Alcohol Ban in Little India ......... Job Done ......

[JR8]

Nothing like a UK Indian curry or UK Chinese beef in black bean sauce for the taste of home

Quite. I find the offerings available from Marks & Spencer to be the most authentic of all

Which reminds me of a TV interview from the race-pits with F1s boss Bernie Ecclestone, before the first race started some years back.

Interviewer: And are you enjoying your time here in SG?
BE: Having a great time, lovely weather, great food.
Int: And what food have you enjoyed?
BE: ... errr, well, Singapore Noodles.

But 'Singapore Noodles' doesn't exist here, just like Chicken Tikka Masala (once hailed by a tabloid paper as 'Britain's New National Dish' replacing fish and chips!) doesn't exist in India. These are Britishified dishes with a take from those respective cuisines.

p.s. I have been to mainland China (ignoring HK for the time being where I went when it was British). But I went to Guangzhou, and it would have been c'90?. Maybe it's changed, but I recall the food being shockingly bad, verging on inedible (and I'm far from a fussy eater!). So when I imagine 'Chinese food' I think of HK where I had some extremely good meals.

My early experience in China what with the food and the apparent demeanour of many of the locals has unfortunately rather put me off ever returning ... <shame> ...



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Edit: Sorry I only see now that this topic has veered quite badly ...

[x9200]

The other Russian Restaurant i know, and the only one I been to, is Shashlicks, in Far East, not sure if they are operating still ..

This means you haven't been to Russian restaurant here yet. Shashlyk's menu has only Russian names for the food. All the food there was atrociously "customized" to local taste and has nothing to do with anything Russian.

http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/ ... estaurant/
we tried the traditional Borsch soup which came with lots of tomatoes and chunks of mutton.

Tomatoes? Mutton? Sounds like some Indian borsch to me.

[Barnsley]

Just like the Chinese food we get in India Its only after coming here, I realized, Chinese food served in Indian restaurants is a completely Indianized version.

Matter of fact, the Chinese dishes here are a bit modified, vs those you find in HK, for a start .. no, me never been to China Mainland Yet !!!

a British Indian restaurant somewhere around Marina Bay Financial Center, I really should go looking for it.

If you meant "Anglo Indian, opposite SGX Center, well, it was pretty much North Indian Fare, and didn't see anything out of the ordinary ..

North Indian base .... is the traditional UK Indian fayre

[Sergei82]

The other Russian Restaurant i know, and the only one I been to, is Shashlicks, in Far East, not sure if they are operating still ..

This means you haven't been to Russian restaurant here yet. Shashlyk's menu has only Russian names for the food. All the food there was atrociously "customized" to local taste and has nothing to do with anything Russian.

http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/ ... estaurant/
we tried the traditional Borsch soup which came with lots of tomatoes and chunks of mutton.

Tomatoes? Mutton? Sounds like some Indian borsch to me.

I myself cook the best borscht in Singapore! (trying to stay humble and somewhat limit the geography)
Btw, there is normal borscht in Zeffir. Probably, somebody confused something not knowing what it is. A Russian lady (I think, born in Uzbekistan) is cooking it. Unlike Shashlyk where all cooks are Chinese.

[JR8]

Tomatoes? Mutton? Sounds like some Indian borsch to me.

I was sort of thinking it sounded like a local interpretation too.

I myself cook the best borscht in Singapore! (trying to stay humble and somewhat limit the geography)

Btw, there is normal borscht in Zeffir. Probably, somebody confused something not knowing what it is. A Russian lady (I think, born in Uzbekistan) is cooking it. Unlike Shashlyk where all cooks are Chinese.

I think I've only had it once, it was served cold and was made with beetroot., As I recall it stained my tongue purple for a couple of days! It was good though!

Zeffir sounds good. I'll have to go and check it out sometime.


p.s. Note: a recent reviewer on Hungrygowhere notes that the restaurant has moved from Dunlop Street to 43 Temple Street in Chinatown. Don't know if that's correct. HGW (itself) still lists it with the Dunlop St address.

... http://www.zeffir.me/

Yes, it's moved!

[Sergei82]

Borscht must be eaten hot!
And if beetroot is cooked, it will never stain your tongue.

