Singapore - Chef's Delight

Well here comes a spicy blog update on my trip to Singapore. I was fortunate to be accepted on a TAFE funded trip for 8 days on a culinary adventure to see, eat, smell and cook some of the best Singapore has to offer. We joined up with our hosts at Temasek Polytechnic which is a much bigger version of our TAFE college and we stayed on campus in student accommodation. It was a huge week, chock-a-block full of activities, sightseeing and fun from morning to midnight. The weather was hot, really bloody hot and sticky humid. It was a nice break from the Canberra winter but it was tough to adjust. There were 10 students (8 culinary chefs and 2 hospitality) and 2 teachers.

We flew good ol’ Qantas to Singapore and I watched the funny movie ‘Crazy Rich Asians’. It’s based in Singapore and I thought it would give me a good warm up of things to come. The movie starts with the famous Marina Bay Sands resort – the three buildings with a surfboard on top. This landmark is quite captivating and I was excited to see it in the flesh. We arrived in Singapore late at night and it was close to midnight by the time we settled into our accommodation. We were exhausted from the long day and the heat hit us hard as soon as we stepped out of the airport. Our first day was Friday and we were introduced to our ‘buddies’ – students selected to be our buddy for our visit. My buddy, and all the young buddies, were simply brilliant. They were friendly, helpful and very eager to share everything about their food, culture and studies with us. They were like our personal tour guides for the week and I am very grateful for all they did with and for us. I learnt so much from them and I hope I can return the hospitality next year when they (hopefully) will visit us in Canberra for their culinary tour. Rather than take you on a day by day trip report, I’ll summarise the key activities.

 

We attended two food expo’s – one on the first day and another on our last day. There were food and beverage vendors from all over the world including Australian wine and truffle vendors. It was fascinating to see different foods, ingredients and flavours and of course, sampling lots of food on offer. I enjoyed the various juices and iced teas and one vendor offered plant based rice ice cream from which I tried the infamous Durian fruit ice cream. Hmmm holy smelly onion sock feet Batman, it was not appealing and this was only a diluted version in an ice cream – check me licking the spoon!!  The Durian fruit is popular across Asia and has a seriously offensive smell and taste to match – so bad that it is banned in being cut open in many confined public places. There was even a vendor from Finland with their award winning dark chocolate with salted fish and another with crickets in it!!! The Chillax food expo on our last day was exciting and I managed to buy several bottled pastes and some black sesame seed oil. We mainly use white seeds in Aust so I thought black seeds would be interesting for the work crew. The Chillax had a bake-off competition so there were some serious cakes and breads being made and displayed. 

 

We also visited quite a few food markets for lunch and dinner. The ‘hawker’ markets are ‘THE’ place to eat some of the best local food dishes and for a very inexpensive cost. Most meals will cost less than $5. The smells were amazing and there was every kind of meat and seafood on offer. Now, when I say every kind of meat, I mean everything. There was stingray, goat, mutton, insects, liver, snails, tails, hoofs, tongues and intestines….it was quite confronting to see but this is Asia afterall. Our buddies were fabulous at explaining all the different foods and would buy all the food for our lunch or dinner so that we could try all the best dishes on offer. I can’t recall all the names but there were curries, fish soups and balls, noodles, broths, rice, everything coconut and lots of bbq, fried and poached delights. The chicken and rice is famous and I had several of these on my trip – some better than others. I’m not a spicy eater but I tried to sample most of the dishes. We also visited on of the ‘wet’ markets which was a vegetable, meat and seafood market. This was like no other market I’ve ever seen. It was full of the traditional ingredients – spices, vegetables, fruit, noodles, rice, meats and every kind of seafood possible. I just wandered around in awe of all the things I’d never seen before. 

