Food for Thought: Yassin's Durian Specialty

Tucked in a quiet corner in the northern part of Singapore, Yassin Kampung Seafood strives to bring back the good old days of early Singapore when life was simpler, happier and culturally richer.  Food is undeniably a part of our rich culture and Mr Yassin Ng has successfully recreated authentic Malay dishes using basic down-to-earth ingredients, just like in the old days. There is nothing  modernly innovative about the food being offered at this restaurant.  What you get will be food that we are all familiar with, food we grew up eating.

With three in our lunch group we ordered 4 dishes to share - curry fish head, sambal prawn with petai, chap chye and the restaurant's signature dish, durian chicken.

The curry fish head was to me a tad too sweet and rich in santan.   I prefer it to be more spicy with a dash of sour ala Apollo Banana Leaf Restaurant.  This dish did not really appeal to me.

Curry Fish Head

The Sambal Prawn with Petai was one of my favourite dishes.  The prawns were drenched in a creamy chili sauce infused with an assortment of local herbs and spices.  The addition of onions, tomatoes, daun limau purut and petai added to the robust flavour of the dish.  My only complaint was the miniscule amount of petai; I could do with more.

Sambal Prawn with Petai

Of course, in any balanced meal, it is obligatory to have a vegetable dish.  Our choice was chap chye which turned out to be more of a chop suey rather than the traditional nyonya chap chye, which I was expecting.  Still, I wasn't disappointed.  The dish had a good combination of different types of vegetables and seafood.

Chap Chye

The dish that our guest, Fr Andrew Wong, highly recommend for us to sample was also the restaurant's specialty - Durian Chicken.  I honestly had no idea what to expect of a dish with such an exotic name.  But my my curiosity was piqued.

Darling wife wasn't too enthusiastic over this dish.  I, on the other hand, found it amusingly delightful.  Little morsels of boneless chicken meat are first deep-fried, then doused in thick creamy durian sauce.  You would have thought that the sauce would be sweet but it is actually more savoury than sweet like the fruit.  Chef and owner, Yassin, has skilfully blended a savoury durian sauce in the same way the Mexicans created their savoury chocolate sauce to go with their meats.

The peppy flavour of the durian brought back, for me, sweet memories of my mum eating durian with steaming hot rice.  It was always a treat for her, something she relished with great contentment.

Durian Chicken

I might just make a return visit to Yassin Kampung Seafood for its very unique Durian Chicken.


Yassin Kampung Seafood
Blk 210 Marsiling Crescent 
#01-01/03, Singapore 730210
Tel:  6667 3481 

Ambiance:    6/10
Service:         7/10
Food:             6.5/10
Pricing:         $$
Recommendation: Sambal Prawn with Petai, Durian Chicken

People and Places: Kushiro's Washo Ichiba Market

The port city of Kushiro is quite renowned for the quality and freshness of its seafood for which it produces by the tons each day.  In downtown Kushiro there are numerous restaurants where you can get to savour some of Hokkaido's best culinary seafood creations. 

Washo Ichiba Market, located at 13-25 Kuroganecho, is a local shopping and market place featuring some 60 stalls.  This is where the neighborhood occupants come to buy their daily supply of grocery and fresh fish and seafood that arrives at the town's seaport.

   
Katte Don is the special dish that many come here for.  Here is how it works.  You buy yourself a bowl of rice and then walk along the rows of stalls and select your toppings from a wide variety of ingredients proffered by different vendors.  You will not want to miss trying this quick, simple and affordable seafood meal.

Another of the attractions here are the famous Hokkaido crabs which is the main draw for many tourists as well as the local habitants.

Darling wife enjoying a whole king crab all by herself.

The sashimi bowl above was what I had for lunch.  Everything was good but the sashimi scallops really stood out.  They were simply out of this world!

The market is heaven for sashimi and seafood lovers. The wide variety of seafood and shellfish on display at the market was a real feast for the eyes.

Food for Thought: British Hainan

When we entered the restaurant, we were immediately greeted with a very warm, "welcome home" by owner, Uncle Frederick. He has his way of making every one feel like family.  The restaurant itself exudes a homey atmosphere with its haphazard display of antiques and collectibles, and among these you will find some kitsch which may be to your fancy. This is definitely no designer pad.  Rather, the place bursts with character, reflecting a very warm and loving person behind the hands that put it all together. If you are an avid collector, you can spend hours upon hours just looking around the place.

Photo borrowed from British Hainan facebook

Located on Carpmael Road where it meets Crane Road, this is a family-owned restaurant that specialises in old British favourites that we grew up on like fish and chips, grilled pork chop, bangers and mash and more.  According to Uncle Frederick, his grandfather, like many of the Hainanese forefathers, worked on board British ships.  Along the way, they honed their culinary skills and began serving dishes that they learnt from the British.  At British Hainan, they serve a very well executed Hainanese pork chop which darling wife ordered.

