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

Singapore Souvenir: Pandan Chiffon Cake

Singapore souvenir: pandan chiffon cake

Singapore Changi Airport is one giant shopping mall. Well, the entire city is, with pockets of hawker centres.

But on your way back home, if you still have room in your hand luggage, bring home a pandan chiffon cake from Bengawan Solo. There is a shop inside the airport so there's no excuse not to swing by and check out the gorgeous cake.

Light, fluffy and delicious

It's a brilliant lime green colour from the pandan leaves and has a coconut smell from the coconut milk. The cake itself is so moist and fluffy, it's like a souffle -- like eating a puff of air.

Usually Hong Kong tourists buy them by the box and stow them in the overhead compartment of the plane. I couldn't squeeze an entire cake in my bag, but the shop has already thought of this -- you can buy a small plastic container of four slices to slip into your bag.

The shop sells cookies, pineapple tarts and kueh, a steamed glutinous rice cake of different colours and flavours, but the pandan chiffon cake is Bengawan Solo's signature product. 

And yes it's so good!

And yes you can bring baked goods into Canada as long as there is no meat in it!