there as he cooks with open flames and grills.

He's a maverick in that he did not come up through the ranks in the restaurant world -- instead he was in advertising, got jaded, then switched to music, and that was where he saw how restaurants and bars were run from the back-of-house point of view that interested him. Yeo had also had a taste of the restaurant business as his grandparents had opened eateries and he helped out as a kid.

Then he has an uncle who made his own beers and Yeo and his brother were interested in pairing food with these beers, hence Blue Smoke. The concept is that everything on the menu is smoked, but not in the American way of marinating for ages and then smoking it for over 12 hours. Yeo prefers to experiment with various ingredients by grilling them, throwing them on open flames and then seeing what happens.

Hands-down favourite grilled cauliflower

We tried some of his dishes and for the most part they were pretty good. We started with the miso shiitake buns, where brioche buns are cut open and brown butter spread on the insides with smoked shiitake mushrooms. They were a delicious combination.

Next came the crispy pork belly, reminiscent of the Cantonese roast pork. Here they used Iberico pork smoked over lychee wood and then roasted over charcoal, then served with wasabi sour cream to add a subtle kick and attempt to cut the oil. This was a bit too fatty for me but the skin was crispy.

The grilled cauliflower steak was arguably the best dish. It was grilled with miso butter and served over a bed of yuzu sauce and crumbled pistachios sprinkled over it for a bit of a crunch. We all raved about this humble vegetable that tasted so good.

Grilled lamb marinated with a Sichuan spice rub

Another meat we tried was the grilled lamb shoulder that arrived beautifully presented before we attacked it. The lamb was marinated in a mild spicy Sichuan-style spice rub before it was grilled over both wood and charcoal before being served with a side of wasabi sour cream. 

The wood smoked stingray steak was another winner. The fish was marinated with traditional Filipino shrimp paste, homemade sambal belachan (chillis) and then smoked over lychee wood. For me it was at the high end of my spice tolerance, but it was so good that it was addictive and I kept eating it.

Finally the highly anticipated wood-smoked beef brisket... fell flat. Perhaps we were expecting something similar to American smoked meat, but this one arrived at our table looking pale and tasted bland even though it was marinated with garam masala and smoked for 20 hours. 

The smoked beef brisket was bland and flat

Nevertheless the dessert of deep-fried Del Monte banana tempura style with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream helped us have a nice finish. The outer layer of the banana slightly crunchy, warm and combined with cold ice cream was just what we wanted.

In terms of Chinese medicine, Blue Smoke is very heaty! We talked to Yeo after who told us they cook Teochew or Chiu Chow off-menu dishes! He described their fish porridge which made us all salivate, but we were too full and the kitchen was closed for the evening.

This is how Yeo entices customers to come back again and now we know!

Blue Smoke

261 Joo Chiat Road

Singapore

  

Review: Tambuah Mas Indonesian Cuisine

This restaurant has been around since 1981

In Singapore a family friend took me to eat Indonesian food, something I haven't eaten in a very long time. She took me to a restaurant called Tambuah Mas in the basement of Paragon shopping mall on Orchard Road.

Whole deep-fried fish with its skeleton

It has been operating since 1981 in various locations, serving Indonesian cuisine particularly from Padang, Sulawesi and Java. 

We arrived a bit early as it opens at 11am but they let us sit at a table and peruse through the menu first, though we had to order by scanning a QR code.

The food arrived soon after which was quite impressive, though the results were mixed. One of the restaurant's signature dishes is ikan nila, a whole fish where the meat is filleted with the bone attached and deep-fried for a kind of Halloween skeletal presentation. 

Crispy baby squid with spicy sauce

A fresh water fish was used and this one had a distinctive smell and taste that wasn't off, but wasn't very appealing. Perhaps the fish was frozen? The fish meat was quite tough too, unfortunately, and we were not able to finish it.

Cumi-cumi goreng is a dish of delightfully tiny, crispy baby squid topped with a spicy-sweet sauce. These were crunchy and slightly spicy hot and very addictive, though for two of us the portion was quite large.

I really enjoyed sop buntut makassar, a bowl of spicy ox-tail soup, where the meat has been simmering for a long time and once we used our spoon to touch the ox tail, the meat fell off very easily. The soup was so flavourful that eating it evoked the soothing feeling of comfort food. This hearty soup with some rice -- which we had -- made it an ideal combination.

Comforting and flavourful ox-tail soup

Finally to balance the dishes, we had some vegetables in the form of stir-fried okra or lady's fingers with onion, practically the only non spicy plate on the table! 

To cool off from our spicy meal we ordered cendol, or shaved ice with coconut milk, green bean jelly, jackfruit and young coconut milk. So refreshing and delicious!

We walked off a fraction of our calories by wandering around the shopping centre's bakery stalls where they sold tempting items like nutella rye brownies, cranberry cream cheese fold (with numerous thin pastry layers), circular croissants with various toppings, and traditional desserts like lapis sagu, kueh telur, and pandan chiffon cake.

Cendol with jackfruit and green bean jelly

If only our metabolism was kickstarted into high gear...!

Tambuah Mas

Paragon 

#B1-44

+65 6733 2220

Hong Kong Can't Compete with Shenzhen

Many restaurants were quiet in Hong Kong this long weekend

This Easter weekend Hong Kong was eerily quiet. 

Over 680,000 people left the city to either go to other countries, or crossed the border into the mainland.

Many who did the latter headed to Shenzhen, the "it city" where options are plentiful but the key word is cheap.

How cheap, you ask?

Cheap food in Shenzhen, though quality not high

An acquaintance just came back from Shenzhen yesterday. He said four adults and three children went out for dinner and the total bill was around HK$600.

What did they eat, you may ask?

A whole grouper cost HK$68. In Hong Kong that same grouper would cost HK$500. Granted he said the Shenzhen fish didn't taste very good, but hey, it was super cheap.

Same goes for half a chicken, HK$68. Even four pieces of KFC in Hong Kong costs HK$89.

How can Hong Kong even compete with prices that are a fraction of those 45 minutes away by train?

It's impossible because rents in Hong Kong are so high, as well as labour and food costs.

It's not about eating good food in Shenzhen, but it's really cheap. And with people in Hong Kong struggling to make money post-pandemic, they love the cheap thrills they can get across the border. 

Is it any wonder restaurants and shops are struggling in Hong Kong these days?