296. Kublai Khan Mongolian Barbeque

Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan. This is how much I know about the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. What about the food Mongolians eat? I browsed through my memory collections and stopped at 2 years ago, a folder which was recorded as Qingdao.

It happened that there was a huge scale food festival going on then. The scene of Mongolian sweets was vividly registered in my memory because they were all made from goat milk and they were not cheap. Unfortunately, I did not take a photo of it. (I would not know that I will become an avid flogger today.) But, I took a photo of the barbequed mutton skewers which is an indispensable dish in Mongolian cuisine (see below). We may be carnivores but we are not 'flesh eaters'. We sent the skewers back to the pits.

A few of us went to Kublai Khan at Park Mall for dinner. Kublai Khan, the name suggested Mongolian fare.

But, there was cold seafood with only choices of prawns, mussels and crayfishs. They failed to master the art of seduction. I did not attempt any, comments reserved.

Fruit salad with strips of lobster meat that could easily slip through your teeth. Fruit salad, that is it!

Choose your ingredients. Chicken or beef (no pork, no lard). Small porcelain urns of sauces, containing ginger sauce, garlic sauce, soy sauce and sesame oil for your meat.

Be treated to a spectacular Mongolian BBQ show. I was given access to go into the cooking area. No spatula, all they need was a pair of long chopsticks. The manager explained to me that the metal furnace-alike had 4 cooking spots in the 4 geographical directions. 2 were shut and the other 2 were active. The chef is able to control the degree of cooking by continuously shifting on the metal plate.

And.....swoop....the chef scooped up the food with his 'magical' chopsticks into a bowl, ready for collection at the 'OUT' counter. As the sauces and ingredients were up to diner's preference, I felt to call it a Mongolian fare is not so distinct. What Kublai Khan is selling is their Mongolian style of cooking.

Mushroom soup in pastry bowl. She is 'hot'. I only managed to get her on our 3rd encounter. Her skin was crispy and she wore a butter fragrance. I said I met a lady with bad intentions. Just like those spy girls. 'Ho Kuah Bo Ho Jiak'. Soup was diluted and tasted bland.

Baked seafood. The ones that I will most probably applaud for.

Japanese corner. All the chilled stuffs.

Salmon was alright. The chuka was a tad too hard to chew. I liked the macaroni salad. Tasted like mixed with Thai sweet and sour sauce.


Tom Yam soup. Let me first declare for this photo - 'what you see is not what you get'. Don't make a police report for the missing straw mushrooms because they have gone visiting their neighbour. Again, it was a disappointing bowl of soup. The tom yam soup lacked the punch. Not shiok leh....and the table conversation shifted to the shiok tom yam soup at Thailand's roadside stalls.


Desserts corner. I didn't like the presentation, do you? I saw a man having problems with pouring out honey for his herbal jelly.

The ice-cream freezer was too cold and it was hard to scoop the ice-cream. After having had scooped and tasted the ice-cream, I was not consoled.

Chocolate fondue. Only grapes, strawberries and marshmallows. The strawberries were very sour and cut a tad too small in size. My companion suggested making a comparison to her index finger. If so, the photo will probably suggest a scale with the strawberry to finger, 1:2. The chocolate was not smooth.

Some people are contended with a simple life.

Some people preferred a colourful life with lots of things to explore.

What's your take?

There was a cooked Chinese food and teppanyaki corner, which I didn't attempt any. Each of us paid $29 for the buffet. In my opinion, Kublai Khan serves a wider range of food compared to some other buffets but the quality of food was not quite on par to the price paid. Even though, the focus should be on Mongolian cuisine but the identity is not strong. Limelight was stolen by the rest of the cuisines which were placed foremost to the diners.

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Kublai Khan Mongolian Barbeque
9 Penang Mall
#04-01
Singapore 238459

295. Lai Lai Family Restaurant

It was a lazy weekday afternoon, it so happened that a friend is free from work so we went out for a grab and did some grocery shopping. Went Lai Lai, another outlet at Jurong Point. My friend had the mee-sua, tofu with minced meat and a glass of pearl milk tea. Looking at her mee-sua made me reminisce of Taiwan's A-zong mee-sua at Xi Men Ding. The patrons hold the hot bowl of starchy mee-sua in their hands and eat it whilst standing. I did not try Lai Lai's so I have no idea if it was on par to A-zong's.


