Month: November 2024

Singapore -Simply Sensational

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You know you’ve landed somewhere pretty special when even the airport has a waterfall, monorail and butterfly garden.  It’s also amazingly well run, efficient and pleasant to travel in and out of.  It’s a no announcement airport so it’s surprisingly calm without constant intelligible “bing bong” announcements so it’s important to check your flight details.

If you haven’t visited Asia before Singapore is an excellent entry way.  As a former British colony English is widely spoken, signs and announcements are also in English (they also drive on the left hand side of the road).

The city itself is a beautiful mix of historic buildings and iconic skyscrapers.  It’s a lot greener and less frenetic than cities like Hong Kong and Bangkok.  It is also an important financial and business and hub, and it’s clear there is also a lot of money floating about the place. But the city also has a fascinating history and has been a crossroads for multiple cultures. 

The local indigenous population refer to themselves as Hainese.   Throughout the city you’ll find other communities like Arab Street and Hagi Lane where you can find the beautiful Sultan Mosque, where Muslim merchants originally settled and you can find multiple pretty little Turkish, Indonesian and Malaysian restaurants. 

Walk about 10 minutes and you’re in Little India, there is also a sizable China Town, with endless places to eat, a night market and beautiful ornate Hindu temple.

Hawker markets also play an important part in the food culture of the city, producing over 1 million meals daily, as it’s common for locals to eat out daily.  They are essentially food courts where you can buy everything from the local speciality of chicken and rice (poached chicken and rice served with a simple but tasty chicken broth and costs about £3.20), through to other dishes from all over Asia. 

The Lau Pa Sat hawker market was probably my favourite but is popular with tourists, it runs alongside what’s known as Satay Street.  As you’ve probably guessed you can find multiple vendors cooking and selling satay skewers with chicken and  prawn being the most popular, but frankly I thought it was overpriced, with food inside the hawker market being better value.  The Maxwell hawker market in Chinatown was probably more authentic but maybe less fancy.

Singapore is incredibly easy to get around, the airport is only 30 mins from the city centre, and it has an excellent underground railway system (MRT) with fares costing around £1, and you can just tap your debit card going through the turnstile, so no queuing for a ticket.  There is an option for a tourist pass depending on what you’re planning but I found it cheaper to just pay as I went.

The one thing I would recommend to anyone visiting Singapore is to visit the Gardens on the Bay.  It’s a huge parkland that is free to visit and contains the iconic tree structures that resemble something from an alien planet or Jurassic park.  There is an amazing light show each evening on the hour (this was honestly my favourite thing I did), and if you’re visiting during the day you can visit the Cloud Forest, an indoor botanical garden specialising in exotic plants and orchids, as well as the Flower Dome.  You’ll need to pay in to see these as well as the viewing deck for the large tree (not to be recommended if you have a fear or heights). 

Ask anyone who has ever been to Singapore and they’ll tell you how clean it is.  Chewing gum is banned and smoking outside is banned except for designated areas with a green bin.  On more practical considerations, if you need to use your phone  lots of companies offer online Esim cards that work in several different Asian countries if you’re travelling, but ordinary sim cards can be purchased everywhere if your phone isn’t compatible with Esim cards.  While the public transport system is excellent, I used the Grab transport app a lot when travelling  in Asia (they haven’t sponsored me, but if they’d like to I’m definitely open to it).    A bit like Uber you can book pick ups, there is a translate function and you can also take a photo of where you are, which was really useful if you’re in a busy street and makes it easier for the driver to find you, as well as knowing what the fare is up front and avoiding the need to haggle to agree a fare.

Singapore is a beautiful city, but very hot and humid.  The best piece of advice I can give apart from staying well hydrated is to get up early and to see things, it’s less crowded and cooler.  You’ll also avoid the torrential thunderstorms that happened every afternoon when I visited and were pretty cool.

Chicken with 30 Cloves of Garlic

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Yes, you read it right, 30 cloves of garlic.  Before you imagine that you will stink enough to scare off a small town of vampires I promise you won’t, the garlic mellows and becomes almost sweet. This is a classic French dish, and it’s a classic for a reason.  Traditionally it’s made with a whole chicken, but I prefer chicken thighs

The garlic cooks gently in wine and the chicken juices until they are soft and delicious.  Cook them with their skin on and when cooked squeeze the soft garlic onto the bread you serve with this dish., they taste amazing.

