Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated?

I first dined at Vue de Monde in 2008, and remember the cozy bistro for their coddled eggs, topped with a truffle foam. Mmmm.. I love eggs, and a pairing with truffles is my favorite combination. It did strike a chord with me, so on this Melbourne trip, I made a special request to go back there.

The food on this occasion wasn't as memorable, but we did have a salad that Mom liked very much, and wanted to make for a dinner party. She asked me for the recipe, so I'm hacking it out here. The key to the salad is the fresh ingredients, so don't be tempted to use sub-par produce, although it might be more cost effective. Also, the presentation was perfect - a very organized mess, looking like not a lot of care was put into plating it, but really, requiring a lot of work for each individual component.



Here's the gist of it - it's not for the fainthearted, and is one of those "looks easier that it actually is" dishes.

Salade C'est Complique

Serves 4

1 ea Zucchini, Shaved into long thin slices with a peeler
1 ea Zucchini, sliced into 1/4" rounds
1 ea Yellow Pepper
1 ea Red Pepper
8 ea Cherry Tomatoes, halved
4 ea Anchovies

1 portion Batter
1/4 cup Dressing

1 portion Eggplant Caviar for base
1 cup Croutons for garnish


For the Salad:
Preheat an oven to 450F. Roast Peppers in oven until tender, but not mushy, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Peel, halve lengthwise, remove seeds, and slice each piece crosswise into four (16 pieces total)
Before serving, dip the zucchini rounds in the batter, and fry in 350F oil until browned and just tender, remove from oil, and blot with paper towels
In the remaining batter, coat the anchovies, and fry in 350F oil, until batter is crisp and brown. Remove from oil, and blot with paper towel
Combine all the vegetables together, and toss with dressing, making sure to taste, reserving 2 tbs of dressing

To serve, spread a layer of eggplant caviar on 4 plate, top with tossed salad, making sure that each has equal portions of each ingredient
Top with fried anchovy, and garnish with croutons
Drizzle each plate with remaining 1/2 tbs of dressing


Batter for Zucchini Rounds & Anchovies
1/2 cup Cake Flour
2/3 cup Ice Water
1 ea Egg Yolk
1 tsp Baking Soda

Combine ice water with egg yolk. Sift baking soda into cake flour, and quickly whisk liquid into dry ingredients. Do not overwhisk, mixture should be a little lumpy. Make this only just before using

Dressing:
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Tbs Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tbs Minced Italian Parsley
1 Tbs Mint Chiffonade

Salt & pepper to taste

Whisk all ingredients together, season to taste


Eggplant Caviar
1 ea Large Eggplant
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 clove Garlic, finely mashed

1 Tbs Olive Oil
Salt & pepper to taste

Preheat an oven to 450F. Prick the eggplant all over and rub with olive oil. Roast in oven for about 45 minutes, or until eggplant is tender when pierced. Remove from oven and let cool.
Strip the skin from the meat, and wrap eggplant meat in cheesecloth. Hang over a drip pan in the fridge overnight to drain excess liquid.
Spin eggplant and garlic in a food processor, and gradually add the 1/4 cup olive oil to combine. Season with salt & pepper

Baht for Your Buck?

I kick started 2010 with an awesome weekend in Bangkok - it was kind of a "getting away from getting away" from my trip to Singapore, and just about enough time to spend in a hot, crowded, traffic infested city (wait, sounds like Singapore). I had not seen my friends Kim and Jane in 2 years, so it wonderful to be able to spend some quality time with them.



Also, while I visit Phuket almost every year, this was my first time to Bangkok - meaning that there was plenty to eat and explore from Thailand outside beach food!

I arrived in the evening on a Saturday - and the first stop for us was dinner at a local Thai cafe, with re-invented local cuisine. The owner of the restuarant started off by making her own ice cream, and then branched out into serving food. We had deep fried meatballs, crispy chicken wings, green curry served with a flaky pancake, much like Singaporean Roti Prata, and my favorite dish, the softshell crab yellow curry, served over fettucine pasta.



The next morning, I requested that we vist the local market. As I've mentioned in several other posts, the markets are often most representative of the local cuisine, and are always a stop on any trip!