Chef Salad

Eating at a timing after lunch and before dinner, what is this meal called? A few days ago, I saw a review on tea. And it was mentioned that Singaporeans usually call this meal HIGH-TEA but it was wrong!

HIGH-TEA - A meal eaten in the late afternoon, probably after 6pm.
The correct answer should be AFTERNOON TEA.

And so...I decided a salad seemed to be the best option. Lai Lai's 2-5pm special deal. I had the chef salad along with a side dish and a fruit freeze at $6.90. The salad was good, a mixture of red, green and yellow capsium, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, red cabbage and roasted melon seeds. But I didn't like the vinegrette dressing. A tad too sour.

Fried Century Egg Wedges

It didn't look appealing with the coated skin. Taste was just so-so. Nothing special in particular, just probably another way of presenting the century egg.

Banana Freeze w/ konnyaku Jelly

I had the banana freeze. Banana is good. Aids digestion. With the colourful cubes of konnyaku jelly, the drink is made interesting. Also, those cubes gave the freeze texture.

I think the 2-5pm special deal at $6.90, available only for the weekdays, is worthed the money. Unfortunately, most of us are unable to enjoy this deal because we are occupied with work. Well, you can, if you are 'free'.

See previous entry here.

Lai Lai Family Restaurant
Jurong Point
Basement1

294. Hokkaido Fair 2009

The Isetan Hokkaido fair is here again. It will be at Tampines Mall from 3 - 12 Jul 2009. A total of 3 shopping centres surrounding the Tampines MRT station makes Tampines alive. N years ago, people would rather not live in Tampines but now, the opposite. Urban Development does makes a difference. I went to the fair just now and it was crowded, very crowded.



Crab Cream Croquette @$4

I caught sight of crab cream croquette and bought it without hesitation. Yummylicious! Creamy rich crab cream oozed out and filled my mouth. When I had it, it was already cold. I can't imagine what would it be like when it was just taken out from the deep fryer. Jeez.

Tarabagani King Crab @$128/pc

Your eyes are not playing a trick on you. It's a 3-digit priced crab. I had the impulse to get the seafood bento which had a small piece of the King crab's meat,prices of the bento ranged from $24 to $30+. On a second thought, I decided to go for the ramen which is only available for these 2-3 days throughout the whole fair.

Kelp/kombu. Wanted to get the kombu, the hard type, usually used for boiling soups. BUT, they were all sold! Any more stocks coming in? I asked. NO was the reply. The lady told me all of the kombu were snapped up by the aunties the moment the fair started in the morning. Wow...economic recession, huh?

Ichigo Daifuku Mochi @$2.30

Didn't really like it. The texture came a tad harder and drier than the dango.

Herb Dango @$2.30

Dango, Japanese rice dumplings made from michiko, rice flour. For some, they used potato flour. I guessed potato flour has a higher content of starch? The herb flavour was not strong, covered by the azuki (red bean paste). The rice cakes were very tangy.

Mitarashi Dango @$2.30

This is something unique. Its presentation has already captured the notice of many. Looks oiishi (delicious). Then, it was the taste that raised my eyebrows. It's savoury and sweet! I tasted shoyu (soy sauce) and when I searched for its recipe online, hah! I was right! Shoyu, starch and sugar was combined to make the syrup brushed on the dango. The taste reminded me of my Japan trip N years ago. It was the taste similar to the rice stick, where rice was pounded and made into a stick like the paddlepop. Then, they BBQ-ed it with repeated brushes of the syrup.

Hokkaido Melon Soft Ice-cream @$4.50

The melon ice-cream was delicious! Soft and it was not very sweet. I liked the mild melon taste. Thanks to the kind lady who held it for me so that I can take a shot of it.

Hokuyu - Butter Manju.

This was the stall with a long queue. Butter Manju cakes from Sapporo City, selling at $1.30 per piece & $12 for 10 pieces. Only my eyes managed to feast on the manju cakes and the Japanese young man working on them. It was way too crowded.