I used a dish that could be used on the stove top and in the oven.  If you don’t have one just transfer to an oven proof dish before putting in the oven.

The whole dish is incredibly tasty, serve the soft  chicken with salad and crusty french bread, to spread the confit garlic on and mop up the sauce with it.

Ingredients

1 Kg Chicken thighs (skin on and bone in)

30 Cloves of garlic (about 3 bulbs, remove most of the papery outside, but leave on the tight pink/white skin around each clove)

250 mil White Wine

2 Sprigs of rosemary

25 Grams Butter

1 Tbsp Oil

Salt and pepper

Method

  • Pat the chicken dry with kitchen paper and season with salt and pepper
  • Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (Celsius)
  • In a large oven proof dish heat the oil and butter together.  Over quite a high heat brown the chicken thighs on both sides (you might need to do this in a couple of batches, because if you crowd the pan the chicken won’t brown and you don’t want to lose the flavor)
  • When all the chicken has been browned add the wine and rosemary to the pan and scrape the bottom to release the yummy brown bits
  • Add the garlic cloves to the pan and stir well, before covering the dish with a lid (if your dish doesn’t have a lid, cover tightly with tin foil
  • Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes (maybe a little longer if the chicken thighs are large, just check they are cooked through)
  • Serve with salad and crusty bread, squeeze the garlic out of it’s papery cover onto the bread and spread with a knife, you can thank me later

Croque Monsieur Bake

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Stop throwing away stale bread and use it for this yummy unctuous comforting bake.  You can make most of it the night before and impress everyone with a super chic breakfast, but it’s great at any time of the day.  This is best if you can start it the night before but if not allow the bread to soak up the egg mixture for at least an hour or two

If you’re being totally authentic you should use Gruyere cheese, but I didn’t have this so I used cheddar and it was yummy too.

Serves 4

Ingredients

8 Slices of stale white bread

175 Grams Cheese (save about a third of the cheese to sprinkle on top before you put the bake in the oven)

4 Slices of ham

6 Eggs

350mil Milk

2 Tbsp Soft butter

2 Tbsp Dijon mustard

For the bechamel sauce

40 Grams Butter

20 Grams Plain Flour

4000 mil Milk

Salt and pepper

Method

  • Butter 4 slices of bread, and spread the other 4 slices with mustard
  • Thinly slice two thirds of the cheese, and with ham make 4 cheese and ham sandwiches
  • Cut each sandwich into 4 triangles.  Lightly grease an oven proof dish and arrange the sandwiches in the dish.
  • Whisk the eggs and milk together with a pinch of salt and pepper and pour over the sandwiches making sure they are all coated
  • Cover the dish with cling film and allow to sit overnight in the fridge (or for at least an hour or two)
  • Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (Celsius)
  • Make a bechamel sauce, melting butter in a sauce pan before stirring in flour to make a roux type paste and then gradually stir in the milk and heat until the sauce thickens and doesn’t taste floury anymore, season with salt and pepper
  • Grate the remaining cheese, and remove the oven proof dish from the fridge.  Top the sandwiches with the bechamel sauce and sprinkle with cheese
  • Bake for 30-40 minutes until deeply brown and bubbly.
  • Allow to sit for 10 minutes before serving

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread.

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I went away overnight and within 24 hours a bunch of bananas had turned manky and over ripe.

Never one to waste food, the recipe perfect for bananas that are past their best called to me.  I decided to add in some chocolate just to make it even yummier, but if you’re a psychopath and don’t like chocolate you can leave it out.

140 Grams Butter (soft/room temperature)

140 Grams Sugar

140 Grams Self raising flour

1 Tsp Baking powder

1 Tsp Vanilla extract

2 Eggs

3 Bananas (mashed)

100 Grams Chocolate (you can use chocolate chips, but i just cut up a milk chocolate bar)

Msthod

  • Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius qnd line a 2lb loaf tin wirh baking parchment
  • Using an electric whisk or stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together
  • Add the vanilla, eggs and bananas to the butter and sugar and mix well
  • Whisk in the flour, a third a a time until fully combined
  • Stir in the chocolate until its evenly distributed through out the batter
  • Pour the batter into the loaf tin, making sure the mix gets right into the corners
  • Bake for 45-50 minutes, you’ll know the banana bread is ready when you stick a cocktail stick into the middle of tbe loaf and it comes out clean.  Allow to coo in the tin foe 15 minutes before try to cut (best left to cool completely, but it smells so good you might not be able to help yourself)