Zespri Kiwifruit: Original Recipes by Ieatishootipost!

The Zespri Kiwifruit Season is now well and truly underway and I have been asked to be Zespri Ambassador for the 2009 Season. As part of my duties, I had to come up with three original Kiwifruit recipes for the media launch which I am posting here for everyone to try at home. As I am more of a home chef rather than a professional chef, you will find that these are really simple recipes that anyone can do at home with ingredients that are easily available from the supermarket.

I hope you can try them at home and let us know what you think.


Zespri Green Kiwifruit, Surimi and Avocado Salad in Beancurd Skin

The first recipe is basically a salad which is presented in finger food form. The inspiration for this dish really came from my mom who introduced me to avocado and crabmeat salad with thousand island dressing years ago. The zesty green Kiwifruit goes very well with seafood such as crabs, prawns and lobster and I felt that the Kiwifruit would add a nice contrast to the creamy Avocado which can be a little heavy by itself. To give it a bit of Japanese twist, Goma dressing (Japanese Sesame dressing) was added to the mashed avocado as well as a dash of wasabi to give it a bit of kick. The idea of using inari skin actually came about because I was initially experimenting with the idea of a Kiwifruit rojak which is presented in a toasted Tau Pok Skin. But that didn't taste too nice, so I ended up using inari skin with avocado instead.

Ingredients:

1 ZESPRI Green Kiwifruit
6 sticks of Surimi
1 Ripe avocado
1 teaspoon lime juice
2 tablespoons Japanese Goma Dressing
6 sheets of prepared Inari Beancurd skin
Wasabi paste

Mash avocado with Goma Dressing and lime juice and half fill the Inari Beancurd skin. Add two peasized portion of Wasabi on top of the mashed avocado. Cut ZESPRI Green Kiwifruit and Surimi sticks and set on top of the avocado.

Serves 6


Video Clip of Recipe


Zespri Green Kiwifruit on ice with Oolong Jelly and Wolfberries

I have been drinking a lot more Chinese Tea lately, in particular Oolong and Pu Erh tea as they are great for lowering cholesterol levels. Hey, when you are eating stuff like Char Kway Teow, you really want to try balance it out with something that will help negate the ill effects of all that lard. One of those things I have been doing was to chill the tea in the fridge and drink it cold. When I got my supply of Kiwifruit, I thought that adding a few slices of Kiwifruit into the chilled tea might make it even more refreshing, and was quite surprised that the combination worked really well!

So rather than having just chilled Oolong with Kiwifruit, I thought it would be great to make a jelly using Oolong. With Konnyaku, people often add flavours, colours and sugar to make the jelly. But I just tried using just Oolong Tea with Konnyaku powder and found that it actually tastes quite refreshing without the addition of sugar. The Konnyaku powder does have a bit of sugar in it already, so the jelly is slightly sweet. With the sugar syrup, I originally used pandan flavoured syrup, but I felt that using wolfberries would give it some colour as well as flavour. Assemble all the ingredients in an ornate Chinese Tea cup and you have a dish that celebrates the Chinese origin of the Kiwifruit accompanied by the other Chinese ingredients of Oolong and wolfberries. It's a light, thirst quenching dessert for a hot day and you can make a big bowl of it like how we do with almond jelly with longan if you are serving at home.

Ingredients:

2 ZESPRI Green Kiwifruit
150mg Konnyaku powder
750ml brewed Oolong Tea
Half Cup wolfberries
2 Cup sugar
1 Cup water

Mix Konnyaku powder with brewed Oolong Tea and bring to boil. Pour into mould and set in the fridge. Dissolve sugar in the water and add wolfberries and bring to boil. Simmer for half and hour till wolfberries are soft and plump and chill in the fridge. To serve, shave or crush ice, top with cubed Oolong Konnyaku and Kiwifruit. Add wolfberries and syrup to taste.

Serves 4 to 6

Video Clip of this Recipe

Gold Kiwi Pudding with Sago

The idea for this final dish comes from the popular Mango Pudding dessert that we often get at Dim Sum restaurants. But it is difficult for gelatine to set with Kiwifruit because the Kiwifruit contains actinidine, an enzyme that breaks down protein. This is why if you marinade a tough cut of beef with Kiwifruit for half an hour, your meat is going to be nice and tender. Also you really don't want to cook the Kiwifruit as it would destroy the Vitamins. So in the end I just pureed the Kiwifruit and mixed it with the custard and was pleasantly surprised that it worked really well.

You can blend the Kiwifruit if you like but I find that if you use a blender, the seeds get cut and you get a grainy texture with your pudding. So after trying out a few ways of making pureed Kiwifruit, I suddenly realise that you can simply crush it by hand which is where the ziploc bag idea came it. With the ziploc bag, you can puree the kiwifruit, mix it with the custard and leave the whole bag in the fridge to chill. When you are ready to serve, cut off the corner of the bag and it turns instantly into a piping bag! The sago adds a local touch to the dessert as well as some texture to contrast with the smooth pudding.