Hainanese Pork Chop

The dish is prepared following strictly a family recipe which has been handed down through the generations. The tangy sauce is made from fresh tomatoes thus resulting in its natural sweetness. Overall the sauce is very tasty.  As for the meat, it has a 'tonkatsu' quality to it. The meat is tender and moist inside while the batter is light and crispy.

Dijon mustard pork chops

I chose the Dijon Mustard Pork Chop as my main dish.  Three pieces of pork chop with a very light dusting of flour, grilled to near-perfection, was served with home-made fries and a side of fruit salad. While I have had better pork chops else where, their version was definitely one of the better ones. I was not, at all, disappointed with my superbly prepared main dish.

Chef's fruit salad with mint sauce

The Chef's fruit salad with mint sauce, shared between the 2 of us, was refreshingly tasty. The mint sauce was flavourful but not too overly heavy.  It was a good accompaniment to the fresh crisp lettuce and fruits which included pineapples, peaches, cucumber and cherry tomatoes.

Carrot cake with cheese topping

We ended the meal with carrot cake for dessert.  It contains all of the usual ingredients - carrots, nuts, spices etc but what sets it apart from others is that it is light and slightly moist with just sufficient sweetness.

One of the things in the shop that really captivated my attention was the restaurant's Menu, using old Crocodile brand brown files as holder.  This was the exact same type of file that my late father used to keep his personal collection of writings making up mainly of family literature including some newspaper cuttings.  I remember vividly the public announcement of my grandfather's retirement from civil service at the age of 45 which appeared in the Malay Mail.  As you may have guessed, the menu brought many fond memories for me.

The menu also carries an interesting listing of ciders and ales for those who intend to spend the evening drinking after dinner.  There is an al fresco area looking out on to Crane Road and this is a popular gathering space for drinkers.

By the way, everything on display is up for grabs (except when stated otherwise).  So this may just be the perfect place for collectors to eat, drink and shop.


The British Hainan
75 Carpmael Road (junction of Crane Road)
🕿 +65 63368122 
Open for dinner daily except Tuesday.  Lunch is served only on Friday and Saturday.

Ambiance:    8/10
Service:         8/10
Food:             7/10
Pricing:         $$
Recommendation: Hainanese pork chop, Oxtail Stew, Carrot Cake.  Signature dishes are its Traditional Hainanese Oxtail Stew, Braised Lamb Shank and IPA Chicken. 

Food for Thought: Wan Hao @ Marriott Hotel Tang Plaza

Wan Hao recently underwent a complete refurbishment to give it a more modern feel.  The new layout provides for more private dining in rooms of varying sizes strategically placed throughout the restaurant.  As for the food, the new menu put together by Executive Chinese Chef Brian Wong is light with a slightly modern twist.  It is not fusion but what he was trying to achieve was giving old traditional dishes a new breath of freshness.  Chef Brian strives to elevate the rich culinary excellence of Cantonese cuisine to new heights.  Has he succeeded?

We had dinner recently at Wan Hao compliments of our dear friend, Peter Shiau, fellow parishioner of Holy Spirit Church.  Peter is a faithful patron of this restaurant and so we let him take charge of ordering the food.

Peter's choice for dinner for three included claypot beef brisket with bamboo shoot and mushroom, steamed marble goby in premium soya sauce, steamed prawn in garlic and stir-fried asparagus in spicy XO sauce.

The first dish to arrive was the claypot beef brisket.  The bite-size chunks of beef brisket were braised to tender perfection and I simply love it.  What I personally liked about this dish is that the beef brisket was well marinated and stewed long enough for the meat to fully absorbed the flavours of the Chef's home-made sauce. The mushroom were soft and chewable, on the harder hand, the strips of bamboo shoots were pleasantly crunchy.

The steamed prawn in garlic was delicious but somewhat missed the mark for me.  I would have preferred more garlic and perhaps a dash of ginger to give the dish more ommph.  And the use of a more delicate tasting sauce would have done more justice to the prawns.

For greens, we had stir-fried asparagus in a spicy XO sauce.  Overall, a good dish but I would have preferred the asparagus to be blanched a tad longer.  The XO sauce was tasty but lacked the level of spiciness I was expecting especially for a dish that was described as 'spicy'.

For me, the highlight of the meal had to be the steamed marble goby in soya sauce.  More commonly known to Singaporeans as 'Soon Hock', this is a favourite fish for steaming especially when they are caught fresh from the tank.  Soon Hock has a huge demand among the Chinese in our region because its white-opaque flesh is highly delicate in both texture and taste.  The one we had was certainly fresh - the meat was firm and the flakes stayed intact when cut into bite-size pieces. The Chef used premium soya sauce which was a very important consideration for preparing this Hong Kong-style dish.  I enjoyed this dish very much and give it very high marks for freshness of ingredient, presentation and skill in its preparation.  It is priced at $12 per 100gm and our 800gm specimen was $96 before taxes.