 

 

Kausmo

Possibly the highlight of the trip was eating at some fine dining restaurants. The first was Kausmo which is a small 16-seater restaurant owned by 2 young ladies, both former students from the Temasek college we were visiting. They were a chef and business manager and Kausmo provides fine dining made from products that are overstocked, discoloured, odd shaped and not wanted by restaurants. The food is perfectly good to eat and the chef uses this food to produce high quality dishes – it was simply amazing. We enjoyed a tasting menu and it was a inspiring experience for me. They have a great concept and it’s worth googling them to better understand their vision. They are on instagram and facebook so check them out if you are a foodie. I found the two ladies extremely inspiring and am now following them on Facebook. 

 

 

 

 The second highlight was dining at a Michelin Star restaurant – the very first for me. The ‘wow’ was used about 235 times throughout the night as the dishes were tasted by us. Labyrinth is where Chef LG Han treated us to a fairly big tasting menu of all kinds of delights with flavours and textures. I have never enjoyed such food and this is truly a higher level of food creation than I could ever imagine. I will not forget this experience. 

We also went to a smaller café/restaurant called Pasta Supremo where the owner and chef shared valuable knowledge on his vision and business success. This restaurant was an Italian fusion style where he fused pasta with Singaporean favourites like Chicken Rice Pasta. It was a clever concept and he has 5 food outlets which are all successful. Definitely listened to all his advice!! 

 

 

Singapore comprises several cultures – Malay, Indian, Chinese and Indonesian. We were able to attend the Little India food festival which again provided a raft of curries, breads, sweets and spices. I was drawn to a roti prata bread vendor who sold sweet, curry and egg with their pratas. I asked about the two curries – one mutton, one chicken. I asked if it was spicy. She said Nooooo and offered me a spoon to taste. Shit, the mutton had a kick and she looked at me shocked and the chicken one made me cough and squint my eyes. She said ‘Where you from?’. Inner voice said ‘clearly not bloody here, look at my little white’y face’ but outside voice said Australia and she just laughed again. It was bloody hot. I ended up getting the lesser burning mutton and ate most of it until my mouth caught fire. The rest of the students were sharing their dishes and it was great to see so much food being enjoyed and also the friendships that were being formed over wonderful food. The photo shows a man 'stretching' Indian masala chai tea. Stretching aerates the milk and adds some froth. Interesting taste, an acquired taste though.

Now, two things are famous in Sinapore – Raffles and the Singapore Sling cocktail and the Singapore Chilli Crab – I think that’s three things? On our one free day, a few of us met in the afternoon at Raffles for a Singapore Sling. Raffles is under renovation, opening soon, but the Long Bar was open. We couldn’t get in so sat in the courtyard bar area downstairs – sadly, they don’t serve the slings down there. Oh well, plenty of other refreshments were had instead. After Raffles, we headed to Momma Kong’s to check out the Chilli Crab. Now I knew it would be too hot for me so I ordered a nice grilled crab, steamed buns (Manitou) and crab rice instead. It was expensive but yummy. One lady ordered the Chilli Crab so I did soak up some chilli from her dish which was lovely – in small doses. She spent a good hour cracking and sucking every shred of that crab – it was great to see. To finish the night, we headed to the Clarke Quay area for a drink and finally have Singapore Sling. Yeah, pretty nice actually, quite refreshing and a nice way to view the Singapore lights on the river. 

 

 

And of course, the thing I looked forward to the most was 3 days of cooking in the kitchen with the Singaporean students. We were divided across several different kitchens – baking, production (for the college public café), the college public restaurant (called Top Table) and Asian kitchen. I spent my time in the Top Table restaurant kitchen which provided service at lunchtime. It was the first time the students were in this kitchen so we were all on common ground. The course the Temasek students do is combined culinary and hospitality - ours is split into two courses. So they take about 3 years to finish and their course is quite strict – the undergo uniform and hygiene (hair, nails, hands) inspection every day and punctuality is critical. We Aussies are so relaxed and we tried not to disrupt them (too much). I enjoyed working alongside the other students – they essentially do things the same but some things are different. I felt like I was at the same stage as them so my skills were on par. Service is always stressful and although it is a learning environment, we were serving to the public and still had to ensure the food was cooked well and plated properly. There were quite a few lessons being learned by everyone but this was the place to learn. The chef was fantastic and he offered heaps of good tips and advice and I liked his style. I also popped into the Asian kitchen next door to check out their cooking and they were doing some fantastic things in there. They were using the big woks and it was awesome to watch them in action. The baking students were making fantastic breads and cakes and it’s fair to say that we all thoroughly enjoyed our time in the kitchens with the students. 

