Kopi? ....your Singapore-style Coffee!

We all know that coffee lovers know their coffee very well...

May it be from Starbucks, Gloria Jean's, Seattle's Best, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Spinelli or Mc Cafe, you can bet they know how to get their brew just the way what they like it.

When you're in Singapore, there's no need to worry as most, if not all, of your favorite coffee specialty shops can be found in most parts of the country.

But just in case you end up in a local coffee shop or hawker centre and badly in need to get your caffeine fix, be sure you know how to order your coffee.

While Starbucks and Co. serve coffee, local hawker centres and coffee shops serve "Kopi." It is the Malay word for coffee pronounced with a little bit of Hokkien flavor.

So if you want coffee, just tell them you want....

Kopi-gau --- coffee (strong brew)

Kopi-C --- coffee with evaporated milk

Kopi-kosong --- coffee with milk and no sugar

Kopi-O --- coffee with sugar only

Kopi-O-kosong --- coffee without sugar or milk

Kopi-peng or Kopi-ice --- coffee with milk, sugar and ice

So how do you want your KOPI?

Tags: coffee, Starbucks, Singapore, caffeine, kopi

Singapore Spicy Seafoods

When you're in Singapore and craving for seafood, just go to any food center and the hawkers will surely offer you either one of these: Chili Crab, Chili Crayfish and Chili Stingray.

The Chili Crab is considered as one of Singapore's natioanal dishes, together with Chicken Rice and Mee Goreng. The thick gravy is made from red chillies, tomato sauce, eggs, spring onion and spices. It is best eaten with you bare hands. Feel free to lick the gravy from your fingers. Usually served with steamed rice but you can also ask for French bread. Price: S$ 14-42 (by weight)

Next is the Chili Crayfish. It may be steamed or grilled. You'll just love the juicy crayfish meat. They'll serve it to you already halved, so there's no problem digging the meat. Can be eaten plain or with steamed rice. Make sure it's fresh, and it will be very juicy. Price: starts at S$ 8 (by weight)

Usually grilled, the Chili Stingray (also BBQ Stingray), is topped with sambal chili paste and served on banana leaves. It also comes with a chili & onion dip. Don't forget to squeeze the lime over the meat. Goes well with steamed rice. The stingray meat won't be as nice without the chili, trust me! Price: S$ 7-14

You can try those at the Newton Hawker Centre, East Coast Seafood Centre and Chomp Chomp Food Centre at Serangoon Gardens.

More RICE please!

Photo credits:
1 - The Worldwide Gourmet
2 - Virtual Tourist
3 - Sparklette.net

Sa Jollibee? Sigurado kang sa Jollibee?

Nope, there's no Jollibee here in Singapore. Well, they used to have one outlet, but not anymore. The Philippines's no. 1 fast food chain, Jollibee, failed to capture the taste of the Singapore market. Also, the outlet was poorly located (Marine Parade) and there were problems with the local partners.

What we have here now is Jollibean, and they don't sell "Langhap-sarap" hamburgers nor "Crispylicious & Juicylicious" Chickenjoy. Jollibean is an ‘All-in-one Drink and Snack’ Concept Store. They sell soya milk drink complimented with pancakes (widely known in Singapore as Mee Chiang Kueh). Incorporated in November 1993, (Jollibee started in the Philippines way back in 1975), Jollibean is based in Singapore and currently have a chain of 35+ outlets. The pancakes comes in a variety of filling, corn, chocolate, green beans paste, green tea paste, lotus seed paste and red bean paste.

I like pancakes, but I still want my Chickenjoy....

Kung Hei Fat Choi! (....pahingi ng TIKOY!)

The tikoy is a famous give-away during the Chinese New Year in the Philippines . It is usually eaten steamed, fried, fried with eggs or even as it is, cold and sticky. It is made from glutinous rice flour and sugar, the type of sugar usually determines the color, hence the white and brown varieties.

Unlike in the Philippines, the tikoy is not as much celebrated here in Singapore (compared to yusheng, gold ingots and Mandarin oranges). Known elsewhere as Nian Gao, which translates to "New Year Cake." In Chinese, Gao is a homonym for high. Nian Gao is also called Nian Nian Gao, which is a homonym for "higher each year", symbolizing progress and promotion at work and in daily life and improvement in life year by year.

Makan All Day: Hainanese Chicken Rice

Makan is eat in Bahasa Melayu. One of the best things about being in Singapore is undoubtedly the food. It is no secret that Singaporeans eat and drink with a passion. For the newcomer, deciding where and what to eat can be an intimidating, yet at the same time, exciting experience. Undoubtedly one of the favorites, even considered as one of Singapore's national dish, is the Hainanese Chicken Rice, or simply, chicken rice. In the old Hainanese method, the chicken is prepared by boiling the entire chicken in pork and chicken bone stock. A separate chicken stock is prepared for cooking the rice. This produces an oily, flavourful rice sometimes known as "oily rice". Here in Singapore, where modernity has made the maintenance and long-term storage of stocks unfeasible, the meat is cooked by boiling in water flavoured with garlic and ginger instead, with the resulting stock used in the preparation of the rice and also in the accompanying soup. It is served with chili sauce, pounded ginger and dark soya sauce. The usual side dish is boiled kai-lan (Chinese broccoli) with oyster sauce. There are many variations of the chicken rice, the most common are the steamed white chicken and the roasted chicken. The best chicken rice I've tried are from Wee Nam Kee Chicken Rice along Thomson Road and Loy Kee Best Chicken along Balestier Road. Like what the locals would say... Die, die... must try ah!