Bangkok cuisine, like many other southeast asian coutries, is highly dependant on prepared street food. So, when we visited the market, it was no surprise that half of it was lined with hawkers selling either ready to eat food, or prepared food that you could take home with you and jazz into a dish with some fresh produce or protein.




For example, a housekeeper or a mom might come and purchase several different curry sauces and add chicken or fish to make a substantial curry, or buy fried, flavored fish flakes to serve on rice.





The market is also a place where you can get a quick snack - we munched on pork satays and sticky rice, which is what all the school kids eat after class! There was much we wanted to try, but sadly, our stomachs were too small!




Steamed curried fish paste, the equivalent of Otak-Otak


My favorite Thai dessert, coconut jam steamed in pumpkin

Thailand is country that is truly blessed with milk and honey. The land is abundant, and the climate is perfect for agriculture. Varieties of fruit are grown in abundance, many of which cannot be found in the west; Langsat, a golden brown fruit with white fleshy segments on the inside,



Durian, the king of all fruits, (and banned on the subway in Singapore)




My favorite durian candy when I was growing up

and Tamarind, a tangy pod fruit that is usually eaten as a candy, or is a staple ingredient that gives asian food that sour taste.



Similiarly, the waters around the area are teaming with all sorts of critters that you can eat - from giant river prawns the size of lobsters, to fresh crab, mussels, oysters, and scallops!




Dog's tongue fish







Who would want to eat anything but local in a country of this abundance?

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the refuge of air conditioning at the Jim Thompson house. Jim Thompson was an American Soldier who fell in love with Thailand and made it his home in the '50s, revitalizing the Thai silk and textile industry. There is some scandal to his story, as he was a former officer of the Office of Strategic Services, and sort of pre-cursor to the CIA, and in the late '60s he disappered in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia, where no remains were every found. The story continues to be a mystery - was he killed, kidnapped, or did he really die of natural causes?

That aside, the Jim Thompson brand is a standard of quality in the textile industry, and I offloaded my shopping urges by picking up some good silk and linens. (*sigh of contentment)

The Jim Thompson brand recently expanded into food service as well, and we had lunch at the Jim Thompson House. My two favorite was the little handheld salads, a mix of nutes, crunch veggies in a leaf, and topped with plum sauce, and the fried catfish flakes with green papaya relish.







The food was very good, but it was kind of like eating hokkien mee at the hyatt.

The best food that I had in Bangkok though, was definitely the meals I had at Kim's place. There's something about home cooked food that really warms the soul, and cannot be found or replicated in any commercial kitchen.

Breakfast on both days was noodles - teochew beef ball with rice noodles, and fried noodles with all the good stuff!





And finally, dinner the night before I left - Crabs, northern duck, fried pork, salad, and soup!











It was the perfect way to end my glut fest - simple & homemade, just the way I like it after a weekend of indulgence.

Bangkok, I'll be back!

Chef Laura's Makan Sutra

makan /mah-kahn, ˈmɑkɑn/ n. & v. [Mal. makan food, a meal; eat, consume] A n. Food, a meal. B v. Eat, have a meal.

su·tra \ˈsü-trə\ n. a precept summarizing Vedic teaching; also : a collection of these precepts

They say the best thing about Singapore is the food, and I agree.

The cuisine is so unique and the flavors are a reflection of the cultural melting pot this is Singaporean society. Because of that, it's difficult to replicate outside the region - here in the Bay Area, there are probably more Singaporean restaurants per sq ft than any other place outside of Singapore. However, none of them have effectively been able to transpose the same kind of authenticity to the food (yes, I can't even do it myself, even though I do a pretty good job).


Barbequed Pork Jerky, another thing you can't find here in the Bay area

So, because of the lack of availability of authentic Singaporean cuisine around, the cravings for the food set in, and when I do get a chance to visit Singapore, it's really a chance for me to play food catch up. There are so many things on the menu that it's difficult for me to satisfy every single desire, so I tend to just sample what I can. Plus, if you're familiar with the cuisine, you'll know that it's heavy on the carbs and saturated fat, and so, less is definitely more for the waistline!

