Gourmet Food Trail with Ah Lun - Part II - Lao Beijing

Here is Part II of the Gourmet Food Trail with Ah Lun.

The bus brought us rather quickly to Tiong Bahru Plaza. We went to the Lao Beijing branch located at Tiong Bahru Plaza.

Part II - Lao Beijing

The first thing we saw when we sat down was the menu!

There were so many dishes! We just had a 6 course lunch and here's another 7 courses on the menu.
That's not counting another surprise dish that might also be served here!




Here's Chef Ma Wei Qi from Lao Beijing. He's renowned for his execution of Northern Chinese dishes! Some of you who have "certain credit cards" might have attended his master class too :-)




Here's the crowd again. We were all seated according to the table number on the sticker tag that we had to wear. Some people had to shift around because of the table number on the tags. It's a good place to meet other people interested in food! The people on my table changed. That means I got to make new friends again!

Double boiled Chicken Soup

The soup was very flavourful and tasty. I found it a bit too generous with salt. :-)



They say chicken soup soothes the soul. It might be true after all. After having it, I felt better after the rush from one place to another. Just that I still find it a bit salty.  :-)

Steamed Fish Head with Pickled Chilli

This dish might look really really spicy, but looks can be deceiving. As it's pickled chilli, it's not that spicy. It was a really fragrant dish. The pickled chilli mixture plus other fragrant oil (probably onion and bit of sesame) that they pour over it makes it smells really good. Fresh fish was coated with the pickled chilli paste and steamed. It sounds so simple right?

I am a fish eater, so I was happily eating it. After everyone took a small piece of it, I realised most people on the table did not take the second serving. Oh... they don't like fish with bones! I like picking fish from the bones, so I ate more of it.

Beijing-style Fried Shredded Pork and Leek with Chef's special sauce

This we were told is a very Beijing dish. They use tofu skin to wrap the stir fried shredded pork and leek. It's different from the usual wraps made from flour or wheat. It has a very nice mouth-feel to it.



I like this dish because of the sauce that was used to cook the pork strips. It was so tender that I initially thought it tasted like beef. Probably also because of the colour :-)



Our table got a bit lazy so someone asked the service staff if they could wrap for us. They did and below is what they did! It was quite a pleasure eating this, especially when we did not have to do anything but move our jaws.

Games time!

Another round of competition! We were such a naughty crowd. The whole time at Lao Beijing, Xiao Peng was teasing the boy in the middle. Those who went knows the reason, but it's for people there only. Not nice to disclose it here :-)

I wonder if it's because he is wearing a shirt that's the same colour as Wanbao's logo?

Country-style Braised Dried Beancurd in Claypot

A very country dish. Dried beancurd that's I think has been pan fried and then braised with lots of leek and chilli. It's for tofu lovers. It's been some time since I had dried beancurd. We have been eating soft tofu too much! Eating this version of tofu is a nice change.

My partner in crime for the food tour.

Together with me was Aussie Pete another blogger that attended the Food Trail. He was being interviewed by the co-host Xiao Peng. He also had to make popiah! I am so glad I did not have to do anything. ;-)

Birthday surprise!

Surprise surprise! There was participants who came because it was their birthday!



These 3 guys celebrated their birthdays. It was the actual birthday day for the boy in the Lianhe Wanbao colour. :-)

Chinese Opera!

Chef Ma was in a very joyous mood last Saturday!
He decided to sing some opera for us too! I hope the omy folks recorded it! If they did you can probably watch it at the omy.sg site :-)

Fried Assorted Mushrooms with Spinach

This dish has been created for mushroom lovers. Oh... how I love the mushrooms!
The greens was a bit bitter, but the mushrooms was absolutely gorgeous!

How many kinds of mushrooms can you spot?

Demo time!

Demo time and the surprise dish!  Popiah making time! Chef Ma demonstrated how to make popiah!

DIY Popiah Session

We got to do it ourselves too on our table. The condiments for popiah.



The soft skin for us to roll our popiah.



