Dancing Crab (Singapore)

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Our last day of visit that my daughter, Cha, spouse Anton, plus a friend…Jigger of the famous Casa Marcos treated us to an array of fresh sea food down at The Grandstand, Singapore…DANCING CRAB.

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Big table is well covered with pristine white paper (type of “greaseproof” or “sulphite” paper used to line burger patties to prevent sticking to each other during storage, biscuits, butter etc.). Each is handed plastic disposable apron and lots of tissues.

At entrance we chose these:

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Served. Bare hands…must.

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My balding head perspired a lot. Sign that I’d loved the food. More so after generous drops of Sriracha and 2 bottles of cold beer.

Price? Pricey but worth it.

Service? Not so fast.

Overall taste of food? I prefer the simple approach for seafood…blanched…dip in garlic-vinegar-salt mix.

I strongly recommend.

Check their site: http://www.dancingcrab.com.sg/index.php#3

Chicken Feet

Chicken Feet

“CHICKEN FEET”

(The Favorite Chinese Dimsum Innovated)

The dreaded per-served prep by some. Others consider it

as “a-must-side” in combi with their dimsum and dumpling sets.

Called “adidas” by many.

Whether we like it or not…it’s a delicacy.

“Adobo” instantaneously quipped by friends.

“Oyster sauce and black beans sautéd” butted-in by office staff.

NOPE.

“Achuete colored, sesame oil and garlic infused” was my reply.

“Achuete colored” (fresh annatto seeds soaked in tap water)

 Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Total time: 25 minutes

Serves:    6

Cooking media: sautéing pan, pressure cooker, timer

Game plan: This is fast. Be alert.

INGREDIENTS:
1 kilo chicken feet (about 24-26 pieces), fully cleaned, toes and nails cut,
1 bulb small fresh garlic, cloves peeled and crushed
80 ml. soya or palm oil for sautéing
50 ml. sesame oil
3 grams salt
2 grams ground black pepper
6 pieces star anise
2 pieces finely chopped “sili labuyo” (bird’s eye chilies)
2 pieces chopped small “sili pansigang” (chili finger, banana chili)
100 grams achuete seeds soaked in150 grams tap water for 1 hour. Strained. Colored water set aside.
OPTIONAL MSG…2 grams
Water 50 ml.

PROCEDURES:

  • 1 Heat soya/palm oil in sautéing pan. Add in garlic. Brown a bit.
    1. Pour in chicken feet, scatter the salt, pepper, star anise and the OPTIONAL MSG. Tumble constantly until light brown.
    2. Transfer to suitable pressure cooker. Add in sesame oil, sili labuyo, sili pansigang, colored water and the 50ml. tap water.
    3. Cover and cook. When “whistling” starts set timer to 3 minutes. Done.
    4. Carefully subject cooker under running tap water to cool off. Retrieve feet in a suitable server and scoop up the yummy sauce on a separate bowl.
    5. Serve. Enjoy. Use of chopsticks will add to your family’s excitement.

    Note:
    There ‘s a need to sauté chicken feet in an open wide mouth pan as doing it straight via pressure cooker might dismember and/or break feet prematurely due to tight space during tossing and tumbling..

    DISCLAIMER: Above are test kitchen and household-produced dishes. All ingredients utilized are of food grade quality passing international and domestic sanitary standards. While we find the results highly acceptable, no guarantee nor explicit assurance is hereby issued when recipe is performed by readers. For one, although of similar breed, spices, herbs and other ingredients vary from country to country/region to region that possibility of affecting end taste, aroma & bite-feel is great. Further thereto, mentioned sensory evaluation (aroma, taste, mouth-feel) is subjective.

     

  • My #1 High-End Cantonese “tara-lets”

    I did say “high end”.

    True enough, but and although, the best Cantonese per-serve I’ve tasted.

    Perfect presentation flair. Simplest ingredients’ mix.

    Prep technology resulted to well rounded taste of the 3 offerings we ordered.

    “tara-lets” is a Filipino coined word meaning...let’s go.

    Honey-Wasabi Prawn Balls

    Sweetened “wasabi” breaded shrimp balls. GREAT. PERFECT.

    This made me consume 2 bottles of beer.

    Onion & Pepper Stir Fried Wagyu

    Salt, bell and black peppers stir fried “Wagyu” beef in oyster sauce.