On this recent trip, I was caught up with a bunch of other stuff, and although I barely had enough time for a meal a day, I did get some local favorites in:

First up, home made Mee Siam and Pohpiah at a Hari Raya Puasa party. Mee siam is made by stir frying rice vermicelli in a prawn and chili paste, and then served with a spicy and sour clear broth, and the recipe is almost a family secret. Pohpiah on the other hand is almost the chinese version of sushi, or vietnamese fresh spring rolls, except that the filling is mostly braised turnip with a variety of condiments ranging from boiled shrimp to bean sprouts and several other interesting sauces that I don't care to mention!


Plate of Mee Siam


Mee Siam Sauce


Mee Siam Condiments


Rolling the pohpiah


Pohpiah condiments

The Social Networking Forum Asia was held at the Hyatt Hotel, which has a pretty good restaurant on the ground floor. The Straits Kitchen serves up local favorites at exorbitant prices. I ordered Hokkien Mee, which is a favorite of mine, made by Wok Frying egg & rice noodles in a rich shrimp and pork stock, and a Teh Tarik, the local style tea, with condensed milk and "pulled" or drawn in the air to create froth. What normally would have cost me $5, came up to $30 - you pay that much extra to sit in air conditioning and use your laptop while having lunch :)


Hokkien Mee & Teh Tarik, with quite awesome chili sauce considering

I had the chance to go for supper twice - (which is almost considered a national sport), where we had Prata, (a local version of the croissant, except it's made with ghee, served with curry, and eaten mostly when drunk at 3am), and Hainanese Chicken Rice (do check out my post here), which is really one of the most quintessential dishes of Singaporean Cuisine.


Chicken served at room temperature, and with the bone still bloody - so it never dries out!


Sambal Kangkong - a local spinach stir fried with chili, and the clear chicken broth


Chicken Insides (Gizzard & Liver, a popular side dish, but apparently I'm the only one that eats it), and yellow chicken rice, a sign that it was cooked the authentic way - with chicken fat!

Sorry folks - due to being only half conscious on Friday night I forgot to take pictures of the Prata, but please google search it!

Ironic how I started and ended my culinary journey at Singapore's Changi Airport as well - the first lunch I had was at the Crystal Jade La Mien Xiao Long Bao restaurant at Terminal 3, where we had "Shanghainese" noodles, dumplings and other delicacies like stewed pork and drunken chicken. To send me off, we ate at the Soup Restaurant at Terminal 2 - it's local franchise that's extremely reliable, affordable, and always surprisingly consistent!


Dan Dan Noodles ( Peanut Sauce), Drunked Chicken & Pork Dumplings at Crystal Jade


Stewed Pork, Hand Pulled Noodles with Wontons


The famous Samsui Chicken at Soup Restaurant


L - R: Steamed minced pork with salted egg, Stir fried fish ($1 Special), and Stir fried sweet potato leaves

Amongst other things at the award winning Changi Airport, there is a Killiney Kopitiam (Cafe), one of the oldest and most legendary breakfast spots, that have like many other eateries, now branched out into franchising. We spent our last moments together around one last cup of Kopi (coffee or tea "Teh" with condensed milk), and munching on Kaya toast, an egg custard sandwich that I grew up around. It was a fitting end to the time I spent with family, but sweet enough to linger till I see them again.

Jaffa to Jerusalem - Chef Laura in Israel Part 3

The oldest port in the world is under construction, but that didn't distract from the historic awe that I indulged myself in when I visited Jaffa. The old city is atop a hill and you get an awesome view of the harbor that brought in cedars from Lebanon for both the first and second temples of Jerusalem.




A great view of Tel Aviv from Jaffa



Modern Jaffa thrives on it's antiquity, with a quaint old town feel. Even the night street market reminds me of an old bazaar, completely different from contemporary Tel Aviv, which is just a 10 minute walk north. Street side stalls of shwarma, falafel and shish kebab abound, but we chose to visit Noa, a cute little Mediterranean bistro on a side alley. Noa is the little sister to Cordelia, the more famous and upmarket restaurant just around the corner, with the same chef, and from reviews, equally good.

They had a tasting menu going on with a couple of first courses to share, and then a main course each.







My dining partner was a great sport, and humored my appetite by allowing me to order an extra liver pate (which of course I absolutely love), even on severe warning from the waitress that it was a lot of food (rubbish!). The best plate was the sea bream carpaccio, which was thinly sliced (think Hirame), then dressed in olive oil, sea salt and chives. Super simple, super fresh, and super delicious.



