Taste of the Philippines by Chef Bruce Lim @ AFC Studio

Today's post was an invited session by Asian Food Channel www.asianfoodchannel.com and hosted at AFC Studio www.theafcstudio.com


Last Sunday, I got invited again by Fulford Public Relations to attend the "Taste of the Philippines" by Chef Bruce Lim at the AFC Studio. Can you guess the reason I attended the session? It's because he has the same family name as me!


Here he is. Chef Bruce Lim. He is the co-host with Angel Aquino on Tablescapes: Life on a Plate airing on Asian Food Channel on Thursdays, 9:30 PM. Have you watched the show?


You can see he's a very friendly and chatty guy, just like in the show!
I noticed he loves his pots too! (now you don't see that in his show right? LOL)





He demonstrated 3 Filipinos recipes to us:
- Smoky Banana Heart Salad (Delicately Stewed Heart Shaped-buds and Smoked Fish)
- Chicken Adobo with Aromatic Pandan Rice (Stewed Chicken with Pandan infused Rice)
- Banana Leaf Wrapped Prawns (Baked prawns and mung bean noodles)


The first dish: The Smoky Banana Heart Salad.

The Filipinos uses banana heart in the cooking like our local Malay and Indian dishes too!
But what makes it different is that Filipinos use Smoked Fish (Tinapa) and lots of Chicharon (crispy pork skin) on top of it!

It was fun watching him cook. As he is a classically trained chef, he likes to plate the dishes nicely. This is what Chef Bruce prepared. The salad here was served on the banana heart outer petals.




It's so nice to have two assistants helping when you are the main chef.
After Chef Bruce prepared the dish, these two lovely resident AFC chefs took over and dished out the rest for the audience.




You can see it's not a lot, but at least we got to try it. It tasted good! I brought along my teenage cousin this time and she said it was nice too! Look like our cousin is now game on trying all kinds of food now! She used to be so so picky!

The banana heart taste crunchy texture. Something like black fungus (hei mu er).  It's really appetizing! I almost wanted to ask for seconds. But I guess not everyone is as adventurous. I saw one person in the front row barely touching it!




The second dish: Chicken Adobo with Aromatic Pandan Rice

Something funny happened when Chef Bruce prepared the pandan rice. We noticed that it's exactly how we cook our chicken rice in Singapore! It's using the exact same ingredients too! (with chicken fat too!) Someone in the audience could not take it anymore and said it out loud: "Hey chef, this is Singapore Chicken Rice lah.... Not Filipino at all!" Everyone burst out laughing.

So, which country's dish is it? Is the Chicken Rice 'rice' an uniquely Singapore thing?

But the Chicken Adobo part was an eye opener to us. There's lots of vinegar and soy sauce used in the preparation of the chicken adobo. The whole studio smell of the sharp distinct vinegar smell. We were thinking how sour will that dish be! My cousin said hey, it smells like 'vinegar pork trotters'.

Chef Bruce says let the magic begin. Don't be tempted to stir the chicken in the pot and just let it boil. After like 20 minutes, miraculously the vinegary smell is gone. It suddenly begin to smell so pleasant! Wow!

The beautifully plated Chicken Adobo with rice by Chef Bruce.




This was what we ate. I tell you, Filipino dishes are SALTY!
But we were told that's the way they cook it in the Philippines. Most people eat a lot of rice and not so much meat. So a little salty meat and sauce goes a long way with lots of rice.

The flavour was good, just too salty for local tongues.  But you could see a group of Filipinos amongst the audience eating it as if they have not eaten such nice homeland food in years!




The third dish: Banana Leaf Wrapped Prawns

The secret to this dish is "Aligue". What is that? It's crab butter! What we usually call it crab roe.
Oh man, you should see how much it goes in! Half a big bowl of it! Cholesterol alert!

Chef Bruce wrapping the prawns in banana leaf.




As this was being baked in the oven. I tell you, the whole studio smell so so good!




The taste? It's like wow!

The sauce was a mixture of Aligue, garlic, ginger, onions, chilli sauce, coconut cream. Imagine all this soaked into the Mung Bean noodles (what we call Tang Hoon in Singapore).