I had one day of free time so I went on a half day bike tour of the city. It was great to ride a bike again and I got a good introduction to Singapore’s history and landmarks. We rode along part of the upcoming Formula 1 racetrack, saw the famous Merlion fountain, Chinatown, Little India and along the riverfront. I had my first iced coffee which I surprisingly enjoyed and continued to buy during my stay. The photo shows me tasting an ice cream sandwich - literally ice cream on a piece of bread. Apparently this helps little kids stop dripping ice cream as the bread soaks the drips. Wasn't too bad - the bread was sweet.

One last thing we did was go to a rooftop movie night to watch a food related movie made by a local film director (I think he was anyway). The plot was that the world no longer ate fresh food as it was causing people to be sick and die. So a rich-power hungry guy manufactured fake food and that’s what the world ate and he made millions of dollars on it. However, there was an underground group of people who grew fresh food and they would pass to each other to eat. Having not eaten fresh food like eggs, rice, fish and vegetables for years, they would absolutely savour the few mouthfuls of this fresh food. Before eating, they would all say ‘Eat and Remember’. The message was that food always has a memory for us – everything we do, we can associate with food. A bit like music. Anyway, movie ends with the realization that the rich guy was falsely claiming that food made people sick, and so they all return to fresh food. While this was a bit corny and funny, it the ‘Eat and Remember’ message strongly resonated with us as we were all chefs and food is our life – it’s more to our life than you think and one can only imagine if we didn’t have fresh food. So, the motto of our trip was ‘Eat and Remember’.

As a final wrap, I want to say that this was an inspiring trip for me. I am learning to look and eat food in a different way and one chef said to me to not over-think a dish, eating it was an ‘experience’. And he is right. As always I met wonderful people, dined in wonderful restaurants and ate the best and freshest Singaporean dishes with the locals. I brought home a few bottles of local treats to share with my work crew and I am enjoying a bottle of Kaya which is coconut egg jam – which is a breakfast favourite on toast. My buddy bought me a bottle as a gift. I will post a stack of food photos to hopefully share the culinary experience I was so lucky to enjoy. Eat and Remember !!

 

First Cooked Dish

Geez, it’s been ages since my last post. I am trying to do a monthly post but time is getting away from me. I can’t believe it’s June already and I can’t even remember everything that’s happened in the past month or so. But here we go.

Firstly, I have to say that I cooked my first dish at work today. A momentous achievement to say the least. It took me nearly all bloody day as it was a busy day and I was making the recipe in stages, very slow stages, under guidance, lots of patient, tolerant, guidance!! Now, I recently moved sections into the pie section. So I now make pies, sausage rolls and quiches. I have until today only assembled and cooked the pies but today, I got to make my first pie mix, Butter Chicken from scratch. It tasted ok and looked ok so hopefully surrounded by thick pastry it will be even better. I took the photo to mark the occasion. Only 4 more mixes to learn now.

The next bit of good news is that our shipping container from DC finally arrived. We had a few weeks delay due to customs needing to fumigate some of our items, mainly shoes and dog beds. We ended up losing the dog beds but got everything else back. It’s been exciting to see our things again and we both felt quite homesick for DC – which was really weird. I think opening the boxes and seeing all the momentos and reminders of our time in the US was a little more overwhelming than we expected. So we’ve been working our way through the boxes and wondering how we’re going to fit it all in. The spare bathroom is currently full of linen and the garage is chockers with empty boxes waiting to be collected. Poor old Ruth (my car) is stuck outside until the empty boxes can be collected. I need to buy new gas bottles for the bbq and pizza oven so that might be a job for this weekend. For now, the kitchen is fully kitted out again and I can cook with more ease.