The most important ingredients for popiah, and everyone though this was really well executed here. It was the right consistency and we ate it on its own too when the skins ran out!


Ah Lun after the demonstration told us more about Singapore style popiah. He said that there are very few people in Singapore who knows how to wrap popiah properly. He has done his research and gone around all these years finding out.

I did not know the proper way to fold popiah, do you? Well, here's how to do it.



The sweet sauce is not to be spread in the middle of the skin. (That's a sign that the person who makes that popiah don't know about popiah!) The proper traditional way is to put it on top. The purpose of the sauce other than giving the popiah a slightly sweet taste is to act as 'glue'. So you spread it on the top.

The vegetable are usually dry, and you use it as a base to fill up other things.




You can either put the condiments first below or put the condiments on top. I chose to put it below because it is easier for me. :-)



Next I top up with the braised radish and tofu mix. You got to give the radish and tofu mixture a slight squeeze to get rid of the excess liquid. You don't want a soggy limp popiah.

We were told the traditional way is to boil pork bones and cook the radish etc in it. Nowadays many hawkers 'cheat' by using ikan bilis stock or worst still use ikan bilis cubes! If you have eaten the real stuff, you can taste the difference.




You then roll it up! Look, my first try and it comes out kind of nice right?



I took a bit and see how nice it looks inside?

We were told traditionally, a spoonful or so of the excess sauce will be poured into the popiah as you eat it. It's for those who loves it wet. Ah Lun really knows a lot about food. There were lots of stories that he told us. Attend his food trails if you want to know more! :-)

I stare, you stare!

Another game, this time a staring game. Two strangers were picked to stare at each other. The person who burst out laughing first loses. These two can really stare without laughing. The man's wife seated down was laughing non stop though!

They were so good that both were declared winners after even an extension of time! LOL.

Pan fried Shrimp, Pork, Cabbage Guotie

The Guotie at Lao Beijing. Some say it's a must try here.
I am not a fan of guotie, so I can't really appreciate it.



It does look very good right? Crispy on the bottom and smooth and silky on the top.

Steamed Juicy Meat Buns - Xiao Long Bao

Fans of XLB, their version here is not bad too!

Empress Dowager's Dessert - Soybean Cake

The name of this dessert it Empress Dowager's Dessert. How interesting eh?
It's glutinous rice cake and red bean paste layered and rolled up. The final layer is then rolled with soybean powder. It's quite unique and taste rather good too.

By the time we finish this, we were all totally stuffed! In 6 hours, we were entertained and we were eating and eating. If you would like to find out more or register for one of these sessions, click here to find out more.

It was a really enjoyable time to spend a lazy Saturday afternoon. If I can find time, I would want to sign up for the later sessions, not only because of the food, but to hear stories from Ah Lun himself! There's a reason he is called 'the legend'!


Lao Beijing 老北京食堂
Tiong Bahru Plaza #02-12
302 Tiong Bahru Road
Singapore 168732

Tel : +65 6376 4466

Gourmet Food Trail with Ah Lun - Part I - Mandarin Court Chinese Restaurant @ Mandarin Orchard

Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to join the "Gourmet Food Trail with Ah Lun" / "阿伦笑吃人间周末趴趴吃" organised by Lianhe Wanbao and Omy.sg

There are all together 5 weekends of eating at different restaurants around Singapore that serves superb food. Thanks to omy.sg I attended Week 2 of the 5 weekends adventure. There are 3 more weekends to go if you think you would like to join Ah Lun for his food outing!


If you don't know who is Ah Lun. Have you heard of Wong Ah Yoke of the Straits Times? Ah Yoke's the food critic on Singapore Press Holding's English newspapers. Ah Lun (or Alan) is the legendary food critic of the Chinese newspapers, i.e. Lian He Zaobao and Wanbao. After listening to him speak and talk about food, I am so in awe! Ah Lun really knows a lot of things! He's probably a walking encyclopedia about food in Singapore and beyond!

