Le Wai Tian Seafood

Deep-fried belly pork

The one thing I truly treasure about the food culture in Singapore is its common-place tze char stall.

There's just something that's so appealing about dining al fresco, facing the humid weather headon, sweating it out with your fellow dining partners. You tuck in unabashed, using your fingers earnestly trying to get the most out of that chicken wing or crab. Best yet - the prices are much cheaper than those in posh air-conditioned restaurants.

At tze char stalls, the food speaks for itself. There ain't no ambience to compensate for taste so the chefs had better get their food right, or face a very grouchy customer.

And speaking of tze char, I had the pleasure of tucking into one of the best tze char food I've tasted. Located at Changi Road, Le Wai Tian Seafood is a nondescript outfit tucked in a plain looking coffeeshop. Had the Makansutra Forum not organise a makan session there, I wouldn't have discovered this delicious gem. Boy am I glad I went for the dinner.

I had lots of fun and laughs to go along with the satisfying dinner. Most people at the table I sat were familiar faces like The Skinny Epicurean, The Hungry Cow, and Superfine Feline. I really enjoyed myself that night. Of course the scrumptious food played a big part too! Check out the photos:


Fish maw crab meat soup



Prawn paste chicken


Curry Fish head

Ooo I love the way this place does it. It's not overtly curry-like in flavour. Very aromatic and tasty, the gravy is thick and not very spicy. There's dried shrimps too. Great to drown your rice in.



Deep-fried pig trotters in herbal sauce

Was surprised that I actually enjoyed this. I seldom eat pig trotters and I don't have a very good impression of them, don't ask me why. But this one, mmmm the meat was tender and tasty - went well with the herbal sauce.


Black pepper crab

I think this was the highlight. The crabs were big and full of flesh. Totally loved the sauce and I stole some crab roe.


Sambal vegetable (i forgot which veg! it's related to dou miao i heard)


Dark Hokkien Mee

A great noodle dish. I think it's cooked over a charcoal stove. It could be true, seeing how it really tastes a bit smoky. I like!


Deep-fried ice cream

Seemed like they wrapped the ice cream with bread before frying. I like that it didn't feel oily. Perhaps I should try making some myself.


Horfun

This horfun, together with the following two fried rice, we ordered a la carte. Well our table just has a bigger appetite I guess!


Yangzhou Fried Rice


Salted fish fried rice

Their fried rice is really good. I wouldn't mind going back just for the fried rice. The Yangzhou one is good. The hor fun is pretty normal though.

Would definitely bring my family there some time. Le Wai Tian is my current favourite tze char place now :)

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Le Wai Tian Seafood
324T Changi Road
(it's between Kembangan & Eunos station, about 10-15 minutes walk from Kembangan)

Black Bean Sauce Noodles

For the past weeks, I have been nursing this craving of mine. Before I delve into details of the dish, maybe I'll let you in on the root of this 'obsession'. You see, I'm a big fan of Korean Dramas; at least only the good ones. I can still count with my ten fingers, the number of K-dramas I've watched. I pick and choose and go by recommendations. My utmost favourite is still the food-themed My Lovely Samsoon. However, I recently watched a new Korean drama which I like just as much as My Lovely Samsoon. It's very much a romance comedy and it's called Fantasy Couple. It helps that the lead actor Oh Ji Ho is easy on the eye. So most of the time, it was just me drooling over the eye candy.... and something else in the drama - jja jang-myun.

Jja jang-Myun is simply black bean sauce noodles. The female lead loves this noodles and has it almost everyday. So you can imagine what I'd be doing when she slurps so enthusiastically in every episode. I find myself craving for the noodles she's having. Black though it might be, it still looked very appetising to me. From then on, it became my mission to find out where it's sold here in Singapore. But it wasn't an easy task - this noodles is actually a Chinese dish but the Koreans loved it so much that they adopted it and started selling it at Korean restaurants. I couldn't wait to try it so I thought I'd just make it myself. At first, I made it by instinct - mixed miso paste with soya sauce, mirin and the works. It was delicious no doubt, but I can't help thinking if the authentic one tasted like this.

So then I began searching for Black Bean Paste. I couldn't find it in normal supermarkets - they only had spicy black bean sauce or black bean sauce with garlic, which was different. And so you can imagine how I yelped when I was at Square 2 at Novena this week and chanced upon a Korean Supermarket. Before you could say jja jang-myun, I was already in the shop, checking out the aisles, hoping to find my black bean paste and guess what? There it was, in all its brown tub glory, shining and calling out to me. hahaha... I grabbed it excitedly and couldn't stop smiling. I loved the shop; wanted to buy almost everything!

Known as Cha Jang Mian in Chinese cuisine, these noodles are a rarity here. Thank God I love to cook. I mean it's times like these that I'm grateful for my enthusiasium for food. I don't think I would have bothered trying to learn how to cook it if I was a lazy punk who eats out all the time. So anyway, I found a recipe off the net and decided to try it. I went with the Chinese version. I don't know how much it differs from the Korean one, but I heard that it's actually the same so there.