I’ve returned back to school (TAFE) and joined my new group – the other first year apprentices. Oh dear. They are a mixed bag of lollies. I had my first kitchen lesson and got to meet some of the guys and girls. They are a good bunch and it’s good to hear about their work experiences as we are all working apprentices. We are currently doing Soups, Stocks and Sauces which I’ve been excited to do. Our first lesson was learning basic stocks and then we made a fish volute (pie) (photo) and chicken soup from the stocks. We also made a crème anglaise (sweet custard) which everybody seemed to drink from the plate by the end of class. Stocks are so easy really and I think I’ll be doing my own at home from now on. I have also applied for a tour to Singapore with TAFE on a funded trip for 8 days. I should find out soon.

I took a quick overnight trip to see my best friend in Brisbane. We hadn’t seen each other since I left for DC so we had lots to talk about and much tea and coffee to drink. It was fabulous to see her again and it has made me want to move up to Queensland more. We had lunch at Redcliffe and there was a Bee Gees memorial lane. The good ol Bee Gees grew up in Redcliffe and this laneway was dedicated to them. 

The bird photos are for my US friends – this is a Kookaburra. A native Australian bird that has a beautiful call sound. My friend is visited by these birds and others each day and she hand feeds them. We say that when the Kookaburra is calling that he is laughing at you.

 

Australia also had their federal election and to the shock of everyone, the current government retained power. As usual, the choice was the best of a bad bunch and I’m disappointed with the result. We were both excited to sit down on election night and watch the results roll in and it felt very much like the night Trump was elected – excitement, went to quiet, went to concern which ended up in WTF, how the hell did that happen? Anyway, another 3 years of conservative old men. Can you the younger generation hurry the hell up and become our leaders.

My flying has taken a stall. I had lessons booked in June on my days off but, I changed sections at work which also changed my days off. So I had to cancel my lessons and can’t get lessons until August - it really is a small school compare to my school in the US. I was totally flattened as I feel like it’s just impossible to make progress. I’m debating whether to stop/delay until I can get more time. But, I’ll wait until my next lessons and make my decision then. Suffice to say, not a happy little Batman being grounded.

We are in the middle of winter and while it's pretty cold, it's not as cold as DC. I recall our winters being colder, maybe it hasn't hit just yet or is that I'm a bit more tougher after the snowy cold of DC? I really think we've just had a milder start so far. I managed to get knocked down with a heavy cold and ended up off work for 2 days. It was a bad one that really knocked me flat and taken about 3 weeks to shake off. 

One final thing before I go is to share the website of a friend who is making her own brooches. These things are very cute and selling on Etsy. Check our her website and check the range on Etsy. The business is called Moose and Dear, click here Moose and Dear Brooches

Well that's a quick wrap of life so far and here's a few fabulous photos of the dogs from Deb's photographic hand. 

Kitchen Life

It’s been an up and down few weeks. We are still waiting for our shipping container to arrive from DC and getting very impatient now. We are both needing our things now as winter is approaching and there are lots of our personal effects that we’ve missed long enough now. We were expecting it this week but customs has decided that some items need fumigating so we have to pay to get that done. I hope we get our stuff soon. 

I finally got to take my first flying lesson here which left me feeling somewhat disheartened. I will be flying a different aircraft type which I was not expecting. This means that I have to learn the little differences for that aircraft. While not a huge thing, it was an extra set of challenges on top of what was already going to be a challenging first flight. I was also challenged with the change in some units of measurement such as litres instead of gallons and meters instead of feet. After 3 years of imperial measurements, it’s hard to think back to metric. My first flight was all about getting my hands back on the stick, learning the new airspace and generally getting familiar with the new plane – a Piper Warrior. This is a low wing aircraft; the Cessna Skyhawk is a high wing which is where the wings attach to the roof. The low wings attach to the bottom of the plane. It gave a different view at certain times. My instructor was lovely and was aware of my nerves getting back flying after 6 months. I was very rusty with my manouveres and landing at a new and busy airport was daunting. The process to get my license is a little different and I will have to take a few steps backwards which has left me disheartened. I can’t fly again until June and it seems quite busy at this school. I’m trying to understand what the testing requirements are and feel a bit overwhelmed at the moment. I want to continue but it feels a lot to change to at the moment. I’ll do some more research and hopefully my feelings will change by the next flight. 

