Doesn't TaZte Like Chicken

Location: My tiny kitchen

What does this look like to you?

A rack of lamb? No, look again…

Still think it is lamb? It is a rack alright! But it is not lamb. This is a rack of veal. Although I’m such a carnivore, it took me some time to learn to appreciate veal. I have always enjoyed eating lamb chops; after all, food that you can eat with your hands always taste better. The same theory goes for a rack of veal. It is juicy and tender. In my carnivorous opinion, a veal rack tastes just as good as a lamb rack, if not better.

Because veal is a very lean meat, this recipe tosses a small piece of compound butter on the veal and let it melt into the meat right after it is cooked. The butter adds flavour to the veal and keeps it succulent.

This recipe serves two people and you will need:

- 1 rack of veal
- 1/4 cup of unsalted butter
- 1 cup of pistachios with shells removed
- mustard
- tarragon
- thyme

1. Rub salt and pepper all over a rack of veal. Let it refrigerate for 12 hours.

2. To make the compound butter, first let butter come to room temperature. Once butter has soften, add:
- 1 tbsp of tarragon
- 1 tbsp of thyme
- 1/2 tsp of salt

Mix the spice and salt into the butter. Put the butter on a piece of plastic wrap and roll it into a tube. Put the butter back into the fridge and let it harden.

3. Turn the oven on to 350F.

4. In a heated pan add 2 tbsp of oil. Put the veal into the pan with meat side facing down. Cover the pan and cook at medium high heat for 5 minutes or until the meat turns golden brown.

5. Mince the pistachios and mix them with 2 tbsp of mustard.

6. Remove the meat from the pan and place it in a glass dish. Spread the pistachios and mustard mixture on the meat side of the veal. Put the veal in the oven and let it roast for 30 minutes. This will cook the veal to medium well.

7. Let the veal rest at room temperature for 15 minutes before cutting.

8. Once the veal is cut, place a small dollop of compound butter on each chop. Scope some pistachios on each chop as well. Serve while the chops are warm.

Location: My tiny kitchen

I had my first Scotch Egg a few years ago and I have liked it since. Come to think of it, it is nearly impossible for any one not to like a Scotch Egg. Who wouldn’t like a deep fried hard boil egg wrapped in sausage meat? Well, any one but the vegetarians, I would guess

A person who is obsessed about food would spend a lot of time thinking about food. With all the thinking, one day that person might ponder the question: “what is the reverse of a Scotch Egg”? The answer is rather straight forward – it is meat wrapped in egg!

Of course, once an idea is conceived, the next logical step is to put it into practice. The experiment was successful and I have named my test subject, “The Reversed Scotch Egg”.

- 1 cup of minced pork
- 1/2 cup of chopped chives, plus some whole pieces. The chives that I used are very long in length. They are much longer than regular chives. If you cannot find them, used the leave part of a green onion instead.
- 5 eggs

1. Marinate the pork with:
- freshly ground pepper
- 1 tbsp of brown sugar
- 1 tbsp of onion powder
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1 tbsp of Japanese cooking wine

2. Crack eggs into a bowl. Add a pinch of pepper and salt into the eggs. Beat the eggs.

3. Put 1 tbsp of oil in a heated pan. Stir fry the minced meat until it is cooked. Add chives and stir fry for one more minute. Set aside and let cool.

4. In a 6 inches non stick pan, add 1 tsp of oil. Put 2 to 3 tbsp of egg into the pan. Move the pan so that an even coat of egg is formed in the bottom of the pan. The goal is to create a thin piece of egg that is like a piece of crepe. When bubbles start to appear on the egg, gently flip the egg over using a spatula. When the crepe is ready, gently slide it onto a plate. Repeat this step for the remainder egg mixture.

5. Boil a small amount of water in a pot. Put the long chives into the water until they have become soft, which takes about 1 minute.

6. Once the egg crepes and minced pork have been cooled to room temperature, they are ready to be assembled. Put 1 or 2 tbsp of minced pork in the centre of an egg crepe. Gently, gather the edge of the egg crepe towards centre and form it into a purse. Secure the purse by tying a long chive around it.

7. Repeat step 6 for the remaining crepes.

Location: Singapore

Author: My Husband

After spending two weeks in India, my colleagues and I went our separate ways. One decided to fly home via Frankfurt (effectively flying around the world to get to/from India), and the other spent the weekend in HK before continuing on to Vancouver. I was the laziest and decided to simply spend the weekend in my transit city, Singapore, for some personal R&R before heading home.

In the foreground is the symbol of Singapore – the Merlion. The tall building in the background is the Swissotel Stamford, which used to be the tallest hotel in the world. In the middle is the Esplanade (also affectionately know as the durian for its spiky exterior), which serves as Singapore’s stage for cultural events. To the right of the Esplanade are the hotels at Marina Bay.

Being in Singapore is a treat, and despite my being away for years and years, it always feels like home every time I’m back. It is all too easy to slip back into the warm embrace of the country, of family, and of my childhood sights, sounds, and tastes; once I step through the sliding doors of the airport terminal, I’m back in familiar territory.

When in Singapore, I would usually take a room in one of the hotels at Marina Bay, and over the years, I’ve stayed at most of them. However, Marina Bay is a little out of the way and I wasn’t interested in spending the bulk of my 2 days commuting, so I decided to put up at the centrally-located Intercontinental this time around.

The hotel boasts a fusion colonial/peranakan theme. It feels quite genteel and thus appropriate for an Intercontinental. However, uncharacteristically for an Intercontinental, the service was not always all that it should have been. My favourite Intercontinental is still the Paris Le Grand in France.

The hotel is attached to the Bugis Junction mall, which boasts of a fully air-conditioned “shopping street”. The mall was built around several blocks of restored Peranakan shophouses, and a portion of it was enclosed with a glass roof and air-conditioned.

The glass ceiling and walls enclosing the space between the restored shophouses.

The interior of Bugis Junction. These used to be real shophouses. In days of yore, the shopkeepers would operate their businesses on the ground floor of these buildings and live on the second and third stories.

Across the street from the hotel, you can still see some of the unrestored, un-gentrified shophouses. This stretch of shops are mostly traditional coffee-shops and eating houses. I’m sure the food at these places are very good, but I’m just not used to eating hot foods in 30+ degree weather anymore…

My first full day in Singapore, I met up with some close relatives and had lunch and dinner at the Shang Palace and Palm Beach respectively. These will be featured as quick takes in the next couple of posts. The next day, I went to Orchard Road to pick some items up for my wife, and I again took the opportunity to have lunch at… Food Republic. I had my aunt and uncle with me that day, and the three of us really went to town on the food at the Wisma Atria FR outlet…

FR… again…

Thye Hong hokkien prawn noodles. These were savory, but with a slight tinge of sweetness imparted by the prawn stock used to cook the noodles. The mix of noodles gave this dish differing degrees of al-dente’dness.

Also from Thye Hong. Imho, these were even better tasting than the prawn noodles. Expertly fried with plenty of “wok hei” and fresh cockles, this was the best cha kway teow I’ve had in quite some time. Our Vancouver readers can find an approximation of this dish at the “Curry King” stall at the Osaka supermarket mall foodcourt.

This is the local fried radish “cake”. The “cake” is made with a slurry of rice flour and grated radish, and then steamed until solid. The “cake” is then sliced up, and fried up with eggs and other seasonings. This is a personal favourite, and I’ve never lost the taste for it after all these years. As far as I know, nobody makes a dish like this in Vancouver.

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