I think, JR8 ate one of those borscht-mutants localized to the area it was served…

[x9200]

Yep. And we eat it with pierogi stuffed with mushrooms or minced meat. Or sometimes with hard boiled eggs (quartered)
One week more there will be a borscht time.

[zzm9980]

Yep. And we eat it with pierogi stuffed with mushrooms or minced meat. Or sometimes with hard boiled eggs (quartered)
One week more there will be a borscht time.

Yum, pierogi... Can't wait until I can get some good ones when I visit Chicago in the spring.

[JR8]

Yum, pierogi... Can't wait until I can get some good ones when I visit Chicago in the spring.

Agreed...
I don't think I'd tried them before spending some time in NYC, I think the place we had them was in Brooklyn Heights...

In a similar vein, kosher deli's, I had never experienced until I started to visit NYC. One place we used to go and eat was here www.sargesdeli.com (have a glance at THAT menu!).

Knish's were new to me, which IIRC are quite like pierogi. First time we visited I over ordered not realising how 'impactful' the food was. Great stuff but I could hardly keep awake afterwards (at lunchtime)

[zzm9980]

Yum, pierogi... Can't wait until I can get some good ones when I visit Chicago in the spring.

Agreed...
I don't think I'd tried them before spending some time in NYC, I think the place we had them was in Brooklyn Heights...

Teresa's on Montague? I've been there every time I've visited NYC, with Polish friends, and all lived it. Pierogi and Potato Pancakes, covered in Apple Sauce.

[JR8]

Teresa's on Montague? I've been there every time I've visited NYC, with Polish friends, and all lived it. Pierogi and Potato Pancakes, covered in Apple Sauce.

Yes, that looks familiar, and it was on a pretty quiet street with a restaurant-strip like that going back down to the river. Looks pretty smart from the street, but indoors (I think we went in winter) it's pretty workaday. Great food none the less!

I think on that jaunt, we took the subway to somewhere in mid-Brooklyn, wandered around at length exploring, lazy lunch at Teresa's, down the street to the river and up to the bridge. Almost under the Brooklyn side of the bridge (Water Street?) just before it starts spanning the river is an old-style ice-cream parlour... rather nice!
Ah here we go ... http://www.brooklynicecreamfactory.com/

[zzm9980]

Yes, that's probably the same place then. The river and bridge is about 1km in one direction, and you have the promenade maybe .5km another direction. Actually the first time I ate there was 9/10/01, and went to the Promenade after for photos of the skyline. Luckily(?) I flew back Chicago that day.

[JR8]

Yes the views over to Manhattan from the Brooklyn promenade are spectacular. You feel so removed from 'New York' (as a tourist might term it). It's like finally having a little distance, that allows to you to study and admire the architectural beehive that Manhattan is [not being 'so close to the trees, that you cannot see the woods']. Also walking back over the bridge into Manhattan is nice. You have the hubbub of pedestrian activity and people exercising etc on the pedestrian deck, and the traffic in-view rumbling below.

Ah, I've such fond memories of NYC, as does my wife; without a doubt we'd return if offered another posting there.

A memento of NY, that I've had on the wall for many years now ...


Brooklyn Bridge - Georgia O'Keefe (c1935?)

[Sergei82]

Going for pierogi to Chicago sounds quite surprising to me.

In any case, Zeffir has good Russian cuisine (I'd better say Eastern European, because it has a lot in common with Ukrainian and Polish cuisine too) - pierogi is (were?) also there, Rasputin at Clarke Quay has very good borscht, there are some other Russian restaurunts.
If somebody wants, I can ask Russian community here if they know any interesting place to eat Russian food here (I myself mostly cook at home). I think, somewhere at Robertson Quay there was a restaurant with Russian food on menu and good borscht (I've been there 2.5 years back, not sure if they still exist).
Also there are a few Russian housewives in Singapore who can cook what you order for a small fee - pretty good, some of my friends use this "method".

So what? If there is next Egles gathering (I think, I missed a couple ), I should bring a bowl of borscht?

Sorry for outrageous off-topic...

[zzm9980]

Going for pierogi to Chicago sounds quite surprising to me.

Chicago is the second largest polish city in the world, after Warsaw I don't know if that's factually true, but all of the Polish in Chicago said so. And it seemed Chicago had more Polish than Singapore has PRC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poles_in_Chicago