Ingredients:

6 ZESPRI Gold Kiwifruit
Half Cup Pearl Sago
400ml milk or alternatively skim milk may be used
200ml Evaporated milk
4 Tablespoon Bird’s Custard Powder
4 Tablespoon sugar (adjust to taste)
Vanilla essence

To make Sago:

Rinse sago and add to pot of boiling water. Bring to boil then turn off heat and leave for 20 minutes. Bring water to boil again and cook until sago is transparent. Rinse in cold water and set in fridge.

To make custard:

Add 50ml of milk to custard powder and sugar and dissolve. Bring the rest of the milk and evaporated milk to boil. Slowly whisk the custard powder mixture into the hot milk and bring to boil. Add a few drops of vanilla essence to taste. Chill in fridge.

To assemble:

Cube the Gold Kiwifruit. Save some of the Kiwifruit for the topping and place the rest in a Ziploc bag. Use your hands to crush the kiwifruit into a puree. You can also use a blender if you wish, but the seeds will get cut and it will not taste as nice. Add equal amounts of the chilled Custard into the Ziploc bag and mix. You can now leave the bag of Custard in the fridge to chill.
When ready to serve, spoon the sago into a Martini glass. Cut the corner off the Ziploc bag and pipe the Kiwifruit Custard into the glass. Top with cubed Gold Kiwifruit and garnish with a slice of Green Kiwifruit.

Serves 4 to 6


Video Clip of this Recipe

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Zespri Kiwifruit: Ever wonder where your food comes from?

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Team Zespri Singapore on top of Auckland Harbour Bridge

The mention of New Zealand conjures up thoughts of crazy adventure, untouched mountain peaks, bungee jumping and succulent lamp chops. I have always wondered how a country with the same population of Singapore could achieve so much. They have the All Blacks, managed to produce a movie like "The Lord of the Rings", three nobel laureates and control one third of the world's dairy trade. Then of course there is Kiwifruit which was developed in New Zealand who now produces 80% of the world's supply of Kiwifruit.

New Zealand is a country which is still very much unspoilt and the Kiwis have the wisdom to want to keep it that way. Mention all the really fashionable environmentally friendly words such as "sustainability", "renewable energy", "organic", "carbon footprinting" and you can probably tag the word New Zealand at the end of it.

I would be the first to admit that I had never really thought about where my food comes from in the past. I guess like most Singaporeans, food comes from the supermarket. Being a non-agricultural country, most of us grow up not knowing what a farm is except from TV or the farm stays you would do once or twice in your life.

But of late, I have taken an interest in how our food is cultivated and grown. I guess it was partly due to the recent melamine milk scare which really brought the issue of food safety and quality to bare. Yes, we can buy that chicken or fruit from the supermarket shelf, but how nutritious it is really depends on how it has been grown. I recently managed to watch "Hugh's chicken run" where the differences in farming methods between mass produced chicken verses free ranged chicken are shown graphically. Even though I still buy whatever is on the supermarket shelves, at least now I am starting to consider paying a little more for chicken of a better quality. You can really taste the difference if you are using it for Shabu Shabu or chicken rice.

With fruit and vegetable production there are a few things to consider as well. The obvious things are the overuse of chemical pesticides and genetic modification of fruits. But perhaps what is not really well known is how the growing conditions actually affect the nutritional value of the produce. Let's take for instance Kiwifruit. Magnesium is one of the trace elements which is found in high concentration in Kiwifruit. It is responsible for energy metabolism, muscle contraction, and nerve impulse transmission, and bone mineralization. Men might want to make sure that they have adequate magnesium in the diet because it is a vasodilator and you need good vasodilatation if you want to be able to father kids. But where do you think the Kiwifruit gets its magnesium from? It's from the soil of course. So if you have unscrupulous farmers who overfarm the land, the soil is bound to be deficient in minerals and the result is a Kiwifruit that is less than optimal.

Thankfully, the farming in New Zealand is very well regulated. You can see from the slideshow just how organized the farms are. The tall hedges that you see are Canadian pine trees which are grown as a shield for strong winds which may disrupt the Kiwifruit vines. The growers are very much into sustainability and are united in supporting programs like Kiwigreen which is an integrated pest management system that reduces the requirement for artificial inputs and pesticides.

In the past, I never really paid much attention to the brand of Kiwifruit that I bought. Most of the Kiwifruit are unlabelled. So I have ended up buying quite a few Kiwifruits that were better used as paperweights. However, having visited the Kiwifruit farms and the packhouses. I can safely say that when I pick up a Kiwifruit with the Zespri label on it, I am assured that I am getting the very best Kiwifruit in the world.


