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Thursday, November 12, 2009
I’ve never made my love of burgers a secret. Despite the fact that a large part of my working life revolves around slightly fancy restaurants, I still have a thing for burger bars and the simple joy of chomping into a juicy, beautifully seasoned burger, chased with an ice-cold beer or soda. I’ve tried a lot of burgers in my time. Turkey burgers, cheeseburgers, portobello burgers, tuna burgers, even tofu burgers, just to name a few. For some strange reason, I’d never eaten a lamb burger. Which, as I think back, is really kind of weird. Especially because I love lamb. It’s up there with pork as one of my two favourite meats. So, when S and I ran across a recipe for an Indian-accented lamb burger with an herbed yoghurt sauce in one of Anjum Anand’s cookbooks, I knew I had to try out the recipe. (Keep reading)        Posted by Chubby Hubby 5 comments 
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Sunday, November 8, 2009
When I was 21 years old, I had the great fortune of landing a summer job in Paris. The pay was miserable, but I didn’t care. I was thrilled to be living in the City of Lights. But because my allowance (I won’t even call it a salary) was so low, I had to find a really cheap place to put up. Fortunately, a friend who was studying in Paris wanted to go off gallivanting across Eastern Europe for the summer, and didn’t want to lose the lease on her pad. I was able to sublet her ridiculously small studio for a song. And while it took me over an hour to commute each way from Rue de la Sante, on the border of the 13th and 14th arrondisements, to Neuilly and back; while the little apartment had no air-conditioning; and while I could literally walk across the studio with 3 steps; I was a happy camper. Hey, what guy wouldn’t be thrilled to be in Paris on his own for 10 weeks? Once I arrived and took over the studio, I found another reason to love my new home. There was a cute little patisserie on the ground floor of my apartment building. There’s something simply special about walking out of one’s home every morning knowing that just a few moments away, you’re going to be engulfed in the rich smells of freshly baked breads and pastries. More often than not, I started my morning with a still warm, buttery and oh-so-good croissant. On days that I didn’t have to work, I’d explore Paris, stopping (as one does) at every patisserie I’d chance upon, if only to inhale the fabulous perfume that a store full of French breads and pastries creates. Recently, and totally by chance, my always hungry wife S and I discovered the cutest little patisserie, right here in Singapore. Housed in a tiny shopfront on MacKenzie Road, diagonally opposite the recently revived Rex Cinema, Mirabelle is a godsend. The young owner-bakers make and sell what I consider to be the best ham and cheese croissants, and the best frangipane croissants, I have ever had in Singapore. (Keep reading) Posted by Chubby Hubby 11 comments
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Saturday, October 31, 2009
Now, you might not need any convincing to head up to the Hunter Valley on your next trip to New South Wales, Australia. Knowing it’s the country’s oldest and one of its most exciting wine regions may be all the reason you need. But just in case you needed a little extra motivation, S and I have sussed out two amazing places that alone are reason enough to head up to Hunter. 1. The Rock restaurant and Andrew Clarke’s stunning food There are good vineyard and wine country restaurants and then there are great ones. The Rock restaurant at Poole’s Rock Wines is definitely one of the latter. It’s been named the Australia’s Best Restaurant in a Winery at the 2008 Restaurant and Catering Association awards. It is the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide’s highest ranked restaurant in Hunter, and the only restaurant in the region with two hats. Housed in a glass-walled building, overlooking a block of 90-year old shiraz vines, the clean modern room and its views are equally inviting. The Rock is actually two restaurants in one. By day, it is the Firestick Cafe, a cool, contemporary cafe that serves simple but beautifully made cafe food: wood-fired, thin crust pizzas; a luxe wagyu burger with caramelized onions and fries; pork schnitzel and crushed potato, rocket and waldorf salad. The pizzas looked especially gorgeoous. And I love Chef Andrew Clarke’s combination ideas, like the confit pork belly, caramelized fennel and gherkins pizza. (Keep reading) Posted by Chubby Hubby 5 comments
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Wednesday, October 28, 2009
A few years back, my darling wife S and I took part in a home cooking challenge with 3 other couples. The theme was boys versus girls, which meant that all of the men were on one team and our wives/partners on another. On two different nights, each team planned and prepared a full menu, which was served to all participants, plus an additional couple, our judges. We had invited two foodie friends to sit in on the two dinners and decide who did a better job, the boys or the girls. That year, the girls won, reportedly by just one point. Of course, it didn’t help the guys that one member of our team cheated, purchasing several kinds of bread from a well-known hotel, trying then to pass the assorted selection off as homemade. One of the girls, though, smelled a rat–she was actually a regular at the main restaurant at that hotel and recognized the buns, especially the seaweed bread, immediately. Said wife grilled the poor boy mercilessly, asking questions he clearly couldn’t answer, like, “So, how long exactly did you have to proof the dough for this roll?” I’ve since asked the judges and they did admit that there were some point deductions for the bread. Which means we should have actually won. Well, that’s how I see it at least. S sees it rather differently. We’ve been planning to re-initiate the challenge ever since. We finally got ourselves organized and over two Sundays in October this year, the grudge match was on! The teams were changed a bit. Of the competing couples, one has since left Singapore and the other, well, let’s just say, we didn’t want to lose because of the bread again. They were replaced by the judges from the first contest and our business partner and her fiance. We had no problems, as you might guess, arm-twisting another couple to judge this year’s contest. What was a trial, however, was coordinating everyone’s schedules. Finally–and only because of a few cancelled business trips–we were able to lock in dates. Posted by Chubby Hubby 8 comments
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Sunday, October 25, 2009
As mentioned in my previous post, uber-foodie Joanna Savill is Festival Director of the Sydney International Food Festival. Joanna kindly allowed me to pester her with a few questions about this year’s SIFF. CH: Hi Joanna! We had a great time at the Showcase. Can I start by asking how different is the Festival this year under your direction? Posted by Chubby Hubby Comments
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