As mentioned earlier the pate was fantastic, but what I really loved was the macerated raisins which became plump with a good dose of dessert wine, not unlike what I serve my foie gras with.



We tried the lamb kebabs which was stuffed with goat cheese, and a braised pork shank which had cooked for hours and was completely falling off the bone. The kebabs were a bit more unique, but the shank was a better dish. How can you go wrong with a good braising technique anyway, especially with all that good fat around the lean meat? Note to self - if you want to impress, braise.









After eating so well on Thursday night, by breakfast on Friday seemed comparatively blah - a Challah Egg Sandwich and mineral water, which I munched on while driving to Ein Gedi (I'm a safe driver, I swear!).



It wasn't a bad drive at all, in fact completely enjoyable, especially when I noticed the difference between the lush greenery on the West of Jerusalem, and then the acrid desert to the East. In the wilderness of Judea, I spotted a couple of very interesting things, included a decked out camel and goats on a hill.



My ears also kept popping as I drove further down the 400m towards the Dead Sea.





I arrived at Ein Gedi in the heat of the day, and I'm not sure what I was thinking (but the kiosk at the foot of the hike knows, trust me - they charge you 3X the price for water), but I took the hike up to Wadi David, cooling off in the freshwater pools along the way.





It amazed me to know that such beautiful oases could survive just a stone's throw away from the Dead Sea which can hold no life all (not known to man anyway).





After a float in the Dead Sea and a self-attending spa treatment by caking myself in the blackest of mud, my skin was ultra soft, and it was just in time for me to make the 45 minute drive further south to Ein Bokek, where I would spend the night.









This took me past Masada, unfortunately, I wasn't able to stop because it was just so damn hot (45C). I arrived just in time to take another dip in the salt pools which used to be part of the Dead Sea before it dried up and water had to be pumped in. Unlike the ultra-cool float at Ein Gedi, the water at Ein Bokek was like a hot tub - except that in mid afternoon, it was unbearably hot, so I headed back to my room to watch the sunset instead.



Fortunately, even on shabbat there was a great (relatively speaking) restaurant around the corner called Quattro, and I was able to escape the hotel buffet to have dinner there. The food was not bad, fried calamari and lamb kebabs again, served with a delicious eggplant mash.





For dessert, I had the Belgium waffle with ice cream and bananas, enough to feed another 3 more people and then some. I chatted with Maya, my friendly waitress, until she had to go back to work.



I woke up early the next morning (6am) to make the drive back to Jerusalem in time for the 9am tour. Conveniently enough, my GPS kept trying to take me into Jericho. It's a good thing I have a great sense of direction - for a girl anyway. Unfortunately, that was not enough to save me from Jerusalem, which is ridiculously complicated and has no city planning at all. I guess they didn't do that sort of thing 3000 years ago.





Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives


Mercy Gates

The day tour took us into Bethlehem, and to every single Jerusalem sight you can think of, including the Western Wall where I was yelled at for taking pictures on Shabbat.


The best picture I could get of the Western Wall


Incense at the Bazaar







Arab Sweets that I missed

Lunch was completely uneventful, and at the end of the day, all I wanted to do was... eat (no surprised there). After much trouble with trying to check in before sunset on a Saturday (that will teach me - next time just pick a name brand hotel, come on!), I headed out for dinner at a place which I was reassured several times that the food was very good.


Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Askadinya is on Shimon Ha Tsedek Street in East Jerusalem, tucked away in a remodeled 19th century house with limestone walls and arched doorways. I was on my own again when it came to dinner, and on recommendation, ordered the beef steak with a tasty green pepper and garlic dressing and sauteed baby potatoes and squash.


Actually my first steak in Israel

I was desperate to have some Arab sweets for dessert, which unfortunately they did not have, so I had to make do with the peanut mousse cake, topped with an Italian meringue (marshmallow), which was quite unique, and something that I will probably try to replicate.



I finished off the night having drinks at the Blue Hole, an Irish (I know huh?) Pub , which was busy till the wee small hours of the morn, evidence that the Nightlife also exists outside Tel Aviv.


A crazy Shisha shop round the corner form the Blue Hole

Sadly, this was the close of my weekend in Jerusalem, and I left for Tel Aviv on Sunday for the coup de grace - but that, as they say, is another post!