My cousin and I thought of Ming Kee's Crab Bee Hoon! It's like a dry version of it. So tasty. (and salty too lah) 

We wanted to laugh at the 4 person sitting on the first row on the left. They were saying that's too much Aligue. Cholesterol ah! Are you sure you want to put so much? (Oh man, shoosh! You are not the chef. haha) Guess what? They finished it all when they were served the dish.




I took a photo of this couple from Philippines who was so excited to see their fellow countryman Chef Bruce Lim cook. They were being interviewed on video when I took a photo of them. I got their permission to post their photo here! They just looked so happy. ;-)




This was my second time attending an AFC Studio course. I would say it is quite a relaxing and enjoyable session. You get to eat what was prepared by the chef as well as a copy of the recipes to take home.

Looking at their course schedule at http://www.theafcstudio.com/courses/ I spotted these interesting sessions coming soon:

Sunday, 25 April there's a Coffee Appreciation Session by Danny Pang. I met Danny before when he was at Geek Terminal. He's a guy who is so passionate about Coffee! Do you know he's also a certified Barista?

Friday, 30 April there will be a healthy ice cream making session! How cool is that? (pun not intended)

You can always pop by the AFC Studio when you are visiting Orchard Central.

AFC Studio
181 Orchard Road
#07-02 Orchard Central
Singapore 238896

Korean Restaurant Cliff @ Beauty World Centre

Yesterday's food diary entry was a high end Korean Restaurant. You get good service, nicely renovated restaurant, glossy menu and excellent food. The "Da Chang Jin" palatial  standard?

Today's entry is a cheaper, simple Korean Restaurant. It's like the small little Korean eateries you see in Korean dramas. But still you get nice decent food. This place I visited is located on the Food Court level, ie the Roof Top of Beauty World Centre. 

Sis and I have seen this place opened for some time. But we never thought of venturing in. So few nights ago, we decided to just walk in. (It was also because the Hawker Centre was just too warm to eat comfortably. hehe)




We were greeted by the Korean couple running this place. We guess it must be a husband and wife team. She asked if it's our first time here because we looked totally lost after 5 mins of staring at the menu. We did not know how or what to order.

She recommended a soup hot-pot dish saying "This one is nice. Can share. Popular" in halting Korean-glish. (Is there a Korean version of Singlish?) It did look good on the menu's photo, but we were not that hungry and we were thinking of snacking instead! We ordered 'snack food' in the end.

For drinks, we saw that their drinks fridge had interesting Korean can drinks. We picked two different drinks from the fridge. You should try the grape drink! The Koreans actually stuff real grapes into the drinks! Skinless green grapes! The Aloe Vera is not bad too. $2 per can. 




After waiting for a long time, our snack food finally was served! KFC! Korean Fried Chicken! We ordered the 4 pieces option. $10.80

While we were waiting for our food earlier, we saw the word "Chicken Up" all around the shop.  So I pulled out my phone and googled Chicken Up. The search results showed Julia's review on inSing.com. (Same name, but different location) But after reading what Julia wrote, we were looking forward to the chicken!

It did turn out quite nice! Sis who is now "Miss Calorie Counting" actually enjoyed eating the chicken! It was very hot! We could see the stream coming out of the fried chicken. They were huge too! It has super crispy skin. It had really moist meat, even for the breast meat. Very well marinated chicken!




The other snack was the Korean Pancake. Too floury for my liking. Remember I am not a flour person. Maybe we were more interested in the chicken that this. ;-)




To our surprise, even when we were just ordering snack kind of food, we were given side dishes! 10 of it as well! Some was nice, some so so lah. But still, there were a huge variety!




Looking at the next photo, you can tell this place is run by true blue Koreans. This was the order chit, which also doubled as the bill too after the meal. No service charge, no GST.

I took this photo at the counter with my camera phone. hehe... We got no receipt to remember the price.




A note though. It was a week night when we went. There were only 4 or 5 tables occupied. As it was a two person team (not sure if they have help on other days),  both of them disappeared to the kitchen to prepare food and no one was outside with the customers. It also took some time for our food to be served.

Not a bad place for fried chicken! Visit if you like Korean style fried chicken and fancy Korean can drinks!