I tweaked the recipe a bit because I didn't have all the ingredients at home save for the paste, garlic, ginger etc. I used chicken instead of pork and bean sprouts instead of zucchini. Oh, and I used Capellini instead of Chinese noodles. I think it would taste better if it was la mian (hand pulled noodles) I was using.

How did my virgin attempt at these black noodles go? Pretty well I must say. I was pleased with it. It was delicious and full of flavour. Sis commented that it actually tastes a wee bit like buah keluak (indonesian black nut). Maybe it did, but it was certainly tasty. The paste itself looked like buah keluak flesh actually! It was really black. But it's okay, I like black foods - come on, yes, at first the colour might be off-putting but at the end of the day, why care so much when it tastes so good? That's why me thinks squid ink pasta rocks too!



Ta-dah... Okay this noodle dish is rather easy. I'm just happy that I have a tub of Korean black bean paste sitting in my fridge because I know that I can cook some jja jang-myun anytime I crave for it!

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Cha Jang Mein (Noodles with Black Bean Sauce)

Amount Measure Ingredient
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1/4 pound pork
1/4 pound raw shrimp -- optional
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine
1 tablespoon chopped ginger
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
3 medium onions -- chopped
2 medium zucchini -- chopped
3/4 cup oyster, shiitake, or straw mushrooms -- chopped
1 cup cha jang (black bean paste, not sauce!)*
oil or shortening
1 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 tablespoon water
fresh chinese noodles -- cooked

*Look for this at a Chinese or a Korean Market. No substitutes!

Method
1. Cut the pork into small pieces. Mariate in soy sauce, rice wine, ginger,
and garlic. Set aside. If using shrimp, shell, devein and salt lightly. Set aside.
2. In a wok, over high heat, stir fry the onion and zucchini. Depending on
the size of the wok, you might have to do it in batches. Remove and set aside.
3. Heat the shortening or oil in the wok. The amount varies, depending upon
the amount of the black bean paste, but don't be too stingy with the oil.
Dump the paste in the wok, stirring quickly to avoid burning. Stir for
approximately 2 -3 minutes.
4. Add the pork and stir fry till it is cooked, approximately 1 - 2 minutes.

Add the vegetables and mix.
5. Add the chicken broth. Bringt to a boil.
6. Add the shrimp, if using, and mix.
7. Mix the corn starch and water. Add it to the wok and stir til thickened
and bubbly..
8. Serve immediately over cooked noodles.

Oodles of Noodles

Sometimes, when given a choice between rice and noodles, I tend to get a tad fickle and take a pretty long time to decide.

But then there are days that I'm just craving for these long luscious slurps of smoothness. I'm a big pasta fan but when I'm not eating Italian, I like to have my noodles with bite. I used to really like noodles alot in the past but now, I'm pretty impartial about it.

Occasionally, if I hear that a certain noodle dish is good, I'd try it and then enjoy it.

Right now, there are two noodle places that I want to rave about. One's a spicy one, and one's covered in thick brown gravy.

Okay, first off, let me say that my tolerance for spicy food is pretty high so when Dot and I decided to lunch at Beppu Ramen last week, I was excited. I've heard so much about this ramen place - that you can choose your prefered level of spiciness. I nearly ordered 3. But Dot has eaten here and told me that number 2 is already pretty spicy. I had to trust her, and I'm so glad I did!

My ramen came, and lo and behold, it WAS spicy. Hmmm wasn't mind-blowing spicy, but since it was a really hot day, it was pretty much enough for me. I had the Oniyama Jigok (the one with the fried chicken). I like the texture of the ramen and the soup - I think it was made with miso. Whatever it is, I liked it, even though I was already sniffing halfway through. It makes me wonder how the number 8 would taste like!

Anyway, if you cannot take even the slightest hint of spice, then maybe this would interest you: Lor Mee



I seldom eat Lor Mee because I usually like my noodles light and easy on the tummy but man, when I'm at Golden Mile Food Centre (a.k.a. Beach Road Army Market), I have to get this.

I'm going to say this only once: this is by far the best Lor Mee I've ever eaten! It comes with fried lotus root pieces and fried wanton. There's just so much good stuff in this bowl! Love the generous portion and the meat is so tender. The sauce is just nice - not too thick. I like my Lor Mee with lots of vinegar! haha.. Gosh, this is one superb noodle that rocks my socks. :) Go try it!

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Tong Ji Mian Shi
#01-100
Golden Mile Food Centre
505 Beach Road
Open: 6:30am to 9pm
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Beppu Menkan Japanese Noodle Restaurant
#01-01 Far East Square,
Tel: 6438-0328
Open: Weekdays 11.30am to 3pm and 6 to 10pm,
Saturdays noon to 10.30pm and Sundays noon to 9pm),