Easter and Anzac Day have been yet again and I worked all of these days as is common in the hospitality industry. It was incredibly busy as it was also school holidays. It was sad to not go to the Anzac dawn service but I think I’ll be fine next year when I’ve adjusted to the new work regime. School holidays have now finished and work has settled down although I found out today we have a busy weekend ahead. We celebrated Deb’s birthday and I cooked her a 3 course dinner. I experimented with the dessert making her an Eton Mess which is a messed up pavlova with fruit and cream. 

I am feeling a little more comfortable at work. It’s been two months now and I have to admit it’s been a big adjustment. It’s also tough being new but it’s also tough for me to not have the knowledge that I have previously enjoyed throughout my career. I’m learning all over again and it’s a hard position to adjust to. Some days are better than others but I’m taking one step at a time and enjoying learning lots about food, cooking and kitchens. Masterchef has started on TV and it’s been a few years since I’ve watched this – I feel like I’m watching with a new interest.

So working in a busy commercial kitchen is not for the faint hearted. I remember my first week and hiding in the corner as I chopped away listening to the action going on around me. Now, it’s not as daunting but I’ve learnt some good lessons and thought I’d share some of the inside info with you.

Be busy. No matter what, be busy. There is always something to do and there’s no time to stop, chat and go for a coffee break. Everyone is on the go and I can only say it’s like walking through the streets of New York city. You have to listen out for ‘backs’ or ‘hot behind’ as people push past your back or with something hot like a pan or a tray. It's a frenzy at times especially during service. 

Work clean. The golden rule in the kitchen is to keep a clean workspace, bench and tools. After every job, clean up before the next job. We all have our own knives and keep them clean and sharpened. 

All Day. I used to hear them yell ‘3 all day’ or ‘2 all day’ when someone asked how many pizzas, burgers or whatever. I thought it was odd wondering why they would counting things served all day. But no, this is the code for people checking how many of one item is actually on the board at that time. So you might have 4 dockets up with a total of 6 burgers. So to help the chef, someone yells that’s 6 all day so they know they should be making 6 in total. 

Service Please. I haven’t had to use my lungs like this since I was on parade back in the air force. Whenever food is ready for pickup, we have to yell out ‘service please’ so the front of house staff hear and come back to collect. I was confused when I first started work as I wasn’t sure who was yelling out and why. 

Dread the Docket Machine. I have developed a fear of the dreaded docket machine. I have one behind me which is for the café section but my docket machine is across the bench in front where the head chef works. When it chatters out a docket, it’ll have my entrees on it and the head chef yells out what’s needed. So when it gets busy, I hear brrrtttt, brtttttt, brttttttt and shit myself, look up and hope it’s not my docket machine and sometimes a miracle occurs when people don’t order entrees. So that brrtttt, brrrttt noise is feared more than a dripping tap or the smoke alarm at home.

Salt and Pepper. Everything has salt and pepper in it. No wonder food tastes good when you eat out – it’s got lots of salt, pepper and butter and of course all those things that give you cancer, clog your arteries, make you fat or anything else that’s bad in life. But geez it makes food taste good.

Playlist. A great thing about the kitchen is being able to listen to music most of the day. Usually the young guys put their playlists on but I’ve had my chance to play my music and you feel 'like a boss' when you get to do this. There is all kinds of music being played and it makes the long hours a little easier when you get to share memories when certain songs get played.

Well that’s enough kitchen bitchin’ for now. I’ve noticed my perspective has changed when eating out and cooking at home is a bit more organised than usual.

The light rail (tram, train thing) has finally started operation in Canberra. It runs from my local shopping center to the city and has caused chaos for commuters. The bus schedule has totally changed and I think it will be a long time before it’s seen as a positive initiative. 

