Origins of Char Kway Teow (Information)

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                                            credits image from: http://digitalmediad.blogspot.com/

Char kway teow is made by wok-frying rice noodles with dark soy sauce together with other ingredients such as vegetables, bean sprouts, eggs, deep-fried lard, and cockles. this dish is well known for its flavour but was not recommended for daily consumption due to high cholesterol. Char Kway Teow Despite it being unhealthy, you can ask for it to be less sweet or oily or even add more greens into it to make it not-so-unhealthy.

Satay Sate

Satays are commonly found around hawker centers and the meat used are mutton, chicken, pork and beef. However, there are also a few more different types of Satay to choose from. Satay is usually accompanied by cuts of onion, cucumber, Ketupat(rice cakes) and peanut dip(the sauce for satay). The making of Satay is whereby the meat is being skewered onto wooden sticks and then being barbequed over charcoal fire, while constantly brushed with oil. Satays are usually ordered as a side dish as a bonus point for yourself after a meal.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satay#Origins
              http://www.squidoo.com/satay
              http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_888_2005-01-10.html

LAKSA

Laksa is a popular spicy noodle soup which may include bean sprouts, fishcakes and cockles. Laksa has a very unique taste to it with "the key ingredient Laksa leaf, locally known as the daun kesom (Polygonum Hydropiper) or the pepper plant or water pepper." The noodles that are usually found when eating Laksa are vermicelly and egg noodles.  Katong Laksa originated from Joo Chiat area. The hawker was nicknamed 'Jangok" by the peranakan, because he had a few strands of hair at his chin. He was an itinerant hawker and lived in Tembling Road/Joo Chiat Terrace. Later he moved his business into the eating house at East Coast Road/Ceylon Road. Because the Katong people loved his laksa, it has come to be known as the Katong laksa throughout the world in Hong Kong and New York.

There are a variety of Laksa.

Click it for a larger view.

We have did a mind map according to what we have found out. There's a huge variety of laksa as different cultures and countries have altered the recipe to suit their own taste.

Here's a few links you can find out more about Laksa.

• AsiaCuisine.com: Discovering Laksa: Penang Laksa, Nonya Laksa and Singapore Laksa
• Laksa recipe from Singapore Tourism Board
• Laksa recipe from Singapore's Health Promotion Board
• Article on Sarawak Laksa in Kuala Lumpur

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laksa
              http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_884_2004-12-27.html
          http://www.squidoo.com/laksa

Nasi Lemak Facts!

                                         Image Source: http://diet-karene500.blogspot.com/2010/08/nasi-lemak-ori.html

Nasi lemak is a dish that can be commonly found around the hawker centers, food courts, and coffee shops of Singapore. This food comes as a platter of food wrapped in banana leaf, with cucumber slices, small dried anchovies, roasted peanuts, hard boiled egg, and sambal chilli. This food is usually taken as breakfast due to its quantity and ingredients to give you a kick start for the day ahead.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasi_lemak

HOW DID CHICKEN RICE CAME ABOUT

History

The only chicken rice found in Hainan in China, an island off the southern coast of China, is made with the Wengcheng chicken, a bony fowl with very little flesh served with rice thick with oil and accompanied by ground green chilli dip. Hainanese chefs also use pork and chicken bone stock unlike their Singaporean counterparts who avoid the pork base in their chicken rice. Thus the Hainanese Chicken Rice dish probably evolved through the Hainanese immigrants in the region and gained from local influences such as the Cantonese. The Cantonese added lime to the chilli sauce and ensured their chickens were tender and young. The Hainanese Chicken Rice dish is said to have taken root in areas like Middle Road, Purvis Street and Koek Road more than 60 years ago.

source: http://infopedia.nl.sg

INFORMATION THAT ARE USEFUL IF YOU VISIT SINGAPORE.

To find out more about Singapore, do visit this website.
http://www.yoursingapore.com/

To find out more about Singapore signature food, you are welcome to visit this link below.
http://www.yoursingapore.com/content/traveller/en/browse/dining/cuisines-of-singapore.html

This site generally is filled with information of Singapore such as the accommodation, food, places of interests, nightlife, entertainment, shopping, nature, arts and culture and also having fun with family. This site also allows you to plan and organize your trip around Singapore. Transportation isn't a problem as there are buses, MRT (Mass Rapid Transist) and also taxis to get you around this little red dot.

MRT MAP

Double-click for a larger view.
Credits: http://www.smrt.com.sg/trains/network_map.asp

Taxi

These two taxis are the common ones, around Singapore. You can either flag a taxi, wait at a nearby taxi-stand or call their hotline number to book a cab.

For more information about the taxis around Singapore, visit this website below.
http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/singapore/transportation_in_singapore/196/the_different_taxis__cabs_in_singapore.php


Places of interests: Universal Studios, Sentosa, Singapore Zoo, Singapore Flyer, Underwater World and etc.
Nature: Singapore Botanic Gardens, Hort Park, Pulau Ubin, Chek Jawa, The Southern Ridges and etc.
Nightlife & Entertainment: Zouk, Zirca, Boat Quay, Haji Lane, Clarke Quay, Marina Bay Sands and etc.
Arts & Culture: Victoria Theatre, National Museum Of Singapore, Chinatown, The Arts House and etc.
Dining & Food: Makansutra, Lau Pa Sat, Newton Food Centre, East Coast Lagoon, Maxwell Food Centre and etc.
Shopping Paradise: Paragon, ION, Wisma Atria, Marina Bay Sands, Takashimaya, Orchard Central and etc.
Accommodation: Wanderlust, Shangri La Hotel Singapore, The Fullerton Hotel Singapore, Grand Hyatt Singapore and etc.

