My Favourite Childhood Snack

I cannot believe I actually found this!

This has been my favourite childhood snack of all times! But ever since my teenage years and adulthood, lesser and lesser provision shops have been stocking this. In the past, whenever I managed to find this, I would buy in bulk - at least twenty packets! They were so cheap, about ten or twenty cents per packet!

Unfortunately, for the past few years, I have not been able to find any of this. I was thinking perhaps it is finally out of stock everywhere, and moaned about the loss of my favourite childhood snack.

Then today, I came across this old provision shop in that neighbourhood. Suddenly, I saw a small display case with this snacks! Without thinking, I wiped out the entire stock! Finally I found my favourite childhood snack!

Through Emerald Hill

I have long heard about Emerald Hill but have not been there. I know it used to be a place for social escorts, then the stretch of shophouses was developed into pubs, lounges and restaurants.

I know Emerald Hill is near to the Mount Elizabeth stretch but I never know the exact position until last night when I realise it is situated at Emerald Hill Road at the former Peranakan Place.

Last night was my first time at a chill-out joint at Emerald Hill. We went to Ice-Cold Beer for drinks where there was an offer for Margaritas at S$10.00 each. We had three Margaritas and an Erdinger Beer, plus chicken wings. We happened to be sitting next to the pool table so we played two rounds of pool too!

Because this is World Cup season, there were many people around watching the match so the place was packed! We were already lucky enough to find a small table for us.

Besides the noise of people cheering and the loud music being played, this place seems a pretty cosy place to just chill-out. I will not mind going again! Maybe the next time round we will go pub-hopping along the stretch too!

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The Concept Of Communal Dining

Recently, I got introduced to the concept of Communal Dining. I have known about casual dining, fine dining, comfort food, bistro, individually-plated, but it is the first time I heard of Communal Dining.

I did some research and found out that Communal Dining is a new concept slowly gaining popularity in the West and here. However, even though Communal Dining itself is a relatively new concept, it has already been practiced by Asians.

You know those table dinners where there are a few dishes and everyone helps himself to the dish? One dish feeds several people. Just like for Chinese, when we eat, we use chopsticks to take the fish, the vegetables and scoop the soup. The whole family eats from the same few dishes instead of individual servings.

That is Communal Dining. It sems that we have been practising that all these while but never really thought of that in this context.

Communal Dining is not the same as those dinners we see on television where the dish is passed around and everyone takes just a scoop. It means a sharing of the dishes where everyone eats from the same dishes.

Seems that what we practise here is slowly gaining popularity in the West when all these while, it had been the Western influence on our culture and habits. Times have changed indeed!

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Candlenut Kitchen @ Chinatown

I have heard of this restaurant recently and thought of trying out because it serves Peranakan cuisine for one, which relates more to the locals. Finally I went there yesterday because some of us were going for a karaoke session near Chinatown and this restaurant at Neil Road is just five minutes walk away.

When I first went in, I thought the interior is pretty small, but the place is crowded. Thank goodness I reserved seats, otherwise we might not have been able to get places. When we went in, the waitress served us water and crackers while waiting for the others to arrive. The table setting is made of dark wood, with neat napkins and utensils.

The table setting

Crackers

When everyone has arrived, we proceeded to order. Because it is a communal dining concept, we ordered a few dishes for everyone to share. First we started off with soup. Each soup came in an individual serving, so we ordered three bowls of soup to share amongst all three of us. The soup is salted vegetables with pork belly, but unfortunately, I forgot the Peranakan name for this.

Soup... glorious soup

The next few dishes were Yeye's Curry, a kind of white chicken curry, Ayam Goreng (barbecued chicken wings) and a vegetable dish (which I cannot remember the name as well). All in all, the servings are just right for six of us and the food was not too bad too.

Yeye's Curry

Ayam Goreng (Barbecued Chicken Wings)

Salted Vegetable dish

Each of us had an individual serving of rice to go with the dishes. The rice was free flow, hence one of the guys ordered another plate of rice. We had dessert after that. Each of us ordered a different dessert, ranging from sago gula melaka to vanilla ice-cream to banana a la pudding.

The sago gula melaka came in a round dish which is of a different serving than I am used to. And it was a tad too sweet.

Sago Gula Melaka

The vanilla ice-cream looks like.. erh.. a vanilla ice-cream.

Vanilla Ice-Cream

The most interesting dish was the banana a la pudding. Vanilla ice-cream on one side, a round mash of what looked like mashed potato on the other side, but it was actually banana. Wow.. I did not know that banana could be made until like this! I must try to see if I can replicate that!

Banana a la pudding

This place is more worth it if you go in a bigger group, say five to six people. The dishes are the same servings, hence if you order the same number of dishes as I did, the bill when split amongst six comes up to a pretty reasonable price of S$15.00. I think the next time round I would want to bring my parents along too!

Food : 3 out of 5
Ambience : 3.5 out of 5
Service : 3.5 out of 5
Price : 3.5 out of 5