How shall I share it with you? I will use lots of photos (40 of it!) in 2 parts. Part I will be the Mandarin Court Chinese Restaurant at Mandarin Orchard Hotel trail. Part II the Lao Beijing Restaurant at Tiong Bahru Plaza trail. The event started at 11:30 AM and ended at 5:30 PM. That's about 6 hours of fun! It's not only eating, but there are games and entertainment too!

Part I - Mandarin Court Chinese Restaurant @ Mandarin Orchard

Look at how many gluttons are there! No, we are not gluttons, we are just passionate food lovers. There were around 80 of us there!




Due to the heavy downpour, the event started a bit late. Ah Lun was so apologetic, but everyone seems OK. Many skipped breakfast and was totally hungry by 12 noon, we were in fact starving, but a while more doesn't matter.

The Chef!

This is Executive Chinese Chef Sunny Kong. He was the chef preparing the wonderfully delicious food that we all enjoyed.




That's the menu at the first restaurant. Looks good eh?

At both restaurants, there are 'secret dishes' that is not on the menu. The chef will bring it out to surprise the diners!

Golden Prawn tossed in Salted Egg Yolk, coated with wasabi dressing, served in Sweet and Sour Sauce

To tantalize our tastebuds, the prawns were served in 3 different cooking styles. The prawns are so 'q' and it has been quickly deep fried. Do you know why it has been deep fried? It's so that there are lots of surface area with tiny holes that will absorb the coating of sauce.

The above was coated with wasabi dressing. It's OK, but I am a sadist that likes the 'shoot through the head' kind of wasabi feeling if possible.




The sweet and sour prawns was my favourite of the three flavours. The balance of sweet and sour was to me just nice and when you bite it, there's a layer of crispy batter. In the middle was 'qq' / springy texture prawns.




The salted egg yolk version. People have moods. I usually like salted egg yolk sauces, but for the last few weeks, I have this craving for sweet and sour stuff, so although it was nice, it did not satisfy the craving part of me. ;-)

Ah Lun told us about how the restaurant make their prawns so 'q'. :-)

Play Modelling

Who is this lady and what was she doing? After the prawns dish was served, there was a 'dress me up' modelling game. This lady won the competition. It was hilarious. Folks nowadays are not as stiff anymore! They can be quite sporty too!

Double-boiled Guinea Fowl Soup with Cordyceps Flowers

What a nice bowl! When we opened it, oh wow, the fragrance just whiffs through the air and captivated us.



The soup's double boiled and it's from guinea fowl and cordyceps flowers.

When you watch Jamie Oliver's shows, he uses guinea fowl in his dishes. When my mum was in UK preparing confinement food for my sis, she was looking for kampung chicken to cook in London. My brother who is more resourceful than my sister brought mum to get guinea fowl instead. Mum when she came back was raving about her guinea fowl soup and dishes. So, here I am having guinea fowl soup too.

Cordyceps flowers are the cheaper version of corcyceps, that's what the chef told us. It's not as 'potent' but it's good enough if we want to prepare soup at home. I personally quite like the soup! It's very delicate.

Poached Red Grouper in Fish Consomme served with Crystal Vermicelli

This was the Poached Red Grouper in Fish Consomme served with Crystal Vermicelli. It was light and flavourful.The soup base was made from fish bones that has been boiled till it turns whitish. By using fresh fish and ingredients, it turns out so nice!

The chef demonstrated the dish on stage too. It's to show us it's really easy to make it at home. I shall not explain how he prepares the dish from scratch to serving. The post will be too long!



The co-host Xiao Peng was on stage with Chef Sunny explaining the details of preparing the soup.
He's so quick with his cleavers and could fillet the fish so nicely and in such a short time.

We were told, if you want your soup to be whitish, you need a strong fire to boil it till it becomes white. No shortcut by adding milk, that won't do. That's cheating.

He also added 'guo pi' dried orange peel to the soup. Ah Lun told us, if you want high quality ones that are super dry, the only place is to get it from Hong Kong. It's very very expensive too! But a bit of the high quality ones makes a great difference to the soup.