Transporting freshly picked kiwifruit to be packed

As a company, Zespri controls the whole supply chain of the Kiwifruit with the exception of the growers who basically grow their Kiwifruit according to their strict guidelines. Besides having pristine conditions for growing the fruit, it is interesting to note that when they grade their Kiwifruit in the packhouses, they only select the best Kiwifruits to be exported. Most of the lesser grade Kiwifruits are sold at home or fed to the cows (really, no kidding). For the Singapore market, they have Kiwifruit in two different sizes. The smaller ones are sold at the big retailers like Cold Storage and Fairprice while the Mom and Pop shops usually sell the larger ones. So, if you find that Kiwifruit at the supermarkets are cheaper than the ones at the Mom and Pop shops, there is a good reason for it.


Wharenui - The Maori Meeting House

Another interesting note is that our Kiwifruit comes from one specific packhouse which are managed by the indigenous Maori people. As you know, the indigenous people of many countries in the world were often displaced when new migrants take over the country. It seems to me that New Zealand is one country where the indigenous affairs are quite well managed.

During our trip, we were invited to the Wharenui (meeting house) to meet the elders of the Maori community who own the farms that grow the Kiwifruit. During the half hour ceremony, lots of things were said in Maori where there was no translation. So we can only gather that they were somehow telling us about their history and welcoming us into their community. It was only after we rubbed noses that I found out that the Maoris of the past were cannibals who would eat the heart of their enemies! Anyway, the meeting was a way of introducing the Maori kids to the people (us) who were buying their Kiwifruit and supporting their community.


The red Kiwifruit might hit our shelves in a few years

There are actually many varieties of Kiwifruit. The familiar one which we all know of was the Hayward cultivar which was developed in New Zealand in the 1920's. But Kiwifruit can come in all shapes and sizes, some are hairy, others are not. (Like humans really and incidentally, I wonder about the Gold Kiwifruit. Is it just a coincidence that they are yellow on the inside, not hairy on the outside and its scientific name is Actinidia Chinensis?). The Zespri Gold Kiwifruit was a cultivar which was developed by Zespri which is why they are the only brand that offer the gold variety. It was basically developed to suit the Asian palate who prefer fruits that are sweeter, typical of tropical fruits. One of the possible cultivars which might make it to our supermarkets shelves in the next few years is this red colour one which is currently being developed by the Zespri scientists. The flavour is even smoother than gold, but it would be a big hit with the Pastry Chefs as it is a beautiful fruit to decorate with.


Sunrise over Lake Rotorua

Conclusion

As the world grapples with the problem of food shortage, farmers worldwide need to be able find the balance between producing food in greater quantities but at the same time not compromising on the quality and safety. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work that way. So, as consumers we do need to be a little more aware about the source of our food when we shop.

Fortunately, there are countries like New Zealand who are growing safe, sustainable and nutritious produce for the world. So, the next time you pick up a Kiwifruit with the Zespri Label on it, just remember that there is a difference in quality and taste and that you are also paying for a sustainable future and equitable farming methods.

Click here to read about the nutrional value of Kiwifruit

Here is a very recent clip from Channel News Asia highlighting the issues of food safety, sustainability and how Kiwifruit is being grown in New Zealand.

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Powershot Seminar Photos on Today

I had a great time at the seminar last Saturday and managed to meet Thomas Ong and Mary Bukoh. I think we all went away learning a few more things that can be done with our Powershot cameras. Both Mary and Thomas were really entertaining (They are, afterall, entertainers), and I always managed to pick up a few more tips from Jino everytime I hear him speak. BTW, in case you are wondering, Mary Bukoh is Chinese. Bukoh is made up of the surnames of both her parents. Both Mary and Thomas take excellent travel photos! You can checkout their blogs at thomasongtc.blogspot.com (the tc stands for Tian Chye) and www.marybukoh.com. Thomas promised to upload his Bhutan photos soon. (You can also play your part and give him a bit of pressure!) For some really stunning professional shots, you can check out Jino's website at jinolee.com.sg.

All in all, it was a really fun thing to do. Many thanks to Canon for involving me in the seminar!


Thomas Ong, Jino, myself and Mary Bukoh

Click this to hear the soundbite on 93.3

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Zespri Kiwifruit:: Super Nuitrition in one Small Package

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I often get asked how a Doctor can go about eating all these unhealthy hawker dishes. Well, the answer to that is summarized in my slogan "Never waste your calories on yucky food". Basically, that means that when I eat hawker food, or any other food for that matter, I want it to be worth the calories. The last thing I want is to get fat by something that is not tasty.

I might go out blogging at hawker centres perhaps once or twice a week. Of course, each time our kakis get together to eat, we might order several dishes, so that makes up for the three stalls I recommend every week. So, out of a possible 21 meals per week, I only eat around 3 meals at hawker centres and they are mostly eaten during lunch. Now, hawker food really isn't all that healthy as they generally lack fresh fruits and vegetables. In order to make up for the lack of vegetables and fruits, what I do is to have my five green juice every morning. This was a habit I picked up from my friend, Andrew, who never comes to visit me at the clinic because he swears by his five green juice. My dinner is usually at home after my evening clinic and it is a half portion meal of rice, meat and vegetables. The other half is made up of a big bowl of cut fruits. We usually have a variety of fruits which is all ready cut up in the fridge so that it is easily accessible. So between the five greens in the morning and the big bowl of fruit very night, I pretty much get all the necessary vitamins, minerals and fibre I need.

