Posts tagged "food"
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The One About Scallion Pancakes
I have a weird story about scallion pancakes. It goes like this. Around this time last year, I was walking down my street in San Francisco when a woman waved something at me. I thought she needed help with something, so I went closer. Instead, she clicked something (she was waving a torch, the kind you ignite gas…
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Half Boiled Eggs Recipe
Now that I live so far from home, I have to make my own half-boiled eggs. Half boiled eggs are not the same as soft boiled eggs: they come out of the shell almost in a liquid form, not in the shape of an egg that is starting to firm. So it's less cooked than a typical soft boiled egg. Growing up in Singapore and…
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Indonesian Dinner Parties
I've been on Mastodon. Quite a bit. Somehow, over there I've started continued doing what I was doing on Twitter: talk about food. But not just talk about food. I've been reminiscing about the food culture that I left, and how much I miss it. I realize now that growing up in Southeast Asia and living in a few parts of…
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My Singapore List
Food is extremely subjective, and in Singapore it's a national pastime and passion. The following lists are based on my tastes. Other people may disagree, and you may want to do further research based on your own dietary preferences. If you're from Singapore, resist the urge to tell me I missed your faves: I'm…
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Waiting for dimsum
Whenever I can, I make the 45 minute walk to Chinatown in San Francisco to Dim Sum Bistro, my favorite 'cheap dimsum' spot. Sometimes, I take photos too. I say this every chance I get: dimsum isn't always 'cheap' food. Dimsum can be fancy, and should be fancy, because to make large amounts of high quality dimsum you…
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Fish eyes
Lucas Sin shares how Cantonese chefs gauge water temp: shrimp eyes (80C), crab eyes (90C), fish eyes (99C about to go into a rolling boil). The video is also a good instructional resource on how to prepare and cook shrimp, especially Hangzhou style tea shrimp. Good recipe to come back to and try. Hennepin County,…
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Bukit Merah Days
When I'm back in Singapore it can be easy to fall into old habits: sleeping in till late, staying out late, doing all of those things I used to do. On my recent trips, I'm trying to remind myself that I've been away for so long my parents aren't getting younger. My parents' daily routine starts with: picking a…
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My Little India
Of all of the neighbourhoods in Singapore, I've probably spent the most time in Little India. Not only was I born in a hospital on its edges, I also lived and studied near here for several years. Every trip abroad had to start with a visit to Little India, for foreign currency, electrical adapters, or extra supplies at…
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A Perfect Singapore Food Day
My favorite cup of coffee at Tiong Hoe, S$5 # I start the morning at Tiong Hoe Coffee, one of my favorite coffee spots anywhere. Tiong Hoe was set up decades ago by Mr Tan Tiong Hoe, who started as an apprentice in a Dutch coffee company in 1960. Today, the cafe is run by another group of younger folks, but you can…
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Rawon Setan, Surabaya
Rawon Setan, Surabaya My all time favorite Indonesian food is nasi rawon. I love it so much I will order it every time I see it. Surabaya, Malang and other East Java cities, tend to make the versions I love the most. This spot has delicious rawon. Beefy, but light, with the spices and flavors of the keluak nut. Since I…
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6am Airport Food
Noyah La Maison, Changi Airport T4 One of the best things about being back in my part of the world, is that breakfast foods now make sense. No more pancakes, syrup, waffles, badly made eggs for brunch. Definitely no donuts. No sugar in general for breakfast for me, except a little bit in my kopi. 6am at Changi Airport…
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What I Ate in Singapore
Sept 22, 2023 It was my first full day back in Singapore. Here's what I ate, and where. Excellent scallion pancakes and fried dumplings from 喬記面館 Mee hoon kuay from China Whampoa Homemade Noodles Excellent coffee at Kurasu. Today, they had a coffee bean from Yunnan. I had to try that since I’ve never tried Chinese…
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I'm Going Home
Here are some food thoughts I'm excited about as I pack for my annual visit home. What's home? My passport says Singapore. But in practice, it's the entire region of South and Southeast Asia that I miss and think of as home. I've lived in, and eaten in, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Myanmar; and spent substantial amounts…
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Embracing mistakes
I have a problem: I tend to be a perfectionist. Sometimes, when something doesn't turn out well I get so annoyed that I don't touch it again forever. Or for a long time. (Recently, I learned that people with autism and ADHD like me have severe 'rejection sensitivity'). Being mindful of this, I'm trying to actively…
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One Night in the Mission
I used to be a creature of the night, but no longer. I used to be out all the time, but rarely now. Partly, it's that San Francisco is so chilly at night, but also that it's pretty dead at night compared to the much bigger cities I've lived in. I don't quite enjoy walking around, cold, in areas where there just sijmply…
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A Walk Around a Wet Market in Taiping, Malaysia
Wet markets have a bad reputation, because of the 'rona, but their name really just comes from being the opposite of a 'dry market' (like a market that sells pots and pans and such). They are very common in many parts of Asia and don't have wildlife. For many of us, a wet market is our first port of call to make the…
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Street Life: Air Mata Kucing
As a child, my parents would put us on a bus or train to Kuala Lumpur to see friends, visit people, or just have a weekend break. One of my strongest memories of KL: getting out of the overnight train at the old railway station, and strolling to Chinatown (Petaling Street) for breakfast. Air mata kucing (literally…
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Well Fed: Two Artisans
As you may know from elsewhere, I love food. I am obsessed with it. I love eating, I love food stories, I love writing about food, I love writing about people who make and eat food. I did that more actively in the past where I wrote a few travel guidebooks and cookbooks, and also published a few articles about Asian…
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A unifying theory of Singapore food that ends in a dream
'Singapore food' is a difficult term. It's hard to put national wrappers around a smorgasbord of different culinary influences. This is why we keep getting into fights about appropriating others' food. Singapore food is Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien, Hokchiu, Teochew, Malay, Javanese, Sumatran, Tamil, Kerala, Mamak,…
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Akhuni
I could not believe my eyes when my wife Sabrena put on an Indian movie on Netflix and we saw at least two Northeast Indians at once. On screen. Having lines. Being whole people. Doing something. Something that seemed important. "Axone" (pronounced Akhuni) - is a Naga speciality dish made with fermented soya…
32 posts tagged "food"