Little Thailand

Were we in Thailand again ?

Nope. That's Golden Mile Complex, better known as Little Thailand. Given our love for Thai food, we were bound to make our way there sooner or later.

It was like we were in Bangkok. We headed to the supermarket on the second floor just to have a quick look see. Several times I found myself telling X, hey we can get that in Singapore....wait a minute, but we are in Singapore.

And this is something I have yet to see in any supermarket in Singapore - a rat trap.

My heart be still, just look at the variety of instant noodles

Pity I can't read Thai. There were so many different types of shrimp paste - I couldn't tell the difference.

Deep fried grasshoppers any one ?

It's always a bad idea to shop for food on an empty stomach. After we picked up some essentials, we headed downstairs to look for the highly recommended Diandin Leluk. They have since opened up several branches all over Singapore but the one at Golden Mile Complex is the original.

I was eager to see how authentic it is. So many Thai restaurants in Singapore tone down their food to cater to local taste buds - what a letdown.

The benchmark I use is always Som Tam. I know it's street food but when done well, it's so good. Theirs hit the spot. Very spicy & I'm glad they are not afraid to keep it spicy.

We tried this once at a restaurant in Phuket. I was thrilled to see it on the menu. Raw shrimp with garlic & chilli - think of it as Thai style sashimi. Not for the faint hearted. Shrimp was fresh but I just felt it was missing something.

Boring I know but we must have our pad thai. It was good but nothing to write home about.

As much as he loves Thai food, X doesn't like Tom Yam Goong ..... so the pot of soup was all mine. More for me. I could not stop drinking this. It was definitely one of the better ones that I've had. Spicy without overwhelming the taste.

Would I be back again ?

Yes.

Diandin Leluk
#01-67 Golden Mile Complex
5001 Beach Rd

Jurong Bird Park

I have not stepped into the Bird Park in over 30 years so I was really excited to go after all that time. Oddly enough this did not come into my radar until recently. Once again, we made use of our trusty Singapore Pass to get a discount (fyi there's a new one for this year).

The next time we go, I'd probably skip the monorail. It didn't add much to our experience in the park.

When we arrived, one of the shows was about to start in 15 mins. We didn't want to miss the show but neither did we want to sit around & wait. We must have looked like we needed help cos one of the park rangers kindly came over & suggested that we checked out the African Wetlands & still be in time for the show.

The Park had a Latin Fiesta theme then. There were street carnival & capoeira performances - we caught the tail end of the carnival but I was a little disappointed that we missed the capoeira.

I think flamingoes are such elegant creatures

Birds n Buddies Show

There is a reason the Lory Loft is award winning. We had so much fun there.

Make sure you buy a cup of fruit nectar which costs $3 & have a blast feeding the birds. These lories are not shy so don't be surprised if one suddenly fly up to your cup. Well one of them did - X got caught off guard & promptly poured his cup all over The Girl which had her complaining the rest of the time that she smelt of bird food. LOL.

For those who don't know, these are my favorite. Penguins. I have such a soft spot for them. There's something adorable about these waddling birds. I once took a boat trip in Patagonia & saw thousands of magellan penguins in the wild. I was so in love.

Can't wait to go back to the Bird Park again.

Happy 2010

Who would have thought that we would be bringing in 2010 in Singapore ?

A lot happened last year. We moved to Singapore. I went back to work. Nathaly started a new kindergarten. X became a stay at home dad. It's all good. We've settled down nicely & looking forward to what 2010 brings.

Here's wishing you & your family a great year ahead of good health, wealth but most importantly, lots of happiness & laughter !!

Foie gras with fig jam

Raw platter of shrimp & salmon with guacamole

Flan de morille (morel mushrooms)

Leg of lamb

That's why this blog is called rojak rendezvous

After our Christmas meals of the East & West, X prepared a Christmas meal that was a little bit of both. Yet another Christmas meal, you may ask ? 'Tis the season for feasting & there are 12 days of Christmas.

There's a story behind this. We got duped. The wrapping said turkey & shaped to look like a whole bird. But when we got home, we were surprised to see that *it* was a bunch of turkey breast fillets shaped to look like a turkey. If it were me, I would have made my way back to the store, returned it or purchased a proper one. X would have none of that & promptly made a sort of turkey roulade stuffed with glutinous rice & a sliver of foie gras (you can see it if you look closely enough). The foie gras was a Christmas gift from his parents.

It was so popular I requested he made more.

It's a little east meets west so that's what I call a rojak rendezvous special.