Side story:
My mum dries her own orange peel, and you know how she suns them? You can laugh, but it works! Hers is not the same high quality as the Hong Kong ones, but good enough. She puts them in a metal container and puts it in back seat of her car. She says the car's clean, and then sun's strong and she does not need to worry that it will get wet when it rains!


Another colleague dries them in the air-con office! His orange peel comes out nicer because the humidity and temperature in the office is constant the whole day long!

The Surprise! Peking Duck!

The thing that was not in the menu! They prepared Peking Duck for us!



I did not quite pay attention as I was busy taking photos and chatting with people beside me. There was two middle age ladies and I was chatting with them. What a coincidence, one of the lady's son has the same name as me!

Back to the Peking Duck. I heard something about the skin that they use. But my memory's failing and I did not pay attention, I did not really catch it.



But we were all very happy with it being served!

I did remember something that Ah Lun said. The best season to eat it when you visit Beijing is when spring onions have just sprouted. The onions will be super crunchy and it has this 'hotness' in the taste. One bite with the crispy skin of the duck and it's to die for.

The spring onions used was not like that for us. Haha...




We all loved what they did with the duck meat. It was sliced and sauteed with black pepper.
The duck was so tender!

Braised Ee-fu noodles accompanied with Egg Plant and Spicy Meat Sauce

I always like Ee-fu noodles. Ee-fu noodles are like comfort food. The version served here was with egg plant and spicy meat sauce.

The portion that was served to me was without egg plant. The server probably did not portion it properly.  I shall make it at home or go back to try it again another day.

Chilled Lemon Grass Jelly and Aloe Vera topped with Mango and Strawberry

This cold dessert was delicious! To me nothing very special, but it was nice and cold, so it was satisfying.

We were then told to quickly prepare to leave and get to the next destination. We are on the 35th floor of Mandarin Orchard Hotel, so we had to orderly go down and wait.

Buses will be waiting for us downstairs to bring us to the Tiong Bahru Plaza.


Mandarin Court Chinese Restaurant
Level 35, Orchard Wing
Mandarin Orchard Singapore
333 Orchard Road
Singapore 238867

Tel: 6831 6288

Fried Kway Teow @ Amoy Street Food Centre

I had cravings for Char Kway Teow last week. I don't know why, but CKT is something that I love to eat since I was a little boy! Every now and then, I feel like eating it, although I was told it has the calories of eating 12 loaves of bread! (is that true?)

There are many styles of Char Kway Teow and everyone has their own favourite. There's no one stall in Singapore that can please everyone. Not even the best Char Kway Teow stall in Singapore can please everyone.  I have always prefer the slightly wet version (but not soggy). Some like the dry version and think the wet version is disgusting. 



This and the Fried Kway Teow stall at Tiong Bahru Market are my favourite stalls. Though this stall does not serve the nicest version I have eaten, I have grown to like it. I have eaten at this stall for more than 10 years!

The funny thing is that the uncle that cooks it is not even consistent! It's sometimes wetter than usual, sometimes it is dry. There used to be 2 uncles who took turns to fry it and they have different styles too! Nowadays I only see 1 old man frying it.

I had the Char Kuey Teow last Saturday. Sis was ordering and she since she had to wait, she had a chat with the lady at the stall. She said that uncle who is frying has been frying for over 40 years!

We were told, the uncle was frying kway teow down the street. When Amoy Street Food Centre opened, they moved here and has been here frying his kway teow here ever since.  Quite a veteran eh! 40 years and people are still going for his CKT!

Kway Teow Mee

The default version of Char Kway Teow. It is actually Kway Teow Mee. It is mixture of flat rice noodles with yellow noodles.

I don't like yellow noodles so I 'dislike' this version. Sis ate the above and says it is too wet for her liking. She likes her drier version. But I know many people love this version, that's why there is always a queue for it!

