Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Village People

Soon Heng Prawn Noodles
Alexandra Village Hawkers Center
#01-53

Somehow always in between haute cuisine, its always good to go back to our roots and enjoy something simple and familar in taste. With WGS and FHA on going simultaneously, a nights off from the socialising events meant I could have a break to enjoy local hawkers fare without much fuss.

One of my recent discovery was the above mentioned stall that sells Singapore Style Prawn Mee Soup. While it is no where near in terms of quality comparison with the Penang version, still it is one of the better stalls that I have come across. Using my instinct to check out hawkers that are older and long standing only at a single location, this husband and wife managed stall prove that there are still some decent prawn noodles stall by local standards. I have had their noodles at different times of the day and best time is always after seven before nine in the evening when they close. The soup by now would be much richer and the pork ribs if u like, with meat falling off the bone tender. The broth is less darker but there is a nice pleasant balance of sweetness and savoury notes with a very meaty profile. Serve in aged porcelain bowls like what many of us used to know with push cart hawkers 20-30 years again, its nostalgic and I am always happy to find places that can offer memories of my childhood makan favourites again.

Btw, the Old Punggol Satay stall next to them is also very happening. I will do a short blog on them the next round when pics are ready.

Bocuse D'Or Singapore Selection

Despite being busy to the point of not being able to blog for the whole month, it has been a full month of good food experiences both eating out with N and key events happening in the local chefs industry.
The kick off started with Bocuse D’Or Singapore selection, a high profiled event in the global culinary world where representative competitors from 6 different continental zones meet in the finals at Lyons next year. The competition is held in honour to one of the world’s greatest chefs, Paul Bocuse. The Singapore winner will pitch his skills in the Asia region finals in Shanghai on May 30th with five others selected from countries within Asia. Only two competitors will be picked as representatives from Asia for the finals in Lyons 2009.
Our Singapore selection was held in the kitchens @ ITE Clementi on 15th of March. Some of the contestants include Executive Chefs Robin Ho (Marmalade Group), Edward Voon (The Cannery), Yong Bing Ngen (Majestic Restaurant), Executive Sous Chef Jeffery Siew (Merchant Court Hotel) and Sous Chef Jason Tan from Saint Julien Restaurant. The main sponsor of Bocuse D’Or is Norge who represents Norwegian seafood. Hence Norwegian Salmon was the main theme of the dishes and competitors had to cooked four main course portions from scratch within five hours. It is interesting to note that some dishes reflected the personality of the restaurants and chefs that work in them. Chef Edward Voon’s dish presented elements of molecular gastronomy with foams, gels and confit style cooking. Chef Robin showcased more on technical difficulty with alternate flavours and tastes while Chef Yong Bing Ngen stuck to his roots of interpreting Chinese classics with and modern European twist. In the end, both three won the selection and the winner was Chef Jason Tan from St Julien Restaurant.Though I wasn’t in the judging panel, I was still invited as guest to the event. Below are the other dishes that we sampled.