Food Friday 15 – Not your Maurchan Ramen, Red Bean Fish Ice Cream, and Food Court Finds

A good Sunday night dinner seemed like the perfect way to ease into the work week so Ethan and I headed to Chijmes in search of a good restaurant.  Yes, that’s Chijmes with a “j”, it seems silly but let me explain.  It is a former Catholic convent that was known as the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ).  The building has gone through renovations throughout its 100+ years of existence and all the while housed orphans, school girls, and acted as a refuge for women.  It’s last religious service was held in 1983 and has since been deconsecrated and the convent was closed.  Since then it has become a plaza with restaurants, retail outlets and courtyards.  It is also an event space that holds weddings too. 

Have I bored you with the history lesson?  Basically it used to be a Catholic Church/Convent/School and is now a place to go for great restaurants.  (And you architecture junkies can enjoy the beautiful architecture of the once church while you're there too).  And so the whole thing with the j in Chijmes is because it used to be the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus and so when they called it Chijmes they kept the j in there for historical reference. 

Time for the food!  Ethan was in the mood for ramen so we ended up at Ikkousha Ramen and what a smart choice that was!  At our table, included with the meal, was all the free hard boiled eggs you want (for all you body builders looking for that lean protein) as well as iced green tea.  I ordered the ajitama tonkotsu which included noodles, mushrooms, an egg, pork, scallions, and their delicious broth.  The whole bowl cost me $14 which is not bad considering less authentic restaurants will charge double for that!  In all, it was delicious.  The broth was so wonderfully flavored and just delicious.  I would definitely come back here again.

Next item that definitely counts as something new I tried this week is this little fishy!

                     

Ethan and I had stopped by 7-11 for an ice cream snack one night and he was feeling brave enough to buy the fish ice cream in packaging with no English on it.  Well after his rave review I decided to give it a try.  So what is this?  The outside is just like an ice cream cone, I think it’s called the cake cup kind, and then inside is vanilla ice cream and a layer of sweeten red bean mush.  Sounds delicious, right?!  It wouldn't be Asia if they didn't turn beans into dessert.  The beans were surprisingly sweet and didn't taste like beans much at all.  Definitely a good choice for a late night pick me up!  (Side note it also comes with strawberry instead of red bean for all you picky Westerners!)

Mmmm red beans and ice cream!

For dinner this week, it was decided that we would try out the food court at the new Simei mall.  Food courts can be iffy, sometimes everything just looks blah.  We went in, walked around, then I headed to the Korean stall while Ethan chose the pepper rice stall.  I ordered Korean bbq beef that came with beansprouts, rice, and kimchi.  It was SO GOOD!  And of course I didn't get a picture because I was too mesmerized by the sizzling beef on my plate and remembered about pictures half way through the meal, oh well!  Good thing Tuesday brought me back to the stall, this time for kimchi fried rice with beef.  Still a great meal, but I really liked the bbq beef meal better.  Ethan gave rave reviews about his pepper rice and then bibimbop on Tuesday night too. 

Kimchi fried rice

The best part about these meals is they aren't expensive.  These meals ran us less than $6 SGD each which is about $4 USD!  That’s the beauty of food courts here in Singapore, they are low priced and sometimes you will find an awesome stall.  And when you aren't in the mood for cooking its mighty easy to grab a yummy meal for cheap.

Next up on this weeks list of new tastes is this little chicken pie my coworker gave me at work.  It was surprisingly delicious!  It’s very nice that lots of things come in bun or mini pie forms here as it makes it easy to eat, but it can also be scary taking a bite into the unknown of what lies inside.  Lucky for me this pie was delicious and tasted kind of like chicken pot pie without the gravy. 

 

What’s a food Friday post without a trip to Din Tai Fung, my favorite dim sum spot in the world!  This trip, Ethan and I decided we would try out something new.  So alongside our usual xiao long bao and steamed veggie and pork dumplings we enjoyed hong kong kailan in special sauce, duck spring rolls, and I opted for a pork and chili crab steamed bao.  Well the kailan and duck rolls were really good!  The bao was interesting…I was expecting it to taste more like the chili sauce from chili crab but it was kind of just a spicy meatball with lots of crab and some pork.  Was it bad?  No, but not amazing and not the type of thing I need all the time. 

      

 

And to round out this longggg first week of the new year, Ethan, Glenn, and I met up at the Arab St favorite Beirut grill for some delicious middle eastern/Mediterranean cuisine.  Once again we enjoyed the delicious food at Beirut Grill and I was happy to share this wonderful spot with Glenn who hadn't been before.  We shared the house hummus and then I ordered the lamb shish kebabs.  I have no clue what their spice rub on the lamb is but words can describe the perfection of flavor.  The meat, grilled veggies, rice, and sauces were all on point yet again.  Nothing like a delicious meal to round out the week and start of another Singaporean weekend.

Happy Friday!