Fried Kway Teow

This is my favourite. Only Kway Teow and not adulterated with yucky yellow noodles. (You can tell I really hate yellow noodles in my Kway Teow) To order it, say "Heng Kway Teow". You can say Heng Kway Teow to all fried kway teow hawkers. How many of you are like me? You only order Heng Kway Teow.

Sometimes you have to wait a while before they cook this for you. They have to finish serving the 'horrible' mix first before they serve me my 'delicious' kway teow.

I like the wetter version because the kway teow is softer and not so oily. I don't like the drier version, because it gives an oily aftertaste.  I also like to squeeze the calamansi over it so that it gives a slight citrusy taste and fragrance to it. Oh, I am salivating now.


Fried Kway Teow
Stall 01-01
Amoy Street Food Centre
MND Building Annexe B
7 Maxwell Road
Singapore 069111

The official address states Maxwell Road, but it's on Amoy Street.

Poh's Kitchen - Watch it on Discovery TLC - Mondays 7 PM.

I was kind of excited when I got a chance to meet Poh Ling from Masterchef Australia / Poh's Kitchen. I am quite a cooking show junkie and I always wanted to meet all the people I watch on television.

Thanks to TLC and MSL Singapore, I got to meet Poh in person! She's in Singapore as part of a promotion for her cooking show, Poh's Kitchen. You can watch it every Monday at 1900 hrs (7:00 pm SIN), starting February 14 on TLC, StarHub Ch 427. Encores the following Mondays at 1300 hrs (1:00 pm SIN).

Her show is quite fun to watch, I have been watching on online streaming from Australia!  (Now, you don't have to! Just turn on your TV!) On her show, she will be preparing one dish and her guest chefs (like Neil Perry, David Thompson, Emmanuel Mollois) would be preparing something similar. Eg, She will be preparing Abacus Beads and her guest, Andre Ursini would be preparing gnocchi! Food that's almost similar yet different.

Gnocchi with basic tomato and basil sauce

Poh was demonstrating how to prepare a very simple Italian meal. It's suitable for simple lunch or dinner without much ingredients. Busy mums or working adults can just grabbed the ingredients and prepare them quickly.

Poh prepared "Gnocchi with basic tomato and basil sauce" at the Loft Kitchen at Grand Hyatt.  To prove it's really easy, she made it right in front of us and we got to taste it! It was just so delicious and simple!

I have included the recipe TLC provided at the bottom of this post, so you can prepare this at home too! The method is described in the post with photos. Enjoy!




Poh's so animated and she's quite pretty too! She's a KL girl who has migrated to South Australia with her parents when she was just 9. She studied Design and freelanced as a graphic designer and illustrator and then began painting full time in 2002.

Funny side note: 
I studied and lived in Australia for 4 years long ago, so her accent reminds me of my aussie classmates and also our ABC (Australian Born Chinese) friends.

I did not hear Poh do the 'switch', but most of our ABC friends can do it! What we term the 'switch' is they can do the Malaysian/Singapore accent when you speak to some friends, and switch to the aussie accent when they speak to aussies or other ABCs.

My sister and brother in UK does that too! They will be speaking to us with the lah etc and suddenly when they pick up the phone when it rings in their house, they speak with a British accent. LOL

Preparing the Tomato and Basil Sauce

To prepare the sauce, she used vine ripened tomatoes. 2 kg of it. She did comment that she found vine ripened tomatoes expensive in Singapore. (yup, we already know that!)

She is seen (above) taking off the stems and the tops of the tomatoes. She then used a knife to score the tomato all around. Place the tomatoes in a bowl and cover it with boiling water. Weigh the tomatoes down with a small saucer and wait for 5-10 minutes. Drain the tomatoes and peel and discard the skins. Chop roughly and set aside.

Use both hands if you got to cook for a hungry mob!

In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil and briefly saute the garlic until aromatic and not all coloured.

How many of you use the same aromatics for all your dishes, whether you are cooking Italian, Chinese, Indian or any kind of food? Many people seem to always add the same onions, garlic, ginger etc in all their dishes, thinking it will add more flavour. Poh said don't. All your dishes will then taste the same!