So really, a healthy diet is not just about "not wasting your calories on yucky food", it is also about eating a variety of different foods so that you get a balanced diet. If you think about it, you really are what you eat. Just look at your toes, they are made up of whatever you have eaten over the last XX years of your life. I almost wanted to say that if you put rubbish in, you get rubbish out. But that is not true. What really happens is that if you put rubbish in, it stays there and if you are unfortunate, one day, you might find that you have too much rubbish such that the machinery starts to break down. So, if you put rubbish in, you need to have some mechanism to take the rubbish out. That essentially is what a balanced diet is all about. Eat too much meat and cholesterol gets deposited in your arteries. But balance it with say some King Oyster mushrooms, which contain a naturally occuring statin (cholesterol lowering drug) and bingo, you just might have prevented yourself from ever getting a heart attack.

Another example is sodium. Now if you love salty food, you are going to get a whole load of sodium in your system which might translate to a high blood pressure. If you want to lower your blood pressure, what you need to do is to take less sodium and more potassium. These two elements are like kids on a seesaw. Eating more potassium will push the sodium out of your system and thereby decrease your blood pressure.


Zespri Kiwifruit Season starts!

Now, with that lengthy pre-amble, we can now discuss Kiwifruit.

Kiwifruit is one of those newish fruits which you might still be able to find some people who have not tasted it yet. It's in the same category as dragonfruit and pomegranates. Unlike apples, oranges, bananas and watermelon where you really have to be a Sua Gu (mountain tortoise) if you have never tasted these fruits.

Everyone probably knows that Kiwifruit is somehow linked to New Zealand. Afterall, the fruit is named after the famous flightless bird of the country. Twenty years ago, if you said Kiwi, you probably thought of the famous shoe polish brand. I guess twenty years ago, I was doing my NS and in the army everyone just refers to shoe polish as Kiwi. Incidentally, Kiwi shoe polish is not from New Zealand. Ironically, it was invented by an Australian who named his invention after his wife who was a New Zealander aka Kiwi.

Nowadays, if you mention Kiwi, you'd probably be talking about Kiwifruit. The name Kiwifruit was only coined in the 50's when the fruit started to be exported out of New Zealand. Before that, it was known as the Chinese Gooseberry (The Chinese call it "Yang Tao") and is actually native to China. The seeds were brought back to New Zealand by a school principal in 1906. Soon they began to cultivate the fruit and by 1924, the "Hayward" cultivar, which is the familiar emerald green Kiwifruit which we all know, was developed.

The Kiwifruit is quite an amazing fruit with it comes to its nutritional value. Not every fruit is created equal, and Kiwifruits, it seems have been endowed with a disproportionate amount of nutritional value. According to a paper by Dr Paul LaChance that was published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition (1), Kiwifruit came up tops as the fruit with the highest nutritional value, gram for gram, amongst a list of 27 popular fruits. In other words, you get more nutrition out of eating a mouthful of Kiwifruit than a mouthful of any other fruit.

Since everyone knows that "An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away", let's just compare Apples with App.... er... Kiwifruit.


Source: www.nutridata.com

As you can see, even though apples are highly nutritious fruits, they don't seem so great when they are placed side by side with Kiwifruit.

Now that doesn't mean that you can just eat Kiwifruit alone. You still need a balanced diet of all the different coloured fruits. However, if you are looking for a Vitamin C boost, then a Kiwifruit might be what you are looking for. The amount of Vit C contained in one Kiwifruit is equivalent to two oranges. By eating just one Kiwifruit, you get 95% of your recommended daily intake of Vitamin C. Everyone should know by now that Vit C has a big role to play in boosting the immune system which is particularly important during this period of the H1N1 (Swine) Flu.


Source: www.whfoods.com

Besides being packed with Vit C, Kiwifruit also has a particularly high amount of dietary fibre. One Kiwifruit an equivalent amount of soluble fibre as a cup of bran. Another interesting fact about Kiwifruit is that it contains an enzyme known as actinidine which is able to tenderize meat much like papain which is found in papaya. The combination of an enzyme that can breakdown proteins and high dietery fibre means that the Kiwifruit is very good for promoting digestion and is especially good for people (esp kids and elderly) who have problems with constipation.

A fruit which is so packed with nuitritional value is especially important for kids whose appetite is not as big as an adult. By taking just one Kiwifruit, which is only about the size of an egg, the child will be able to get all the Vit C he needs for the day, plus a whole lot of fibre and other Vitamins as well. In one study by an Italian team of doctors, it was found that kids eating a diet high in Vit C had significantly less asthma attacks than the kids who don't. (2) If your child is a small eater, then feeding him with one Kiwifruit might be much easier than to get him to eat a bowl of bran cereal to get some dietary fibre into him.


Zespri Gold Kiwifruit is really sweet!