Christmas Meal of the East

My parents are your typical Chinese folks. Yet come Christmas, my father always insisted on having a traditional Christmas lunch every year. Like most Chinese families of that time, we didn't own an oven nor did my mother know how to prepare turkey so we would inevitably head over to some hotel buffet & have ourselves our Sing Dan Dai Chan (Christmas feast in Cantonese). And inevitably, my mother would go home to cook herself a bowl of rice. I told you my parents are typical Chinese folks - they need their rice. Strange as it may sound, this was our family Christmas tradition.

My father has since passed on. I've moved abroad. My siblings work for the airlines so this family tradition died a natural death. Knowing that my mother would not appreciate the Christmas meal of the West since we didn't serve rice, we took her out to Christmas meal of the East.

I've blogged about Old Hong Kong for their wonderful dimsum, I've not talked about their Chinese dishes. They have some great value set meals & whenever we have guests in town, we would take them there. This restaurant has slowly become our favorite. The owner is Mr Li from Hong Kong whom we've come to know quite well. The food is good & service excellent. He adores The Girl & *Uncle* always gives her free dimsum & desserts. So it was a no brainer for us to head over there for our Sing Dan Dai Chan.

Turkey & mango salad

BTW we had a table next to the window which gave me lots of light, the reason why the pictures turned out so well.

Abalone with sea cucumber & mushroom
X couldn't understand the appeal of abalone so I happily ate his portion

Fried e-mien with oyster mushrooms

I missed taking photos of 2 other dishes which were actually our favorite - shark's fin with crab roe (I know it's not PC but I love shark's fin & their version is extremely yummy). The second is prawns done 2 ways - in wasabi mayonnaise & salted egg yolk (probably clogged up all my arteries but who cares).

This is what they call a pre-dessert
Dessicated coconut bunnies

Mango puree with Ice cream

How much do you think this meal cost ? 7 dishes with a complimentary glass of wine - $68++ per person. Now you know why we keep going back. And it got my mother's stamp of approval - she readily admitted that she much preferred this Christmas meal of the East.

Christmas Meal of the West

Table set
Wines chilled

An excuse to use the owl napkin rings we bought in Bali

Candles lit

My sister in law just returned from Paris & she brought us a whole bunch of goodies - saucisson, foie gras, escargots...bless her !

Now we just have to wait for our guests to arrive. I'm a bad assistant cos I forgot to take a photo of the first course. Japanese tomatoes served with soba & enoki mushrooms in a ginger vinaigrette sauce.

Eggplant stuffed with salmon remoulade &
topped with crispy salmon skin

Red snapper with asparagus over a creamy spinach sauce

Main course - The duck special (from left)
Foie gras on toast, poached pear, pan fried foie gras with blueberry sauce & magret de canard

This dish alone used up my calorie intake for a month

I didn't manage to get a good picture of the dessert but it was a white chocolate mousse with strawberry sauce.

Sharing the meal with our closest & dearest friends

Celebrating Christmas

Last night we had an interesting conversation about celebrating Christmas.

I was telling everyone how surprised I was when one of my Muslim friends complained that she hasn't finished her Christmas shopping which prompted me to reply "Do you celebrate Christmas ?". That started the discussion of how Christmas has become one big festive period rather than a religious holiday.

I love the fact that all holidays are celebrated & embraced in Singapore. There is none of that *political correctness* that has become so prevalant in America. Did you know that President Obama has stipulated that there will be no Christmas Tree in the White House - it's known as the Holiday Tree & all ornaments must not be of a religious nature ? And that the words "Merry Christmas" & "Happy Hannuka" are not be used but rather Happy Holidays.

The latter I'm used to cos when I was living in New York, if you are not sure if someone celebrates Christmas, you just say Happy Holidays. Over here, everybody wishes everybody Merry Christmas just like we would wish them Happy New Year - no religious connotation, just that they enjoy the festive season. Christians & non Christians - all share in the celebrations. Likewise for Hari Raya or Deepavali.

Just because we are so racially tolerant here doesn't mean we must not be sensitive to other religions. I was recently informed by my office staff that I can't heat up pork items in the microwave nor put non halal food in the fridge (which happens sometimes when I bring leftovers to the office for lunch). I immediately made a mental note to be more careful in future.

So let this be a season to be jolly !! Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas !!


If you are still hunting for presents (you know how it is - when someone you hadn't planned on giving a present, suddenly gives you one), here's a list of uniquely Singapore gifts. Be sure to check out the other interesting lists.