Cheese Manjyu

These came from a colleague of mine, he lives and works in Singapore. The filling is like creamy ricotta cheese. Not to my taste, but I like the tagline on the package for the ingredients; “High quality ingredients whose taste has been nurtured by natural light and wind in the greenery section”.

Lion City Singaporean Pineapple Tarts

We bought these pineapple tarts from one of our favourite restaurants, Lion City, they were quite tasty. Lion City is a Singaporean restaurant. The little bit that sticks out, which is supposed to be the stem of the pineapple, is a dried clove. These are quite popular in Singapore, and often sold for Chinese New Year, but are also available year round in most bakeries. The pastries take different shapes; these ones look to me like they are supposed to be pineapples. Deliciously artistic!

The inside of the pastry is filled with a pineapple jam, which is made by slowly reducing and caramelizing grated fresh pineapple mixed with sugar and spices (cinnamon, star anise and/or cloves, even pandan). Very good tasting.

Eggplant Masala

This Indian dish is one that I got from an authentic Singaporean recipe book, Singapore has an eclectic array of food choices and recipes from various parts of Asia, including India. This is fairly easy to make, though you must watch it carefully, so as not to overcook, and thus burn, the eggplant and spices. Quite tasty served with rice.

Eggplant Masala
From Authentic Recipes from Singapore by David Wong and Djoko Wibisono
3 Tbsp oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, sliced
2 slender Asian eggplants (500 g total), halved and cut into lengths
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp tamarind pulp mashed in 4 Tbsp water, squeezed and strained to obtain juice

Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat and cook the mustard seeds until they pop, about 1 minute. Add the cumin seeds and gently stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the onion and the garlic, stir-fry until light golden brown, about 5 minutes.

Add the eggplants, chili powder, coriander, turmeric and salt, stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the tamarind juice, reduce the heat and simmer until the eggplants are tender, about 7 minutes.

Easy Singapore Laksa Noodles

We made this as our contribution for Easter dinner, it was enjoyed by all who sampled it. The Spice packages make it easier to create this dish, there are many different ones for different dishes from different countries. We also added fish balls when we made them, you can cut them in half and add them at the end, just to warm them up. Often, you can use half rice vermicelli and egg noodles, if you like and have them at hand.

Easy Singapore Laksa Noodles
From Asian Home Gourmet
1 packet Singapore Laksa SpicePaste
250 g bone-in chicken thighs, or prawns
2 cups water
1-1/2 cups thick coconut milk, or 50 g coconut cream powder mixed with 1-1/2 cups water
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
125 g rice vermicelli or egg noodles
1 package puffed tofu, cut into half
100 g beansprouts
cilantro, chopped, for garnish

Cook noodles according to package directions.

Add chicken to boiling water; cover and cook for 20 minutes. Save stock. Debone, shred meat and set aside. If using prawns, cook until they turn pink, about 5 minutes.

Heat oil in saucepan. Add SpicePaste and stir-fry until fragrant. Add coconut cream and stock to the paste; stir well and bring to the boil. Simmer on low heat for 10 minutes.

Serve piping hot over noodles. Garnish with beansprouts, puffed tofu and shredded chicken or prawns. Garnish with chopped cilantro.

Restaurant Review - Lion City Restaurant

My one-time Sri Lankan co-worker and friend told me about this restaurant in Mississauga called Lion City that he went to, he liked and recommended it to me for Asian food, but I had never been to it before now, not really liking to go to restaurants by myself, so I decided to bring my beautiful Thai Bride to check it out. Too, this Malaysian coworker, when I mentioned the restaurant, told me he knew of it, and thought that it was second only to his favourite, Restoran Malaysia. The cuisine offered at Lion City is a mixture of Singaporean, Malaysian, Thai and Indonesian. We met the charming chef and owner, Lilian Ow, on our second visit, on a Sunday. She is from Singapore, and her cooking expertise reflects this. She was interested that my Bride came from Thailand, and pointed out the many Thai dishes. She also brought out a sample of the Sambal paste to try.

We perused the many interesting selections in the menu on our first visit, we really did not know which of the many interesting dishes to choose from. This too happened the second and third of our visits, we ended up picking from every page, except for the Exotic Thailand page (though the Thai Grilled Chicken looked appetizing, and I will likely try it the next time we go there). There was Char Kway Teow, rice noodles fried with shrimps, Chinese sausage, egg, fish cake, beansprouts and chives; Mee Goreng, yellow noodle with chicken, egg, tofu, beansprouts, peas, potatoes, cabbage, onions and tomato; Nasi Goreng, Indonesian style fried rice with shrimps, chicken and egg; Fried Carrot Cake, a radish and rice cake, we had twice!; Popiah, thin crepes with vegetables and Chinese sausage; Laksa Lemak, rice vermicelli in spicy coconut gravy with chicken, shrimps, fish cake and beansprouts; Sambal Assam Fish, fish in hot tamarind gravy; Sayur Lodeh, spicy coconut gravy with cabbage, carrots, beanthread and tofu; and Durian milkshakes, quite tasty. There were chicken samosas and multi-coloured desserts for sale too, that we tried.

This is an interesting restaurant, that one can go to again and again, and always find something new.