Now, the main problem with Kiwifruit, given all its wonderful nuitritional value, is the fact that a lot of us have probably eaten ones which were sour and that sort of turned us off Kiwifruit. Well, my personal experience is that Kiwifruit can indeed be very sour especially when they are not ripe. (And if you bought the cheap 7 for $1 type) But then a mango that is not ripe can be sour too, but I am sure that hasn't turned you off mangos right? What you need to do is to actually taste a good quality Zespri Kiwifruit that is ripe and you would be won over. Having said that, I have to admit that even the ripe Green Kiwi Fruit is still a little zesty, very much like a ripe Strawberry. The good news is that the people at Zespri have cultivated a yellow (Zespri Gold) version which is much sweeter and less zesty than the green version.

If Green Kiwifruit tastes like a cross between Strawberry and lime, Gold Kiwifruit tastes like a cross between a Mango and Banana. I first picked up a Gold Kiwifruit last year and it won me over immediately. Even my kids love Gold Kiwifruit even though they would only take Green Kiwifruit if it was on top of a cake. Of course, you need to eat Kiwifruit when it is ripe if you like them sweet. The ones they sell at the stalls are generally ready to be eaten. But if you leave them in a paper bag together with a banana for 2-3 days, the fruit really ripens and it tastes almost like a nice sweet wine!

It is interesting to note that Kiwifruit are now produced by many countries outside of New Zealand, so you can actually get them year round. However, the Gold Kiwifruit is only available from May till November (the Kiwifruit season in New Zealand) as it is produced only by Zespri who are the sole distributor of New Zealand Kiwifruit. So if you spot the Zespri logo, you know you are getting quality Kiwifruits from New Zealand.

So if you have never liked Kiwifruit, the next time you are at the fruit stall, pick up a pack of Zespri Gold Kiwifruit and see if it will change your mind. It sure did mine.

References:

1 Lachance P, 1997, Journal of the American College of Nutrition
2 Francesco F et al, Consumption of fresh fruits rich in vit C and wheezing symptoms in children, Thorax 2000: 55 283-288

This advertorial was sponsored by Zespri

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Power in your hands! Seminar on Powershot Compact Cameras

You CAN take better photos with your compact camera!

Are you the type of person who buys stuff but never read the manual from cover to cover? Well, if you are, then don't always blame your camera if your photos don't come out the way you like. The problem might be because you still don't know all the functions of your camera.

This is even more so if you own a Canon Powershot camera since these cameras actually have lots of functions which you can make use of to take better photos. Just take the photos above for example. When shooting under bright sunlight, quite often harsh shadows are cast, making the subject look quite dark. By putting the camera to manual mode and turning on the built in flash, you can have a much better photo!

This Saturday, I will be sharing some other useful tips on how you can get the most out of your compact camera. There are lots of new "intelligent" functions in the latest Canon Powershot cameras which can literally make the photo look better than the real thing. So if you are interested, please come join Thomas Ong, Mary Bukoh and myself at the "Power in your hands" seminar at the Raffles City Convention Centre from 2pm to 5pm. You can register by emailing to radiopromo@mediacorp.com.sg or call 63597716. It only costs $10 to attend.

More info can be found at www.mediacorpradio.sg/power

Hope to see you there!

BTW, I promised Jems I would try to get Thomas Ong's Hp numb... er... autograph if she came to the seminar. So if you are also after his autograph and the queue is too long, do let me know and I'll see what I can do. ; )

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Food, Food, Food, Downunder

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Snow and Egg Cavier - Tetsuya's

It is really too bad that I only starting blogging about food recently. I should have started back when I was living down under. OK, blogging wasn't around then and neither was the internet so I guess people in those days must have kept a food diary of sorts. Gosh, those where the days when you had to ring your friends to ask for recommendations about where to eat! And sometimes you couldn't reach them cos mobile phones weren't readily available too.

Australia used to be quite a one dimensional country when it comes to food. I am talking about the days before they started their immigration policy back in the 50s. It was then that the first wave of migrants come from Southern Europe, predominantly Italians and Greeks to escape the ravages of a war torn Europe. Now it is said that half of every Australian has some Italian blood in them and that Melbourne has the largest population of Greeks outside of Greece. Then there came the wave of Hong Kong migrants in the 80's and 90's who made their home in Australia due to uncertainty of what was going to happen after the territory is returned to China.


Seafood by the Sea without the humidity

What all this immigration means is that Australia is truly a foodie's paradise with authentic cuisines from all parts of the globe. These migrants congregate together and literally take over whole suburbs. So in Sydney for instance, Leichardt is the area where there is a lot of Italians and consequently, a lot of great Italian food. The best pasta dish I ever ate was right there in Leichardt in a restaurant called Portofinos. I remember it was a really simple Penne with Chicken in cream sauce but somehow, there was something in that dish that makes me think about it 15 years later.