For this dish, she only used garlic and don't brown it (we are not cooking chinese food here!), just when it turns aromatic, add in other ingredients. (I wanted to laugh).




Pour in the chopped tomatoes, salt and sugar into the aromatic garlic oil.

Look, she's got a chef helper from Hyatt helping her clear up! I need someone like that at home when I cook too! To prepare all the ingredients and clean up for me. Yeah, you are telling me to dream on right?




Bring to the boil and then lower the heat and simmer for 7 minutes.You can press and 'chopped' the tomatoes with your spatula if you want it to be smaller pieces.

You can see that the colour is turning to the colour of the bottled pasta sauce you get from the supermarket! Talking about tomatoes, Poh mentioned that tomatoes are not to be stored in the fridge if you want them to ripen. Cold temperature will prevent tomatoes from ripening and you won't get the maximum flavour out of the fruit. Leave your tomatoes outside the fridge. 


I store my tomatoes in the fridge and it really does not ripen, but I like it because it can keep very long! Maybe I will ripen my tomotoes first and then put them in the fridge to stop the ripening when I buy too much of it next time!





Add the basil and simmer for another 10 minutes. You can see that the sauce have reduced and thickened. Just like how it is when you buy them in bottles/jars!

You can prepare a big batch of it and store them in your fridge if you want.

Preparing the Gnocchi

Halfway when the sauce was simmering, Poh was already preparing the gnocchi.

Her recipe used 1kg of Dutch Creams or Kipfler potatoes, skins scrubbed and left on. She said any waxy skin potatoes could be used if you can't find Dutch creams or Kipfler Potatoes.  The reason is the texture of potatoes that does not absorb water while you are cooking it is what is needed to make very nice gnocchi.

Place the potatoes in a large port and cover with plenty of water and bring to the boil. Boil until they are tender and the tip of a knife can be easily inserted. Drain and cool them. Hold the potatoes with a tea towel and peel off the skin.

To mash the potatoes, either run though a mouli or a potato ricer or mash with a fork and push through a sieve. You can see above that she did not bring her mouli over from Australia and she is using a tool from Hyatt's kitchen. It's tough work!  It's a great workout!




Place the mashed potato, flour, egg, salt and cheese in a large bowl. Mix together, then gently knead until just combined. The texture should feel like very soft playdough but it should not stick to your hands. Dust the bench with a small amount of flour, break off small amounts of dough and gently roll into 1 cm diameter long tubes. (like the photo above).

With a knife, cut off 1.5cm sections, roll them in plain flour and rest them on a tray till ready to boil.

In a large pot, boil plenty of water with 2 teaspoons of salt. Shake excess flour off the gnocchi before tossing it into the boiling water. When the gnocchi pieces are cooked, they will float to the top.




Gently scoop out with a slotted spoon and lower straight into the tomato sauce.

Handle the gnocchi tenderly! They are really soft and so delicious! It's like eating soft pillows of potato!




Serve with grated parmigiano-reggiano and a sprinkle of chopped parsley if desired.

We were standing in front of the bench when she was preparing it. No special TV effects! Everything was done right in front of us! It was so simple!

Here's the recipe:

Tomato and basil sauce
2 kg vine ripened tomatoes
1/3 cup (80ml) olive oil
8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 handful basil leaves, torn
freshly ground black pepper.

Gnocchi
1 kg Dutch Creams or Kipfler potatoes, skins scrubbed and left on
200 gm plain flour
1 large free-range egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon salt
100 gm parmigiano-reggiano or Parmesan cheese, finely grated
Water
2 teaspoon salt.


Here's a reminder. You can catch Poh in Poh's Kitchen every Monday at 1900 hrs (7:00 pm SIN), starting February 14 on TLC, StarHub Ch 427. Encores the following Mondays at 1300 hrs (1:00 pm SIN).

For Malaysian readers, you can also catch Poh's Kitchen on TLC, Astro Channel 707.