Hokkaido Char Siew Ramen (thick noodles) @$15

I was famished. A choice of seafood miso ramen @$16 or the char siew ramen. I chose the later because of the thick noodles. Wanted to try what it is like with the thick noodles. Well, I think the usual ramen (the thin noodles) we had was better. I felt the char siew ramen was too oily. I clicked with the auntie beside me. She was there the second time for their seafood ramen. She also agreed that the char siew ramen was too oily. And the auntie opposite us said the ramen was not authentic. What can I say?

The char siew slices were with a thick layer of fats which I didn't like. The soup became oil-laden but was very flavourful. Char siew was well-marinated too. They sliced the char siew a tad too thick. I think thinly sliced char siew would have been better.

The thick noodles, looked like our Chinese noodles, don't they? A tad different in taste though. It was tangy and I felt the noodles were with less lye or maybe not even added. Our Chinese noodles were lye-treated, that's why when we cooked the noodles in soup, the soup turned yellowish. My instinct tells me the seafood miso ramen tastes better! Argh.

The Isetan Hokkaido Fair will be held at Isetan Scotts from 19-29 Jun 2009. If you can't make it to the fair at Tampines Mall, be prepared for the one at Isetan Scotts. The fresh seafood like scallops, salmon, roe bla bla bla....came much cheaper than having to fly to Hokkaido to get them. There were many others which I did not try, the scrambled cheese cake, steamed squids, grilled scallops and etc so I will most probably go to the fair at Isetan Scotts. Till next fair, then!

293. Germany's Erhmann Yogurt

German consortium Ehrmann, a family-owned cremery, is a famous yogurt producer in Germany and across Russia. I suppose not many in Singapore have come across this brand of Yogurt.

Yoginos Classic, 2 for $3.80, raspberry and cherry flavours

It is a heat-treated fermented milk dessert with 3.5% fat in the milk content. Extra light and was more diluted than our common yogurt. Preservatives-free. Small content but rich and indulgent flavour with health properties. Slightly pricier but still not a bad choice for a dessert replacement.

I got the yogurt from a shop which sells mainly organic foods, Sunny Choice. Time to slip in a healthy dessert to your menu?

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Sunny Choice

The Rail Mall

Tel: 6892 2383

292. Bachelor's Banquet

Bachelor's Banquet – a 213-page local cookbook appealing to young and progressive individuals, containing more than 80 recipes from appetizers to entrees within the book. Recipes which are easy to prepare, tasty and are beautiful to look at.

Meet the authors:

Nicholas (Singaporean)
- attended the French Culinary Institute’s Advanced Culinary Program upon graduation.
- a marketing consultant and photographer for Martha Steward's living magazine.

Max (Indonesian)
- attended the French Culinary Institute after deciding against graduate school and worked at Restaurant Asiate, Mandarin Oriental, under Chef Nori Sugie.
- a chef de partie at the Michelin 2-star restaurant Gordon Ramsay at the London hotel, New York under the guidance of Chef Josh Emmett.

Nicholas is very nice and generous to provide me with a few recipes. I picked two to share. One is easy to make (Salmon Sashimi with Tobiko) and the other, Asian’s favourite (Asian Bouillabaisse). Singaporeans like Tom Yam, am I right? I have cropped out the recipes, see below.

Salmon Sashimi with Tobiko
I love salmon and when I looked at the recipe, it's easy to make. I think it will make a great recipe for the working class. Ladies, learn this. This is especially convenient for anyone, no cooking is required for this dish.

Asian Bouillabaisse
A dish inspired by Tom Yam. I liked the lemongrass smell. I felt this dish will look great when you invite a few friends over for a meal or party.

Early Bird Grabs!
From now till Aug 15, they are offering you readers a 15% discount if you pre-order from their website http://www.bachelorsbanquet.com/. Each pre-ordered copy will be signed and hard copies are limited to 500 signed and numbered copies. Pre-ordered books will reach you before Sept 4, the date the books hit the stores. If you like the cookbook, why not act now?