Deb also went to Melbourne for a girls weekend and took some fabulous photos as always. Here is a classic Melbourne tram and some of the great street artwork.

 

Until next time, here's a pic of the two munchkins snoozing as the nights get colder and a funny thing I saw on Facebook. 

Paper and Fire

Well holy bloody char grill mixing bowls Batman !! What a busy long bloody few weeks. I feel like I work, sleep, work a bit longer, sleep, work more, sleep a bit more and then suddenly I get a day off. I’m enjoying myself though so that’s the good thing !! And I got paid !!! Man, that was a nice feeling $$$$$

By the way, the photo is of a chocolate pudding with raspberry coulis - one of the last dishes I made a school a few weeks back.

I have finished school until mid May when I’ll join up with the 1st year apprentices. I have now signed my apprentice contract which brought back memories to the day I signed my life away for 9 years when I joined the air force as a 16 year old!! Apparently they now call apprentices over 45 ‘mature’ age apprentices as opposed to adult and junior apprentices. The guy asked me if I had done an apprenticeship before…..I said yes, in the Air Force a long time ago. He was somewhat surprised, tapped on his computer and said nope, not coming up. He said how long ago…I laughed and said oooh about 30 years. Hmm, that would be why. I thought I was going to get a gold star but no, it’s just statistical data and made it to a comment at the bottom of the contract.

The work is very physical and constant and I’ve already been to physio to get an old injury sorted and some stretching advice as I need to look after myself in my ‘mature’ years. I think I’ve lost about 2kg from all the physical effort. I think I’ve done about 256 different things – chopped every vegetable and herb, cracked loads of eggs, made pies and sossy rolls, made chilli jams, whipped up some funky flavours of mayo, tasted fresh figs for the first time, sliced heaps of meats, played on the char grill a few times, shucked oysters for the first time, plated up for functions (weddings) so my Saturday dinner is now either chicken salmon or beef. Probably the most interesting thing I’ve learnt is debearding a mussel. I don’t eat mussels but most people still don’t know a mussel comes with a little tuft of hair coming from inside. It is pulled off/out before serving. It literally looks like a little goatie. I’ll add a photo if I can find one.

Probably the dumbest thing I’ve done so far is put baking paper on a tray that I had some orange segments (pieces of orange), and then proceeded to torch the oranges to put a colour on them. But, fire and paper equals fire doesn’t it. So yes, my baking paper was quickly alight. Won’t make that mistake again – next time don’t use paper !! It seems to be a recurring problem as I managed to set fire to my recipe sheets at school a few weeks ago – I had them too close to the gas stove while I was cooking.

Deb is back to work next week and feeling very sad for herself. Time has raced by but she has enjoyed the free time. We leave notes for each other a lot now as my hours are a bit late so it will be fun and games when she starts work again. I think the dogs will get the biggest shock because they have had me home for 3 years and now they’ll be spending a lot more time on their own while we are at work.

My Dad has been busy with his leather work again and custom made me a knife roll for my knives. I have a bigger black bag for all my things but this is a smaller roll that I can take to work with my main few knives. It’s made of kangaroo leather and is perfect. He’s put a little metal tag on it with my name engraved on it. Pretty clever my Dad.

 

I also received a lovely birthday gift from my friends in Tennessee. It was a beautiful wooden box that holds recipe cards. I will fill it with many superhero secrets. Thanks to D&LW - you are so very kind as always.


On the props front, I finally submitted my paperwork for my pilot license number which arrived today. So, I’ll be booking a flying lesson in the next two weeks and start chipping away at the remaining flying hours. I’m a bit nervous having not flown since November and flying with a new school and instructor.





Well this blog is a bit overdue and I’ve probably forgotten a bunch of stuff. But one last photo for my US readers is a photo of the traditional Australian prawns on the barbie!! I went to a friends place for a bbq and yes, there were prawns, not shrimps as Paul Hogan would like you to think. They’re prawns !!  And of course, here's a pie and sausage roll with a famous Bundaberg ginger beer. I'm enjoying being home amongst these Aussie favourites.

 

Cricket on the ridgeline