Review: VietLang

I often wonder how personal a story one should tell on a blog. Not that this particular story is particularly personal...or is it? It's rather funny (I think at least) and hopefully I don't get into more trouble than I already have for it.

When I was in university, I used to drive what in nostalgic reflection, can only be called a rather obnoxious car. Full of sound and fury, but with disgraceful mileage. In any case, the car was a bit of a police-magnet and I swear it wasn't me.

One late night, while screeching to our favourite pho place (my roommate had, with her usual arbitrary estimate of time, told me it would take 10 minutes to complete a 20 minute drive to a shop that closed at 2am sharp), we were ambushed by a police car and told that we'd done 60 miles on a 20 mile road.


I began my usual explanation of "no officer, surely not speeding", "responsible student" and "was I really going that fast". Then, I don't know what made me do it but I bawled, "but I'm so HUUUUUNNNGreeeee and I've studied ALL DAY!" and in a slightly sadder voice continued, "and this place closes at 2am...and I've had nothing to eat and exams tomorrow".

Staring directly into his eyes, I solemnly appealed, "Don't you have children?"

The car was very silent. Later, my roommate told me that in the dark, she was pinching her own calves to stop herself from bursting with laughter. She also claims that the real reason I avoided a ticket was because I'd bent over the car trunk in my Old Navy shorts, to "retrieve my wallet and driver's license".


She's just bitter. We got our pho in the end, that night and almost weekly while we were in the Bay Area and that's only part of the distance we'd go for good pho. So going to this restaurant, Viet Lang, near the Asian Civilizations Musuem, was nowhere that far but disappointingly, it confirmed my notion that I can't find out-of-this-world pho while in-this-little-island.

I've resorted to making it myself, as shown in previous posts (Search pho in the blog) and I like that a lot. But I'd also like to find a pho place that doesn't give me a massive MSG headache two hours later like this one did. The weird thing in Singapore, is that people don't seem to notice when the quality of Vietnamese food is bad- or is that just my impression?


The appetizers we had were promising, a plate of rice paper rolls and a plate of very crispy and pretty satisfying fried spring rolls. The beef pho bowls were not bad looking either, although the beef was a bit skimpy and tough. But the proof is in the stock I think (or rather, the MSG is in the stock) and so a few hours later, I was feeling a bit sick and sick of the lack of solid Vietnamese restaurants here.

Viet Lang at the Arts House
1 Old Parliment Lane, #01-03 Annexe Building, Singapore 179429
Tel: +65 6337 3379

Recipe: Thai Salmon Fish Parcels

Ingredients (for 8 guests):

4 Salmon fillets (cut into fat strips, one for each guest)
Three cloves of garlic, chopped
A large root of ginger, grated
3 limes
Three bunches of spring onions, including the white stems
A fistful of cilantro
350g of raisins/sultanas/cranberries
Thai sweet chilli sauce
Frozen filo pastry, thawed (two sheets for each parcel so in this case, 16 sheets)

This dish is something I've been stuck on for awhile and everyone who's tried it has been struck by the unique flavours and juicy texture. It's the simplest thing in the world to make and an easy dish to prepare fully before-hand when you have large parties.

Buy some salmon fillets, prefably without bones and have it de-scaled, cleaned and seasoned with salt and pepper. Marinate the salmon for awhile with grated ginger, garlic and lime. It's up to you how much you want to use, for me, I prefer that the ginger and especially garlic are not overpowering but I like to have more lime. I had 8 people for dinner, so I used 4 fillets and sliced each into two fat strips.


The amount of spring onions, cilantro and raisins is also variable, I like to use a more generous amount. Chop up a handful of spring onions, cilantro and raisins. Yes, chop the raisins, so that they are raisin pieces, rather then whole raisins. Normal black grape raisins will do, but I've tried this dish with cranberries and sultanas and it only improves.

Seperate two sheets of filo pastry and butter in between them. Place a stripe of salmon on top, just right of the center and heap the spring onions and cilantro on it. Follow with the raisins. Then, wrap the fish like you would a present, folding the short (right) side over and the two edges on the top and bottom, then rolling the package toward the far end of the pastry sheets.

These packages can be neatly laid and stacked in a baking tray for up to two days, refrigerated. When your guests arrive, simply pop the whole tray into the oven and bake for 20 minutes at 140-150C degrees. It is almost impossible to overbake salmon but you want it to be crisp on the outside and slightly undercooked, juicy-bright and soft on the inside.


The pastry will form a crackly crust to the parcels and the vegetables release juice upon cooking, which is then soaked up by the raisins, which will get all fat and slightly sticky. (In case you're wondering, you chopped the raisins to break the tough skin that would otherwise prevent the vegetable juices from being soaked up easily).

Mix a few tablespoons of Thai sweet chilli with a tablespoon of water or lime juice and drizzle it over the fish parcels. The combination of the raisins, cilantro, salmon and sweet chilli gives a good kick which really makes the taste of this dish outstanding and memorable.

Review: Tetsu

I actually went to this place twice. I went the first time with my parents for lunch and I went the second time, becuase I had forgotten that I'd ever been the first time. Not a good sign, no?


