Singapore Stopover

The Boy and I are enjoying (or sweating through) a brief, one night stopover in Singapore on our way to Paris. I couldn't face a full 20 hours in a plane seat and knew that we'd NEED a stopover...anywhere that would allow us to lay horizontal to sleep would do.

When our plane landed in Singapore, we literally DUMPED our bags at our hostel, jumped in a cab and headed over to the chaotic, yet tasty Mankansutra Gluttons Bay, an outdoor hawker centre feature all of Singapore's top hits when it come to street eats.

Sadly the stallholder here had stopped serving her kaya toast with the soft boiled dipping egg so I walked away extremely sad faced...until I spotted a Toast Box near the taxi rank on our way home. Yes that is a BIG slab of butter between two slices of white bread - there's some Kaya Jam in there two FYI.

The next day sees us killing time by wading through Singapore's stifling heat and humidity. We'd woken up WAY too early and had WAY too much time to kill before the stalls at Maxwell Food Centre opened for the day. We arrived at this large open-air food centre at about 11.30am and whilst not all the stalls were open, nearly ALL the tables were taken! I dumped The Boy at one of the last free tables and went off in search of lunch...

Tian Tian is a pretty famous food stall here at Maxwell. I think it's always been pretty popular with the locals BUT then Anthony Bourdain got his hands onto the place which means the queues are now quite lengthy with both locals AND tourists who are wanting to see what all the fuss is about.



I joined the queue and about 30 minutes later return to our table with aforementioned chicken rice. The Boy had actually thought something had happened to me as I'd been gone so long. He was wondering if it would be cool just to continue on to Paris on his own (we agreed that it totally would be cool)!

The chicken rice was good, but I liked the version of the dish I'd had the night before at Gluttons Bay -- I thought the rice was a bit more flavoursome, the chicken juicier and I liked that the bird came with minced garlic at Gluttons Bay. The guy taken my order at Tian Tian was very nice though - he gave me extra chicken as a reward for my enthusiasm...and overzealous chattiness when I reached the front of the line *fist pump*.

Whilst we were pretty full we were dying for some roast pork so I found a popular looking stall and bought a double serve of pork, no rice. This set us back SGP $8.00.

Next stop Paris...where I plan to eat my own body weight in CHEESE!

Singapore Takeout, Circular Quay

Miss Piggy attended Singapore Kitchen as a guest of Singapore Tourism Board and Frank PR. 

“1 mobile kitchen, 9 cities, 10 chefs and 14 food brands
on a 365-day gastronomic journey.”

Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? I was one of a lucky handful of bloggers invited to attend a dinner at Singapore Takeout, a pop-up restaurant showcasing Singapore food that has traveled the world over the last 12 months ... last stop Sydney! After suffering badly from the post-holiday blues this taste of Singapore in Sydney was just what the doctor ordered!

I was expecting a dinner showcasing the simple  Hawker style food that The Boy and I had gone mad for in Singapore last month, but with Ignatius (Iggy) Chan and Head Chef Akmal Anuar from Iggy's in the kitchen we experienced a much more refined dinner, a fancy interpretation of some Singaporean classics.  It was loads of fun to taste some familiar dishes in that had been all gussied up, and it was wonderful to relive my recent Singapore holiday, if only for one night.

I hope the chefs didn't travel all the way from Singapore in the shipping container!

So what did we eat?  Let's have a look shall we...

Nasi Lemak...or is it? Iggy and his team have taken the notion of Nasi Lemak as a main meal and reduced it to a little taste of a Singaporean favourite - complete with Turmeric Leaf foam and an Otak Otak (fish) mousse.

Iggy's Variation of Sushi - tuna and kingfish sitting a top a delicious soy meringue, rather than your bog-standard rice.  The meringue was truly inspired, I want all my sushi like this in future! The texture was almost like honeycomb, dense yet light at the same time with  a slight flavour of soy and wasabi.