The brilliantly executed claypot beef brisket and steam marble goby are enough to convince me that Chef Brian has achieved his strife in culinary excellence.

Wan Hao Chinese Restaurant
Marriott Hotel Tang Plaza 
320 Orchard Road, Level 3
Singapore 238835

Ambiance:    7/10
Service:         7/10
Food:             7.5/10
Pricing:         $$$
Recommendation: Steamed marble goby Hong Kong Style, Claypot beef brisket 

Food for Thought: Dian Xiao Er

We have eaten here at Dian Xiao Er many times before.  Yet, we never seem to get tired of its signature dish - herbal roast duck.  It comes with different herbal flavours but our favourite is the Angelica which is known for promoting blood circulation and removing blood stagnation. The roast duck is done such that the skin is crisp while the meat remains tender.  As soon as you bite into a morsel of the duck meat, you will experience an explosion of herbal goodness.  This is what we keep coming back for.

Angelica Herbal Roast Duck

The last time we dined here was on Father's Day with our god-son Boon Yang and daughter-in-law, San Kyi. We settled for the Classic Menu which offered 6 dishes.  The first dish served was of course the Herbal Roast Duck.

Following this, came the stir-fried lotus roots with macadamia nuts.  This is a very well executed dish without being too greasy.  Some may find the dish too bland but its level of tastiness was just nice for us.  The dish is a masterful mixture of thinly sliced lotus roots, celery, roasted macadamia nuts, gingko nuts, water chestnut and fresh sweet pea pods.

Lotus Root Stir-fried with Macadamia Nuts

Another dish which we never fail to order whenever we dine here is the deep-fried silver cod fish. Again the fish is deep-fried to a light crisp but without the greasiness.  It is then drizzled with a very light superior soya sauce and topped with whole deep-fried cloves of garlic.  The fish sits on a bed of evenly cut scallions.  This dish scored very high marks with us.

Deep-fried Silver Cod Fish

The next dish was sauteed broccoli with scallops.  The scallops were lightly seared, leaving the shellfish light and fluffy; not overcooked as is normally the case in many places. I would have liked it better if the broccoli was blanched a little longer to give it a softer texture.

Sauteed Broccoli Scallops 

A dish that went down rather well with darling wife was the home-cooked chicken in Chinese wine. The flavour of ginger was over-powering, in my humble opinion, making it the perfect dish for ginger lovers.

Chicken in Chinese Wine

The last dish in the set menu was the pumpkin crabmeat soup.  I find the soup too thick and rich.  But those who go for the healthier choice, would love this dish.

Pumpkin crabmeat soup

The dining experience at Dian Xiao Er was, overall, good and satisfying.  They have managed to remain in the race in spite of many new comers in the scene mainly because the standard of food here has been consistently good
.

Dian Xiao Er
23 Serangoon Central
#02-09/10 Nex
Singapore 553083

Ambiance:    7/10
Service:         7/10
Food:             8.5/10
Pricing:         $$
Recommendation: Herbal Roast Duck (choice of 3 herbal flavours), Deep-fried Silver Cod Fish, Stir-fried lotus roots with macadamia nuts, 

People and Places: Villa Sentosa

To get to this tiny museum house, tucked in a corner of Kampong Morten, you have to cross the Kg Morten Bridge from the city side.  Once you have crossed to the other side of the river, make a left turn and your destination is on your right hand side.

Jambatan Kg Morten

This tiny museum is actually a 'lived in' traditional Malaysian house that showcases how a typical Malay family lives. A visit offers an interesting look back to a hundred years of history and a glimpse into what it was like to live as a (presumably wealthy) Malay, some 50 years ago.

The 'lived in' dapur or kitchen

The current owner of the house is the granddaughter of the original owner of the house. She (or one of the 5 occupants) will show you around the whole house, with great pride.  

The museum is replete with antique furniture, many of which resemble old peranakan pieces. 

We were pleasantly surprised by interesting old decorations and paraphenalia that popped out of unexpected corners throughout the house.  For me and darling wife, it was interesting to browse through all the ornaments and trinkets they have collected over the years, which are on display throughout the various rooms.

If you should visit this museum, don't forget to pose for photographs with the Malay bride and groom 'bersanding' chairs.  

For us, the highlight of the tour has to be hitting the antique gong three times and making a wish.   Ibrahim, a member of the family who showed us around, reminded us to visit again when our wishes were fulfilled.

While there is no admission fee to the museum, a small donation is solicited, at the end of the tour.


Villa Sentosa
Lorong Tun Mamat 1
Kampung Morten
Melaka 75300, Malaysia