Simon's Food Highlights 2010

Happy Foodie New Year

Dear Readers

Wishing you a very delicious and satisfying Foodie New Year. Here's a selection of 10 of my favourite dishes of 2010 to visually stimulate your taste buds and whet your appetite. They're the sort of dishes I'd happily order again, and again.

Best wishes and happy eating!

Simon :-)

Other annual food highlights:

• Simon's Food Highlights 2010

• Simon's Food Highlights 2009

• Simon's Food Highlights 2008

Le Grand Café

CBD Sydney

Salad Niçoise

Efendy

Balmain

Kadayifli Karides: Kadayif wrapped Hervey Bay king prawns, walnut, capsicum and roasted garlic muhammara

Kingsleys Steak and Crabhouse

Woolloomooloo

Steak Tartare with truffle aioli, sourdough crostini

Kingsleys Steak and Crabhouse

Woolloomooloo

Iceberg salad, radish and blue cheese

Banana Palm

Coogee

Salad of lotus stem with chicken breast, prawns and peanuts

Singapore Shiok!*

Haymarket

Har Mee

Katz's Delicatessen

New York

Pastrami Sandwich on Rye

Bistro Papillon

CBD Sydney

Papadelle au Lapin Façon Chasseur: Braised Rabbit Papadelle with Mushroom, Pancetta, Herbs and Preserved Lemon

est

CBD Sydney

SIFF 2010 Let's Do Lunch: Pan roasted aoraki salmon, shaved fennel, asparagus, witlof, preserved lemon, dill oil

Guillaume at Bennelong

Bennelong Point

SIFF 2010 Let's Do Lunch: Pavlova with passionfruit cream, mangoes, mixed berries and vanilla bean ice cream

Singapore Shiok!*: One of Sydney's Best Har Mee?, Haymarket (6 Oct 2010)

Eating World Harbour Plaza food court
Shop 213, 25-29 Dixon Street, Haymarket NSW 2000

Best Har Mee in Sydney?

To date Malay-Chinese Takeaway has been my favourite place for a flavoursome prawn soup of Har Mee but it now has a new contender in my books which is on par if not possibly better. The humble Singapore Shiok!* serves only 9 dishes on the menu and makes a full flavoured broth Har Mee ($10.50) without being too salty. It's substantial in size although I would love the bowl to be a bit larger so there's room to move the contents around without worrying about it spilling over the sides. There's plenty of prawns which could possibly have been deveined a bit better and an abundance of the highly fatty and crispy pork fat plus a sliver or two of pork meat which makes it a delicious winner.

Other visits to Singapore Shiok!*:

• 6 Oct 2010 - Har Mee

• 30 Sept 2010 - Hor Fun with Seafood

• 29 Sept 2010 - Chicken Rice

Other places tried for Har Mee:

• 25 Jan 2012 - More More Char

• 6 Oct 2010 - Singapore Shiok!*

• 24 Sept 2009 - Laksa House

• 16 Sept 2009 - Laksa King

• 12 Aug 2009 - Jaya Malaysian

• 23 April 2009 - Lee's Malaysian

• 24 March 2009 - Malay-Chinese

• 19 Oct 2008 - KL Kopitiam Malaysian Cuisine

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Very flavoursome, Plenty of ingredients including pork fat, Not overly salty, Possibly best in Sydney

CONS: Prawns could be better deveined, Soup fills the whole bowl so be careful

MUST TRY: Chicken rice, Hor Fun, Har Mee

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Har Mee ($10.50)

SIMON FAVOURITE :-)

Prawns, pork, fishcake, pork fat, egg, vegetable

Flavoursome broth

Two types of noodles

Pork and golden nuggets of crunchy pork fat

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Singapore Shiok!*: Hor Fun, Haymarket (30 Sept 2010)

Eating World Harbour Plaza food court
Shop 213, 25-29 Dixon Street, Haymarket NSW 2000

As generous as they come

I was so impressed with the silky moist Chicken Rice on my first visit to Singapore Shiok!* that I had to return the next day to try something else from their 9 dish menu. The very generous sized Hor Fun with seafood ($10.50) also has the chicken option ($9.50). Cooked to order and served on a large flat dish longer than the length of your chopsticks, it's filled with at least 3 large prawns and all the ingredients you'd hope to find. The flat rice noodles are wok fried enough with some nice char flavour although I think Sayong Curry & Laksa Malaysian Cuisine cook them slightly better in their cheaper

Ipoh Fried Koay Teow which includes chicken — but their version is smaller and messier to eat on a flat round plate.