INFORMATION GATHERING

On the 6th November 2010, we decided to make a trip down to the National Museum and find out more about the history of the food we had eaten. We took the train down to Dhoby Ghaut and walked to the museum. Surprisingly, we managed to enter the museum with complimentary tickets as we are still students. We toured around the museum and there's an exhibition going on , which is the 'A Day in Pompeii' exhibition.

credits: The 'A Day in Pompeii' exhibition

However, we didn't managed to have enough time to visit the exhibition. We went to the "History of olden days' food" section and find out more about the foods which are related to our project. We manged to find quite alot about the history of the food. We also managed to see videos of how the food is being made. Examples of the food we managed to find are: Satay, Laksa, Nasi Lemak and Roti Prata etc.

Do check back our blog for more photographs related to this fun museum trip.

With loves, xx

CARROT CAKE

These are the pictures of the Carrot Cake, with the "black" one on the right.

This is the "black" Carrot Cake. Doesn't it looked appetizing!??

This is the "White" Carrot Cake.

This dish is called the "Carrot Cake". It is yet another common food around Singapore in which serves as the side dish. You can find 2 type of carrot cake, the "black" one, as well as the "white" one. The difference is that when they cook the "black" carrot cake, they add soy sauce to it and therefore it giving it a darker colour. If you like it spicy, you can also request the dish to be cooked spicy.
This dish will complete and end your meal with a sense of satisfaction and leave you craving  for more. Whats more, it's price is affordable at only $2++ and you do not have to travel a long distance in Singapore just to find this dish.
So if you have a thing for food, do not hesitate to try this dish out!

We give this dish an overall rating of: 3/5 stars.

CHAR KWAY TEOW

We tried this dish, which is called the "Char Kway Teow". This dish is another MUST TRY if you're new to Singapore and have a thing for food. Char Kway Teow is also one of the many famous and unique
food of Singapore in which the local residents enjoy having as one of their dishes during a meal.
People would choose to have this dish for lunch or dinner as it serves perfectly as a small meal to suppress their cravings for food.
The price of this dish ranges from $3 and onwards and can be found around the common eateries in Singapore. Cockles would be included in this dish and if you do not like cockles you might want to request for no cockles.

Overall, we give this dish a rating of 4/5 stars as it is one of our personal favourite!!.

MALAY CHICKEN RICE FOR YOU ?

We tried the nasi ayam at Maxwell Food Centre. The price is a little expensive, which is $4.50 per plate. However, it tasted really good and we think it is worth the money. The crispy chicken crumbs added more spice and flavour to the already appetizing nasi ayam. The chicken was tender and the soup was hot and yummy. The chilli was not too spicy and everything was just enough to balance the overall flavours.

We decided to give it a 7/10 stars. 

NASI GORENG! INDIAN STYLE!

We couldn't help but decided to get the Indian Style Nasi Goreng from Maxwell Food Centre. It costs $3.50 for a plate of Nasi Goreng with an egg. The price is quite acceptable for a plate of Nasi Goreng. There wasn't really much of a crowd in the area as we went there after lunch hour. The Nasi Goreng tasted quite nice even though the presentation wasn't quite appetizing. We would give it a rating of 6/10 for the overall.

TIME FOR CHICKEN RICE

We tasted the chicken rice at maxwell food centre. It costs $3 for a plate of roasted chicken rice with soup included. The price was acceptable, as most places sell a plate chicken rice around the same price. The queue at the stall was not too bad due to that it was not peak hour. the stall owner was seen happily chatting with some of the customers, i suppose this is his way of retaining customers. The chicken rice was pretty nice and so was the soup. The chilli wasn't that spicy, which might be suitable for Caucasian tourists if they can't take spicy food. We are busy ordering other foods and busy taking photographs of the food and when we finally started tasting the food, the food had already turned cold and caused the rice to turn hard. However, after adding the soup to the rice, it tasted much better. We even asked for an extra bowl of rice which costs an additional 50 cent to try while its still warm.
We would rate this chicken rice 6/10 stars :)

Maxwell Food Centre

    TISH was taking the pictures, hence she does not appear in the photos

S.T.A.R.D.Y visited Maxwell Food Center on the 6th November 2010. Our main purpose there was to try out some of the Uniquely Singapore Food. Located at the heart of chinatown near popular landmarks such as Mariamman Temple and Chinatown eating street, it was easy to spot as it was near the Chinatown MRT station as well. We each tried a different food which is unique in Singapore and the food centre was kept clean and well maintained. The crowd we expected wasnt there due to the time we went there. With this being said we were offered more choices and ample time to select the type of food we wanted to taste. In the upcoming posts you will hear from each of us about the food we tasted and the background of it.

STARDY

Tienyin, Danial, Satish, Amirah, YongXiang and Raysha.

We are a group of students from College Central ITE (Bishan), pursuing in the course, Higher Nitec in Business Studies (Event Management). We are currently in the first year of this course and we are doing this project for our Life Skills for Personal Development (LPD). We decided to choose Singapore Local Delights as our project and thus, we came up with this blog.

We hope any visitors to this blog, would leave comments for us; be it good or bad comments.

& sorry if our blog is not up to standard as we are not really good in HTML codes.

Anyway, do remember to keep coming back! ^^