New Lucky Claypot Rice

Finally found where the famous Clementi's New Lucky Claypot Rice moved to.  Should have googled months ago.  It is now at the hawker centre (Blk 44) over at Holland Drive.





The three of us ordered claypot rice for three.  Plus a salted vegetable soup and oyster sauce cabbage.  Should have ordered the big one for five.  The claypot rice was so good and definitely not enough for the three of us. They use the real stuff - charcoal - to cook the rice.  Gas is usually used at other places.  We can smell the burnt rice from where we were seated. The rice were just slightly salty.  The sliced chinese sausages and chicken went well with it.  Black sauce was provided and it is up to one to decide how much black sauce to mix with the rice.  Scrap the bottom of the claypot, the burnt rice is the best part;-).

Wine - Margaux 2000

Gong opened this massive wine for lunch a couple of months ago.  We had t-bone steak to go with it. Superb palate and nose and soft at the same time.  Think this will be magnificent in another 10 years or so.  Of course no complaints of drinking this early.

Great Mocha at Jones the Grocer

Jones the grocer @Mandarin Gallery serves the best mocha in town in my opinion.  It is awesomely good.  Love the tasty cocoa.  Never fail to order this whenever I am there.

Apple store @ IFC, Pudong Shanghai

Night shot of Apple store over at IFC in Pudong, Shanghai.  Shot using iPhone 4S of course.  The entrance is through the circular stairs as shown in the photo.  In the store, there are rows and rows of iPads and iMacs for one to browse and meddle with.  Reminds me of the glass pyramid in front of The Louvre over in Paris.

Wine - Chateau Pape Clement 1998

Had this for lunch.  Was initially flat.  Needed decanting.  After an hour or so, nose began to come out nicely.  The tannin began to drop off and the wine became lovely and closer to full body.  Good time to drink.

Chinese Book - Duan Zi

Duan Zi is a current best seller in China.  Happened to pick up this book at the bookstore over at the Pudong airport.  The author writes short passages on his outlook of life, childhood days, academic days, friends, encounters with prominent and famous personalities; basically life passages.  Every topic is only about 2-3 pages and he writes in a humourous style and yet critical at the same time.  While the things he writes about were mainly of China, one tends to associate with some of his encounters.  Bring back memories of younger days and also characters that we have come across.  Good read.  Second book is out and have bought it as well.  By the way, it is in Chinese hor.

Chinese Green Tea in Changshu

On my Changshu trips, my Chinese colleagues like to bring us to this farmer style restaurant situated on the foot of a row of hills.  We would always have several home-grown vegetable dishes.  Frankly, the dishes were so-so and had very earthy taste (real organic growth??? kekeke).  But what I like most is the Chinese green tea that they served.  They have a tea plantation surrounding the restaurant and the tea leaves are from there.  It has a nice fragrant smell and "dan dan" taste.  I gave a tin to my father-in-law and he told me the green tea is excellent.

 this is the restaurant along the foothills

 the tea plantation

 excellent chinese green tea

 look at the colour of the leaves....

the final packaging

Hinoki - my favourite Japanese sushi haunt

Hinoki is my favourite Japanese food haunt.  While the quality is just slightly lower than places like Tatsuya; the ambiance, the huge portion and the chatty-ness of the two chefs more than make up for it. And of course it does not hurt so much on the pocket as well.
Was there last week on  a special occasion.

 started off with mini home-made tofu covered with burst-in-your mouth salmon roe...

 followed by mini-sashimi with generous slices of flounder

 I asked Lawrence if he had any special stuff and he threw me this Japanese sea urchin.  Full of the taste of the ocean.

And of course followed by generous portions of sushi ;-)

and ending with a special chiraishi from Lawrence ...aji chiraishi.  First time I had this with aji and it was real good.

Tatsuya - after a long time

Went with the boss to Tatsuya.  The folks there were wondering why I have not been there for such a long time.  Of course cannot tell them that I have been visiting the brother's restaurant - Hinoki.  The two brothers somehow don't seem to be on speaking terms.  But that does not bother me.  It's the food that counts ;-)
It seems that the folks have new set of uniforms and definitely looked smarter than before.  Looks like they have a new junior chef - junior cos he was doing bento sets!
The quality of food is still as good as ever.  It's better than Hinoki but the bill also hurts a lot more.

 we started with snail .....

 and mini tofu

 followed closely by some excellent sashimi...

 and then grilled toro

steamed mochi with ginko nut and lotus root inside

 japanese trout - it was small but full of flavour

 aburi-style toro

 yummy Hokkaido prawn - look at the texture!

 among the cooked stuff, I love this the best - toro soup.  They don't do soup refill ;-(

 Japanese scallop

 uni sushi

 this aburi-style kobe beef was a tad too smooth for me

 and still had some space for cold noodles