This place was apparently opened by some hot restaurant entreprenuer. Or was it the owner of Sakae Sushi? Same, same! It's meant to be a tonkatsu and tempura place but honestly, I prefer the other options on this island, like Tampopo or Tenshin.


Part of the problem I guess is the name, I mean, talk about generic. Tetsu, is about as supermarket-mall Japanese restaurant-ey as you can get, isn't it? Then, the prices. Not exactly cheap, with a $32 Salmon Sashimi and Ikura Don. Botan has much more for their $17 offering. Their sushi rolls are also a full $10 each.


Then the decor, which is A+ for Boring. Rice caskets with ropes wrapped around them, dark slate walls, damask curtains, sushi boys with white peaked caps and dark wooden laminate floors, reminds me of Raikuchi in Dempsey.


What of the food? Well, the resturant was empty both times when we entered but started to fill up toward the middle of lunch and dinner time. The free appetizer was a piece of cold tofu drizzled with ginger sesame sauce and sitting on a bed of lettuce. Then, we ordered two starters, one was the agedashi tofu, which was deadly anaemic. I was not very happy at this point of time. I hate agedashi tofu that doesn't even look toasted.


Then the second starter, which they suggested should be an aburi swordfish. Not a good idea as the fish was cold and chewy. The salad that came with the dishes was rife with capsicum, another strike-out in personal tastes for me.


My lunch was the salmon and ikura rice bowl. There was more in it before I started, but not that much more. My companion had a tempura set and the second time I had just spider rolls and tonkatsu.


The tonkatsu was alright, fairly, almost overly crispy if a bit dense but it was more expensive than Tom Tom and Tampopo and arguably not as juicy. The spider rolls were surprisingly good.


If you look up other reviews, i think Mia and some others have had better experiences with more fried, kushiage-type courses, so perhaps that would be a good way to go. To me, it was all very pedestrain and rather like a poor meal experience at Akashi. Strange how this mall in particular seems to have a dearth of good food. I think it might be because usually the larger malls are the ones more able to sustain high traffic and large, consistent restaurants.

Tetsu
163 Tanglin Road #03-18,
Tel: 6836-3112

Newsflash: Annual 80% off Warehouse Sale at Sia Huat

Too good to miss! Kitchen appliances, pots and pans, warmers and stoves, all manner of equipment. Not that it needs to be any more crowded but definitely go check it out if you're in the market for anything.

http://www.siahuat.com/news/upcoming/upcoming.htm

Recipe: Stuffed Saddle of Lamb

I've not been cooking much recently, and any cooking I've done has tended not to be very photogenic. I have, however, been slightly hooked on watching Gordon Ramsay's programmes, and decided to try one of his recipes, which you can find on Youtube (demonstrated by Ramsay himself) here.



As first-time recipes always go wrong, I thought I'd take photos of the cooking process some other time, but surprisingly enough for once the recipe turned out perfectly the first time round.

Stuffed Saddle of Lamb

Feeds 6 - 8

1 saddle of lamb, boned (1.8kg will comfortably feed 6)
200g spinach
250g mushrooms (shiitake or oyster), quartered
2 Tbsp mascarpone cheese
1 egg yolk
Fresh sage
2 bulbs of garlic
Olive oil
Butter
Salt and pepper
Butcher's twine

1. Trim as much fat from the saddle of lamb as possible, especially from the two flaps of skin. This prevents the lamb from swelling excessively during cooking and unwrapping itself, which creates a mess.

2. Heat some olive oil in a pan, and sweat the mushrooms (with salt and pepper) over moderate heat till the mushrooms start rendering their juices.

3. Drain the mushrooms in a colander.

4. Heat some olive oil and a tablespoon of butter in the same pan, and wilt all the spinach, placing them in the same colander.

5. Fold the mascarpone cheese into the spinach and mushrooms, and add the egg yolk, combining all the ingredients till they've formed a cohesive mass, then refrigerate while you prepare the lamb.

6. Halve the garlic bulbs crosswise, and salt and pepper them. This causes them to exude fluids with which you can season your lamb.

7. Lay the lamb skin side down, and rub it all over with the garlic. Line the centre of the lamb (the cavity between the two loins) with sage leaves.

8. Place your stuffing, which by now should have the consistency of soft butter, in the same cavity, packing it together neatly.

9. Pull one of the flaps of skin up and over the stuffing, to meet the other side, making sure it's pulled fairly tight, and fold the other flap over, creating a nicely wrapped roll of lamb.

10. Turn the lamb over (so that it doesn't start unwrapping itself) and stick two sage leaves against the ends of the saddle, which prevents any stuffing from coming out. Tie the saddle with the twine, and season with salt and pepper.

11. Preheat the oven to 200C.

12. Heat some olive oil in a hot pan, and fry the garlic bulbs and sage leaves. Add 2 Tbsp of butter and brown the lamb all over.

13. Transfer the lamb to a baking tray (unless your pan is oven-proof), and roast for an hour.



14. After an hour, remove the lamb and rest for 10 to 15 minutes, before slicing the lamb into steaks of desired thickness. Serve with your choice of sauce and side-dishes.