Fresh Seafood from the Fishmarkets

The thing about Australia is the wonderful and fresh produce, be it seafood, meats or veggies and fruits. So when migrants from Hong Kong got there, they combined their wonderful culinary skills with the produce and cooked up dishes that rival or even surpass that of Hong Kong. How is this possible? Well, imagine what a Hong Kong Chef can do with a Tasmanian King Crab. This is definitely one of those things which you have to eat when you are in Australia. The crab is huge and can weigh up to 13 kg. That is a lot of succulent crab meat! I don't know how much it is now, but when I graduated from Med School, the first thing I did with my first paycheck was to bring my family to eat Tasmanian King Crab at a Chinese Restaurant in Sydney. The Crab was cooked in three courses and my Mother-in-law even brought the arm length pincer back to Singapore. At that time, it was going for about $30 per kg, so that meal sort of wipe out half my paycheck. I am serious! As a houseman I used to earn $1800 per month. Fifty percent of it was taxed, so I took home only $900. That crab cost me $330 (You never forget such an expensive crab) and the rest of the dishes came up to almost $500. So that meal really did cost half my paycheck!


Tetsuya Wakuda

I have two regrets when I think back about my time in Sydney. The first is that I never took my classmate, Terence Kwan's advise to go eat at Tetsuya's when the reservation list was still in the weeks rather than in the months. Tetsuya's is probably the most well known restaurant in Sydney which is run by a Japanese born chef who migrated to Australia, worked his way up from a kitchenhand to become one of Australia's best known chefs. Tetsuya's menu is like every other really famous restaurants. You don't get to choose what you want to eat, you just go there and get served what the chef thinks you should eat.


Harry's Cafe de Wheels

The other regret that I have is that I never went to Harry's Cafe de Wheels. This is probably one of the most famous pie restaurants in Australia and its still like a little makeshift shop by the road. Pies are to Australians what a plate of Chicken Rice is to us Singaporeans. It is what every Aussie craves to eat when they get back home. (Ok, maybe not every Aussie, but when I get back to Australia, I usually make sure I get to eat some meat pies). The thing with Harry's is that they have been around for over 70 years and is a bit of an institution. The next time I am back in Sydney, I am going to get down to Woolloomoolloo and get me one of those pies with mushy peas piled over it.

Now, you might not think about eating Thai food in Australia, but I tell you that I first fell in love with Thai food while I was living in Australia, a love which I maintained when I lived in Thailand, but which I eventually lost when I came back to Singapore. Believe me, the best Thai Food in the world (in my world at least) is in a little restaurant in the suburb of Epping in Sydney called Tom Yum Thai. Until today, the best green curry chicken and red curry beef that I have eaten is made by the Thai chef in this little restaurant. When you eat here, one bowl of curry is all you need to down three bowls of rice. It is really that tasty. If someone were to offer me to fly anywhere around the world to eat Thai food, I'd sooner fly to Sydney than Bangkok!


Grape harvesting

If you are planning a food tour to Australia, then a Wine and Cheese tour of the wine growing regions is a must do. There are wine growing regions in most of the Southern states of Australia. Among the most well known are the The Hunter Vally near Sydney, Barossa Valley near Adelaide and Margaret River near Perth. Now, a Wine and Cheese tour really does fulfill the deepest desire of every Singaporean which is to be able to go to somewhere and just eat all the cheese and drink all the wine for FREE! Just remember to be "Jee Dong" and buy some bottles to bring home yeah? If you are just getting into wine or are planning to, then a trip to a vineyard is a necessary step towards vino enlightenment.



Oh, before I forget, I want to tell you that you get really good sushi in Australia as the Coast of Australia are the natural habitat of the bluefin tuna and other seafood delicacies. So a visit to a Sushi restaurant is a must, as is a visit to the fishmarkets. At the Sydney fishmarkets, you get to handpick your fish and lobster and sit down by the water to enjoy your meal. They sell plenty of sushi right there at the fishmarkets too.

Speaking of Japanese food, you really must try Teppanyaki in Australia. Over there, the Teppanyaki chefs really have lots of fun with the patrons. It is not uncommon for the chef to hurl eggs into the air for patrons to catch with their bowl or using their scrapers to shoot pieces of fried egg into the mouths of patrons. Expect them to throw bowls of fried rice into the air for you to catch!

One of the great things about being a food blogger is that we are part of a fraternity with instant friends from all over the world. So I contacted the bloggers at eatshowandtell.com, one of Sydney's most popular food blogs and they have very kindly listed their Top eats in Sydney for us. They have also very wisely divided them into gourmet and cheap eats category. Thanks very much to Teresa and Howard of eatshowandtell.com.

