Food Friday 7 - Century Egg

Well here we are once again recapping what Laura (and friends) ate this past week.  Lucky for you all I did not eat any heads, feet, or organs this week…though I did ingest part of a century egg YUCK!  (google it because if I write it I might get a bit sick).

For this week I want to focus on 3 meals because let’s be honest here, I’m sure you all don’t want to keep hearing about my undying love for xiao long bao (aka steamed dumplings) which I of course enjoyed on Niles last visit to Chinatown, Monday night!

Korean BBQ

Per request of Niles, we enjoyed some Korean BBQ for one of his last dinners in Singapore.  We chose a buffet style restaurant which meant all the delicious beef bulgogi Ethan could possibly eat!  Our grill included: bacon, marinated chicken, beef bulgogi, onion, and garlic.  As they were cooking, we enjoyed some sesame noodles and (not in the picture) some pancake type think?  Think scallion pancake – esk.  Once the meat and veggies were cooked, we took them off the grill and started assembling our lettuce wraps.  My favorite way to chow down was in this order – lettuce, white rice, sauce, meat, and maybe a piece of kimchi.  Yum!

Next up on the last is the dinner Niles and I shared Wednesday night before he left.  I made reservations for us at Level 33 which is a brewery serving gourmet food with fabulous views over Marina Bay.  We had come here on Niles first day in Singapore for a round of beer but we had no clue that their food would be SO incredible!

First came warm bread served with butter, apricot jam/balsamic dipping oil, and mint compound butter.  Perfect all around and I definitely want to make the dipping oil again, great complex flavors as Niles said.  Then we shared a salad of romaine lettuce, sun dried tomatoes, grilled artichokes, Parmesan, and olives.  I can’t tell you all how much I miss having salads.  They just aren’t the norm around here.

 Now let’s move on to our entrees, where I will do my best to describe how mouthwateringly good these dishes were.  Niles ordered the Back & Belly, a dish that included beef tenderloin, brisket, and caramelized onion mashed potatoes.  The meat was perfectly tender and the brisket was in a pot of delicious gravy.  Each flavor of the dish was simply perfect!

Niles dinner - Back and Belly

For my entrée I ordered the Lamb Shoulder Gnocchi, potato gnocchi with shredded lamb shoulder in a red wine type gravy with cranberries topped with goat cheese.  Ok, my mouth is officially watering just writing about it and remembering the blend of all the flavors.  The gnocchi were cooked so perfectly and the lamb just shredded apart.  The sauce/gravy was savory yet slightly sweet from the cranberries and it was balanced out with the tangy goat cheese.

Laura's dinner - Gnocchi

If only I had video proof of our reactions to tasting our dishes.  Oh my they were simply perfect!

After finishing every bite of our entrees we took a little time before ordering dessert (we were also hoping to have dessert outside near the view but they weren’t able to reserve us a table).  We had to go back and forth a few times with the waiter on our dessert choice as the nut-free necessity was requiring more knowledge from the chef.  We finally were allowed to order the frozen dessert which included (from left to right) watermelon and beer sorbet, honey fig ice cream, and a classic vanilla ice creamed topped with blueberries.  Niles and I agreed that our favorites were the honey, fig and classic vanilla ice cream.  They were the perfect sweet treat to end our lovely meal.  Nothing like a wonderful date night with my special guy!

Frozen dessert

Alright enough of the mushy stuff, time to finish the post off with my final meal highlight.  Luckily for me, most of my readers are in the US so I can send my Food Friday post in the afternoon which means you all get to hear about my lunch today.  It was one of my co-workers birthday and so we made a long trip to Serangoon for dim sum at a restaurant called Yum Cha.  My group ordered the food which usually means I’ll be eating something new or odd.

           

 

 Up first was a little bread filled with roast pork – it was great! 

Porridge - the black in the spoon is the Century Egg

Then came porridge…it was not great.  The porridge was just as yucky as it looks in the picture and contained century eggs - homework for you to google what these are.  Luckily the porridge masked its hideous odor but it was still gross and I politely had 2 scoops of porridge before stopping.  (Note that this is also considered my new food I tried for this week).

Next is an egg tart which was good, flaky pastry with an egg custard in the middle. 

This basically tasted like an egg roll from Chinese restaurants back home. 

Fried carrot cake – note it is made of turnips not carrots and is nothing like carrot cake in the US.  It wasn’t bad, just kind of like fried mush. 

                     

 

This little globe was a steamed bun filled with custard and a salted egg yolk.  I think it was good…my mind was having a hard time deciding if this belonged in the yea I like it or hmm lets not try this again basket. 

This was another fried roll filled with prawn and mango.  An interesting mix that I liked. 

There were a few other dishes that I did not get pictures of (one being chicken feet, your welcome for no picture and NO I did not eat it…again).  And the meal concluded with dessert which I chose the Mango and Pomelo Sago – basically a fruity soup.  I’ve learned that here in Singapore, traditional desserts focus around soups which is still so weird to me!  This just tasted like melted mango sherbet.  It was a nice fruity end to an interesting meal!

As always please feel free to leave a comment on something new you tried this week! Have a great weekend!