    The intensely “marbled” beef cut

    and its combination of lean and fats delivered the distinctive rich and tender flavor compared to other beef.

    In every bite it elicits that “beefy” characteristic I long for beef.

    Could have been “Kobe” or plain “Wagyu”

    (all “Kobe” beef are “Wagyu” but NOT all “Wagyu” are “Kobe”)

    Steamed Grouper

    Steamed grouper…simple prep, great result.

    Go ahead. Once in while you guys have to treat wifey here. Never mind the price.

    AAA ambiance. Superb service.

    It’s

    SHANG PALACE

     click for the link

    Few things about recipes

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    HEAVENLY CRISPY.

    NO DOUBLE FRYING…Ultra crispy outside heavenly tender and juicy inside.     Indulge in the “marinade mix” that catapulted  this ChiQ-Juan to its ultra crunchy creation.

    No mega dusting of flour or starch. Just the right amount incorporated into its breading blend applied post marination. The blend of ingredients in its breading made possible the crispness despite single frying.


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    Further…to attain “real crunchiness” (whether for chicken, pork & beef)
    NOT DUSTING WITH STARCH OR FLOUR then frying. This is the height of
    “simplistic approach” to cooking, a “no-brainer” system tantamount to “cheating” consumers.While depending on the meat raw mat to be used to come-up with “a masterpiece” with desired crunchiness, marinade mix (spices, food-grade cures or  phosphate binders, flavor enhancers, condiments and the liquid to be used) greatly contributes to crispy end product. Adding to such is the time table on how many “aging days” are actually needed for desired result. Shorter or longer will give negative outcome and/or “taste overshadow”.Equally important are: the type of oil to be used (kind plus its boiling and smoking points), temp when to fry, when to retrieve and rest and where to store post frying-bearing in mind how long MUST be the HOLDING period before serving. WHEW!!! It’s really a “thinking system”.  In my coming INGREDIENTS SPECIALIZATION INSTITUTE you will learn the right & proper ingredients mix to use in any recipe you desire plus the technologically-chronological system of processing or cooking exuding desired aroma, taste, texture at much lower cost than the “BARA-BARA approach” (blindfolded addition of whatever spices, herbs and ingredients that come into mind or  what our hands can instanly reach)

    Cure & Phosphate
    WRONG COOKING PROCEDURE.
    Filipino cooks’/chefs’/housepeople’s (majority but NOT ALL) wrong way of salting fried red-up eggs.
    They DUMP…literally dump…salt in any part of egg that their salt-laden fingers have aimed.
    And so, that part becomes SOOOOOOOOO salty while other parts retain bland-ness. PWEH!
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    Filipino Food Myth.
    After resting for more hours than normal and usual, with wifey dashed to our favorite place,
    Macapagal Avenue, to satisfy cravings for Filipino “inihaw” (grilled) and “sabaw”(soup recipe).
    Pangs (my wife) marketed for “liempo” (pork belly) & “ulo ng maya-maya” (head of Red Snapper)
    for plain salted & peppered grilling and “sinigang sa miso” (tamarind-flavored soya paste soup) respectively.
    “Eh anak ng 74 na malanding tipaklong, yung “maya-maya” ay dehins tinanggalan ng “KALISKIS”.
    Pag-subo mo, sasabit sa ngala-ngala mo kaliskis. Di mo tuloy ma-enjoy yung fish.
    Tamaan kayo ng kidlat”
    (In English, whew, the cooking establishment, to the hatred of 74 grasshopper whores, did not de-scale the fish that each time you bite into it…scales fill your palate & entire mouth).
    You really won’t enjoy savoring the dish. May you be hit by angry lightning) Why? Ano dahilan nyo at kapag fish na “sinigang” o “inihaw” ay dapat may “kaliskis”?
    What? What? Gagalitin ako eh.
    (In English, again, whew, why is it that when you cook “sinigang” or grilled pork, scales are not removed. Why? What? You drive me angry)
    Don’t you know a better grilling technique?
    Just oil the grill bars and/or lay fish at griller ONLY when coal is fiery red.
    But when it comes to “sinigang”, here, there is NO reason whatsoever. De-scale the fish… my God.