Other visits to Singapore Shiok!*:

• 6 Oct 2010 - Har Mee

• 30 Sept 2010 - Hor Fun with Seafood

• 29 Sept 2010 - Chicken Rice

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Generous size, Cooked to order, Nice flavour, Decent supply and variety of ingredients

CONS: Need to wait for orders to be cooked, Food court tables aren't cleaned regularly, Hard to find a seat when busy

MUST TRY: Chicken Rice, Hor Fun. Next time for me is Har Mee, Laksa and Char Kway Teow.

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Hor Fun with seafood ($10.50)

Green chillis

Just finished and so full

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Singapore Shiok!*: Chicken Rice, Haymarket (29 Sept 2010)

Eating World Harbour Plaza food court
Shop 213, 25-29 Dixon Street, Haymarket NSW 2000

My NEW favourite Chicken Rice

If shiok means 'an expression of satisfaction' then Singapore Shiok is a gem waiting to be discovered by all Singaporean and Malaysian food lovers in Sydney.

One of the joys of having a food blog is you sometimes get recommendations from readers which lead to great finds. Thanks to Eve who commented on my Malacca Straits post in recommending Singapore Shiok!*. Tucked away in the same food court that brings you one of Sydney's most blogged ramens from Gumshara is the basic and unassuming looking Singapore Shiok!* which looks like it might be closed but it's not. It's been open since April 2010 and takes up the position of where KL Kopitiam used to be. Currently they serve only 9 classic dishes which are cooked to order and that's why the bain-marie is all empty and not used. Less is more as they say and in this case it seems to be true. I'm hoping they might introduce some entrees like Chicken Satay or the elusive Popiah.

The Chicken Rice ($8.80) decorated with cucumber and tomato slices is wonderfully silky and moist as one would hope to find in Sydney, but rarely does. I order the thigh which is thankfully boneless — a rare treat to find from city eateries which usually leave the bones and more often than not will be splintered. The accompanying rice is flavoursome enough with chicken stock and ginger notes to my liking — better than many places which serve plain rice or less flavoursome versions. The thick sweet kecap manis is quite strong in flavour so I use it sparingly and the chill sauce with fresh ginger goes well with the dish. The cloudy looking side soup is the only let down for me which is overly spiced with white pepper and I wish it was more a clear style soup with chinese vegetable like

Jaya Malaysian — one can only hope. The best chicken rice in the city I've had to date is at

Sayong Curry & Laksa Malaysian Cuisine but Singapore Shiok!* is now my preferred leader. I look forward to trying their other dishes — the hor fun I spotted looked generous and very promising.

Other visits to Singapore Shiok!*:

• 6 Oct 2010 - Har Mee

• 30 Sept 2010 - Hor Fun with Seafood

• 29 Sept 2010 - Chicken Rice

Other places tried for Chicken Rice:

• Singapore Shiok!* - 29 Sept 2010

• Malacca Straits - 23 Jan 2010

• Yummy Chinese - 20 Jan 2010

• Laksa House - 24 Sept 2009

• Laksa King - 16 Sept 2009

• Malaysian Food House - 18 Aug 2009

• Malay-Chinese Takeaway - 6 Aug 2009

• Mc Lucksa - 5 Aug 2009

• Jaya Malaysian - 29 July 2009

• Sayong Curry & Laksa Malaysian Cuisine - 22 July 2009

• KL Kopitiam Malaysian Cuisine - 19 Oct 2009

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Silky and moist chicken, No bones, Decent flavoured rice, Reasonable prices

CONS: Side soup has too much white pepper taste for my liking, Need to wait for orders to be cooked, Food court tables aren't cleaned as regularly as hoped when busy

MUST TRY: Chicken rice and all other dishes on the menu to compare especially the Hor Fun, Laksa, Char Kway Teow and Har Mee.

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Hainanese Chicken Rice ($8.80)

SIMON FAVOURITE :-)

Sweet kecap manis and chill sauce with fresh ginger

Side soup

Moist chicken with no bones — thigh ordered.

Bone factor — only a small knuckle grizzle found

Menu — 9 dishes

Service counter

Food court seating

Entrance to Eating World food court


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