Cold Cappellini (aka: raw fish salad inspired by the dish yu sheng served at Chinese New Year) - chilled cappellini with needlefish, deep fried quinoa and a ponzu granite to add a crunchy texture.  A really light and refreshing summery dish.

Slow cooked Ranger's Valley beef cheek cooked with an Aussie Pinot Gras for everyone else; and a beautiful steamed Travelli for me.

Kaya Toast with Teh Tarik ice-cream - not the Kaya Toast I fell in love with in Singers, more of a Kaya flavoured brioche pudding...very nice, but it didn't quell my Kaya Toast cravings. Doh!

Sadly Singapore Takeout was only in Sydney for three days -- it's been and gone peeps -- so if you want a taste of Singaporean delights my friends you're going to have to jump on a plane and visit Singapore. After our recent visit to Singapore I CANNOT wait to get back and eat some more!

Temasek, Parramatta

Located down an unassuming, and well-hidden, little arcade in Parramatta is the new love of my life, Temasek.

Temasek is located in a tiny arcade (that leads through to a public carpark) next to the fabulous art-deco, and completely over-the-top Roxy building (the sight of a former movie cinema, now a night club).

If you didn't know this fabulous Malaysia/Singaporean restaurant was here you'd walk straight past it. Which is what The Boy and I had been doing for the first three months after we moved to Parramatta.  After about three months someone mentioned this place to me and I've been hearing great things about it ever since. On the weekend I thought it was high time The Boy and I went to check it out.

When we arrived at Temasek the place was absolutely heaving with people.  The restaurant spans two large rooms on either side the arcade and staff race back and forth across the narrow passageway delivering meals to the hungry masses.  I was starting to worry that, as we hadn't booked, we wouldn't be able to get a table. Our waitress tells us if we can eat our meal within an hour and be gone before 8pm she can seat us. Can we ever - she obviously doesn't know who she's dealing with.

As we under a time-crunch we decide to just order what we know and love, and leave the exploration of the menu til our next visit (oh, yes there will be a next visit asap)!

I already know what I'm having.  My all time favourite Malaysia meal is Beef Rendang ($18.80), and I order this along with two pieces of Roti Bread which are perfect for mopping up the rich, flavoursome sauce. Temasek's Beef Rendang is beautiful.  The generous chunks of beef are melt-in-your mouth tender, and the sauce has just enough of a chilli-kick to have us reaching for our glasses of water.

The Boy has a soft spot for Nasi Goreng ($14.80) an Indonesian fried rice dish that comes peppered with prawns, chicken pieces and sliced shallots. The rice is a rich, dark brown colour from the ABC Sauce - a thick, sweet soy sauce that is rich and sweet in flavour.  Our Nasi Goreng is topped with a fried egg, whose yolk is still soft when we break through it with out fork.

I also wanted to try something I've never had before so order myself a Chendol Drink ($4.50). Chendol refers to the green, grass-like jelly in the drink, which is made with rice flour and coloured green with pandan.  The Chendol is then mixed with palm sugar, coconut milk, red beans and shaved ice.  I loved this drink as it was sweet and refreshing, but next time I'm going to pass on the red beans as the flavour was a bit too savoury, and the texture too "mushy" for me.

Chendol is actually a Malaysian dessert (well, it's listed under desserts on the Temasek menu at any rate), but I found that it was great to drink throughout the meal as the ice and coconut milk are the perfect antidote to the spiciness of the food.  Eating the soft, wiggly-worms is also quite fun!

It's funny how food can bring strangers together. The table next to us had an interesting looking green bean dish (I'm sure by now you all know of my love for green beans). When I asked them what the dish was they offered The Boy and I a taste AND insisted I take a photo of the beans.  A table by the door asked us if this was our first visit, when I said that it was, they ran off a string of dishes that we MUST come back to try. These two random encounters brought a big smile to my foodie face.

Temasek is in the Roxy Arcade, 71 George Street, Parramatta. I'd suggest booking a table, especially if you have a group of more than two people. Their phone number is 9633 9926.