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                   Re-Heating Food

    Re-heating your favorite “sinigang” or “asim soup”, REFRAIN from engaging it via microwave oven. Check previous posts on what “sinigang” is – or which kids like to call “asim soup”.
    Reasons:
    1. Moisture of food is “absorbed till dried-up” by the microwave that the former tender meat becomes “rubbery” afterwards. Should you wish to pursue via this medium, sprinkle few drops of water or marinade or what have you before microwaving.
    2.  Acid is absorbed by the system that after microwaving your “sinigang” or “paksiw” (vinegared fish), acidity is reduced to 1/3. To preserve original taste, reheat by suitable pan or use appropriate container then shelve unto oven toaster and reheat for few minutes at medium temp.


      SUMPTUOUS FOOD IS NOT PLAIN INVENTION.
    It is the “accurate & proper harmony of ingredients and flavors used in precise technological production sequence
    to come up with desired taste-not of the maker but that of the patrons”.
    In short, you, your loved ones and friends are not your “clients”.
    Fact of life is: they will not come to your restaurant, café, bar, joint etc. always. Most of the time, they are not the paying clients.
    You will find real and comebacking customers if your concoctions are enjoyably approved by them.
    Test your recipes with people you don’t know. Collate their comments sent through “anonymous emails” (and you know the reason why…)
    If your batting average is high, chances are, your masterpiece will make it.

    Salted Egg Shrimps

     salted egg shrimps

    “SALTED EGG SHRIMPS ”
    (DEEP FRIED SHRIMPS FURTHER COOKED IN MASHED SALTED EGGS)

    A bit pricey innovation of this Chinese “special occasion recipe”.
    Remembering relatives who make sure this short order is included during birthdays, baptism, graduation etc. in our fave Oriental habitué.
    Celebrating birthday of my son, Pastor Janssen, here in Singapore, family thought of having this along with other preps. Everybody, alternately, chipped-in a little action to complete the cooking processes of the home prepared line up. Quite simple dish but the enjoyment of de-scaling shrimps, while reminiscing sweet “memoires” with each other, adds to satiety.
    Saltiness of the mashed yolk complements the bit sweet-mild sea water taste profile of shrimp meat.
    Pouring in finely chopped “labuyo” (bird’s eye chilies) finishes off flavour roundedness.
    Salted Egg Shrimps
     
    Prep time
    Cook time
    Total time
     
    Serves: 4
    Ingredients
    • 1 kilo medium shrimps, cleaned, long antennae cut, pointed tip of rostrum cut, marinated in 1 liter of either 7-up or Sprite
    • 20 pieces salted eggs yolk-mashed
    • 10 pieces yolk of hard boiled eggs -mashed
    • 350 ml. soya or palm oil for deep frying
    • 6 cloves crushed fresh garlic
    • 1 small white onion bulb-minced
    • 8 pieces finely chopped “labuyo”
    • 2 grams salt
    • 4 grams ground black pepper
    • 10 ml. soy sauce
    • 10 grams brown sugar
    Instructions
    1. Heat oil. Deep fry shrimps until scales turn bright orange-red. Scoop out shrimps and set aside. Pour onto another container used oil.
    2. Set in wok unto stove. Pour in about 1 cup of used oil. Heat.
    3. Lightly brown garlic, add in onion and “labuyo” tumble a bit then pour in the mashed yolks of salted and hard boiled eggs. Toss consistently for 5 minutes.
    4. Add salt, pepper, soy sauce and brown sugar. Give more active tossing and tumbling for another 3 minutes.
    5. Pour in shrimps and continuously toss and tumble for 5-8 minutes. Be very careful to turn shrimps as they may break. Suggest, don’t individually turn the shrimps when tossing or tumbling but, instead, scoop the egg yolk emulsion with shrimp by the top and turn upside down. This way, emulsion serves as protection and coat-buffer for shrimps. Add in few drizzles used oil if need be.
    6. DONE. Garnish. Serve.
    Notes
    DISCLAIMER: Above are test kitchen and household-produced dishes. All ingredients utilized are of food grade quality passing international and domestic sanitary standards. While we find the results highly acceptable, no guarantee nor explicit assurance is hereby issued when recipe is performed by readers. For one, although of similar breed, spices, herbs and other ingredients vary from country to country/region to region that possibility of affecting end taste, aroma & bite-feel is great. Further thereto, mentioned sensory evaluation (aroma, taste, mouth-feel) is subjective.