Top 10 gourmet restaurants (Tetsuya's is in a class of its own)

In no particular order:

• Marque, Surry Hills (French)
• Pier, Rose Bay (Seafood)
• Berowra Waters Inn, Berowra (French)
• est, Sydney (Seafood)
• Becasse, Sydney (French)
• Longrain, Surry Hills (Thai)
• Grand National, Paddington (European/french)
• Fish face, Kings Cross (Mod Oz)
• Azuma, Sydney (Japanese)
• Four in Hand, Paddington (French)

Top Cheap Eats

• Mamak, Chinatown (for Malaysian)
• Ryo's Noodles, Crows Nest (for ramen - great fish stock ramen)
• Gusto's, Paddington (for cafe style food)
• Danks St Depot, Waterloo (for brunch - creamed eggs in truffle oil)
  
• Bills (for brunch. they have very nice breakfast foods)
• Thainatown, Chinatown (Quickest, yummiest, and cheapest pad thai and food in general)
• Chat Thai, Chinatown (Very popular Thai food)
• Campos, Newtown (Best affogato and coffee)
• Single Origin Coffee (One of Sydney's best coffee joints. Only open on weekdays)
• Toby's Estate (Another great coffee joint. Lovely coffee beans)
• Jasmine's, Lakemba (Lebanese food)
• Juju's, Kings Cross (Authentic Japanese)
• Masuya, Sydney (Japanese. Fresh raw fish and very polite service)
• La Disfida, Haberfield and Rosso Pomodoro (Authentic italian pizzas)
• Prime, Sydney (for steaks)
• Adriano Zumbos, Balmain (Desserts/macaroons.)
• Lindt Chocolate Cafe, Darling Harbour/Martin Place (Chocolate lovers!)

For more places to eat, check out their excellent food blog: eatshowandtell.com

So, if you are thinking of a food trip to taste food from all over the world, all you really need to do is head downunder. Its a great time to fly now when Qantas is offering to fly to two cities for as low as $869!

Check out the great Come Walkabout in Australia offers at www.australia.com or call 1800-GO-TO-AUS (1800-46-86-287) to speak to an Aussie Specialist travel agent now.

For more information about the special promotion, please visit www.qantas.com.sg

All photos are copyright Tourism Australia

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POSB Everyday Champion Award: Ice Hockey by Day, Rojak by night!

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Khu Soon Hin, Rojak Man by night, ice hockey coach by day

So what does a photo of an ice hockey player have anything to do with food?

Well, like Clarke Kent, when this National Ice Hockey player isn't in his "Superman" suit, he lives his life incognito as your friendly neighbourhood Rojak man. I guess when you are buying his rojak, little would you imagine that the wooden spoon that he is holding in his hand can suddenly become a lethal weapon that can hurl a piece of You Char Kway across the air onto an unsuspecting patrons plate.

Khu Soon Hin is just your average everyday Singaporean with passion for a sport that he promotes and shares with a team of youths from his neighbourhood. He is one of 57 individuals and organizations who have been honoured at the inaugural POSB Everyday Champions award ceremony. The purpose of the award is to acknowledge individuals and organizations who have made that extra effort to motivate and inspire others to connect and grow through sports.

Soon Hin told me that he used to live near Rex Cinema as a kid and there used to be an ice skating rink there. He would get in the rink to play catching with his friends. After a while the interest grew and he started playing ice hockey. At night, he helps to run a rojak and cuttlefish kangkong stall at the Pasir Panjang Food Centre. He says that they are one of the very few stalls which sells a special toasted and pounded cuttlefish which his parents has been selling for 30 years.

He was quite modest about the hawker stall which he helps run. They are proud of their food of course, and they have managed to get some accolades from the usual sources. But by his own admission, when he is selling rojak, he is just like any other hawker there in the food centre, working hard to make a living.

However, it is his passion for ice hockey and the fact that he now has a group of youth all looking up to him that has become his life's modus operandi. His life is testimony to how sports can turn ordinary people into people of influence who can inspire others towards excellence. It is not just about the sports of course, but about life and living it to the fullest.


Joel Tay, Coach of Cedar Girls Athletics Team

This is the first year that the POSB Everyday Champions Award is being held and it received a record number of almost 3,400 nominations. Of these, the judges have chosen 57 to receive the awards. These people come from all walks of life. Some are individuals like Soon Hin while others are coaches or organizations. During the event, I bumped into Joel Tay, whose family just happen to be patients of mine. Joel is an athletics coach at Cedar Girls School. A lot of parents tend to favour studies over sports and so they might not be supportive of their daughter's sporting aspirations. Joel often steps in to encourage the parents to allow their daughter to develop to their full potential. As a result of his dedication, one of his girls, Clara Poon managed to set a new National 'C' Girls 400m record at the National Track & Field Championships.


Ice Hockey Rojak Man Khu Soon Hin and myself at the event

These awards are important as part of Singapore's effort to promote sports and a healthy lifestyle. It is so significant that our President Nathan himself was present to lend his support and endorsement. We were told by Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister of Community Development, Youth and Sports in his speech that the President himself does a daily 4km walk in order to keep fit. (Perhaps that is about the length of the perimeter around the Istana grounds?).

So anyway, the awards are not over yet. From now till 15 Mar 2009, you can log onto the official website to vote for your favourite Everyday Champion. The top three POSB Everyday Champions stand to win some cash and by voting, you too stand to win $1000.