Korean Restaurant CLIFF
Beauty World Centre
144 Upper Bukit Timah Road
#04-01 (Same level as hawker centre)
Singapore 588177 

Hansang Korean Charcoal BBQ Restaurant @ Holland Village

Last Wednesday was one of those days that we really want to go out! Out of the office.  Everyone was stressed. Some are moody. We needed therapy. We know there are real psychologist that some of us can talk too in the company, but no... they won't understand.

We went for the tried and tested therapy. Food therapy! We headed out to Holland Village for our therapy session.


We decided to try out the new Korean restaurant at Holland Village. (It was where Sushi Tei used to be.) Just before stepping in, there was some hesitation. It's not the food that we were worried about, but whether we will stink of BBQ after that! You know that BBQ places always leave a lingering smell on your clothes. 





We bravely walked in. We were the first group of customers for the day! We were promptly seated. We ordered our drinks and begin scrutinizing their menu! We can't help it. The place is new, the menu is new, everything was new!

It was a hot day, so most of us ordered cold drinks. We had Iced Omija, Ice Roasted Barley Tea, Iced Green Tea. As usual, some will still order hot tea on a hot day! (Are you one who orders hot drinks on hot days too?) The hot drinks ordered were Ginseng Tea, and Red Date Tea. Prices were between $1.50 to $4.20 for the drinks.





'HY' saw this in the menu and was yearning to try it. So we ordered it.
It's Chongpo Muk. (Mung Bean Starch Jelly). $12

It's a small plate, but it's quite refreshing. It has the texture of agar-agar but it's savoury/salty.





Remember I said we were scrutinizing the menu? The prices are mostly on the higher side. We noticed there was a lunch special leaflet on the plastic stand. The lunch specials were more wallet friendly.  So other than the drinks and the Chongpo Muk, everything else we ordered were from the lunch special. :-)

The leaflet had four side dishes that were all priced at $6.80. They looked good and we told the service staff, we want them all!

The dumplings or pot stickers. It was not bad.





The Ddukbokki - Spicy Rice Cakes. It tasted spicy and yet sweetish. It has lots of leeks too. Rather addictive!





The Korean Seafood Pancake. This was good too. I know some people eat pancakes because they like the doughy taste. But this is just nice. Not too much flour in it!





The chicken skewers. We thought they tasted like sweet and sour chicken on mini bamboo skewers.
It was already quite tasty by itself, but we wondered why was there a tiny side dish of peppered salt served with it?

We did add a tiny bit of salt to the chicken, it does enhance the taste, but it might be too salty for most of us.  Any Koreans reading this, care to enlighten us?





These were the mains we had. All from the lunch specials.

'OC' had the Ginseng Chicken. $10.80
We somehow knew he would order it. He orders Ginseng Chicken soup at most of the Korean places we go! We could tell from the aftermath that he liked it. A huge smile on his face and a face full of sweat! Yet he said, "so so only lah".





Some Korean restaurants serve their Ginseng Chicken soup without salt pre-added. This place happens to be one too. The salt is on the small little side plates (bottom left). You add as much or as little as you please.





'HY' and I, both ordered the Jajang Myon $8.80.
Both of us said we will be back again for this! The noodles are 'que que' (springy/chewy texture). The black sauce also tasted good!

You know how you get dissapointed at Jajang Myon at most places because you don't get the satisfaction like you see on the Korean dramas? We thought it was not bad. It looked really simple and plain, but it did tasted good.





It was even tastier as we added the side dishes into it. Not sure if it's the proper way to eat them,  I stirred in the bean sprouts and mixed it. The kimchi, pickles and braised sweet lotus root, I bite them as I ate noodles.





'ET' had the Ramyon. $8.80
Forgot to ask him how it taste, but he was slurping away.





'DP' ordered the Kimchi Rice. $10.80
We recently noticed that if he does not order anything with rice, he will be hungry by 2.30pm! So just as we guessed, he ordered a rice dish. LOL...




The therapy cost us $124.55 after 10% service charge and 7% GST.


Hansang Korean Charcoal BBQ Restaurant.
20 Lorong Mambong,
Holland Village
Singapore  277679

Tel: 6464 5238