You can find out more about who these people are and vote for them by clicking here:

In case you want to try Soon Hin's stall, the address is:

Hua Kee Rojak and BBQ Seafood
Pasir Panjang Food Centre
Stall 10,11,12
Open 4pm till 12am everyday
Tuesdays closed

Our kakis had a makan session there, the photos are here.

POSB Everyday Champion website is here

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Romancing the Australian Outback

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What was your first contact with Australia?

I remember mine very clearly. My uncle had just come back from his studies in the University of Western Australia and bought me one of those stuffed Koala Bears with a windup musical box in the belly. Being an aspiring surgeon, I wanted to know how the musical box worked, so that was when I performed my first surgical procedure. It was interesting to learn that the tune was produced by a comb of different lengths being was "plucked" by a revolving drum. Of course I got scolded by my mom who said that I was a little destroyer. However, that tune was etched in my memory forever. It was when I went to Australia for my studies that I found out that the haunting tune was none other than that all time favourite Aussie bush ballad, Waltzing Matilda.



When I was growing up, the mystique of Australia revolved around Koala Bears (not really a bear btw), Kangaroos and Sheepskin rugs. Nowadays, you can get Koala Bears at Toys R Us, Kangaroos at the Singapore Zoo and Sheepskin rugs at Ikea. Australia has become more of a tourist destination where people can explore the vastness of the Australian outback or simply find a quiet place for a romantic getaway where its just the two of you, some wine and cheese and a beautiful sunset over a horizon without oil tankers.


The Blue Mountains

One of the most awesome landscapes that I have come across during my seven years stay in Sydney has to be when I was dining at the Hydro Majestic Hotel in the Blue Mountains. The Hydro Majestic was built at the turn of the 20th century and has a huge dining area which overlooks the breathtaking Megalong Valley (Incidentally, Megalong is an Aboriginal word. It is not called Megalong because the Valley is Mega-Long. But then again, they did coin the Blue Mountains because they look blue....). I think most Singaporeans might miss the Hydro Majestic when they visit the Blue Mountains because they usually just get to Katoomba, take a photo in front of the three sisters and go back to the city. If you need to present an offer that your girlfriend cannot refuse, then this is one of those great places to make that proposal.


Hunter Valley

Another beautiful place which I have been to was when I did my rotation as a senior Medical Student at Cowra Hospital which is located smack in the middle of the Hunter Valley wine growing region. I was married then, so we managed to spend a few romantic evenings at the Hospital's Resident Quarters. But I jest. The Hunter Valley is a wonderful place where you can visit a Vineyard, taste the wine and then settle down in a cafe for a meal with the sound of the vines rustling in the wind. Again, another great place to make that offer she cannot refuse.



Anyway, there are lots of other romantic spots across the vast country and now is a great time to visit since our Singapore Dollar is currently on par with the Australian Dollar. In addition, Qantas is having a great promotion where you can get to fly to two different cities for as low as $869. There are also some great new packages that feature new destinations for the adventurous and romantic at heart.


Climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Check out the great Come Walkabout in Australia offers at www.australia.com or call 1800-GO-TO-AUS (1800-46-86-287) to speak to an Aussie Specialist travel agent now.

For more information about the special promotion, please visit www.qantas.com.sg

All photos are copyright Tourism Australia

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Canon ieat Photography Workshop for Teachers of Dunman Secondary School

When I was in school, IT wasn't even a subject. Now it is an indispensable part of the curriculum. But teachers themselves might not be IT savvy, so how to teach the subject to students, many of whom are already blogging and online gaming?

As part of an effort to inspire the teachers, the IT dept invited me to conduct a lecture and workshop on Blogging and Food Photography. Around twenty teachers were in attendance and after the lecture, everyone got an opportunity to take some photos of the Sushi. It is interesting to note that the Sushi was eaten by some other teachers who came after the workshop and that none of the teachers who took the photos actually ate the Sushi......

I think this is the first time I got to teach teachers. I must say they were a well behaved bunch who didn't talk in class. Darn, I was keen to see if I can do what my Chinese teacher always threaten to do to us if we talked in class - "Go out and stand in the Sun!"

Many thanks to Eric, the Head of IT Dept of Dunman Secondary School for inviting me to conduct the workshop.

This workshop was made possible through the kind sponsorship of Canon Singapore.

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The Canon-ieat Penang Photo and Food Trip: So is the grass really greener on the other side?

I've just return from the first official ieatishootipost overseas food trip and boy do I have lots of blog posts to write! Our team comprised of 15 participants, 7 of whom where there for food and photography while the rest were there for photography and food.

Penang is a real foodies' paradise and I have heard comments ranging from "Singapore food is nothing compared to Penang's" to "Penang food really cannot make it leh!". So I was on a personal mission to track down Penang's most famous and best eats to see if the grass (Char Kway Teow in this case) is greener on the other side or if we should be happy with the grass we have in Singapore.

Apart from accompanying Canon Photo Professional, Jino, who spent over 30 years of his life in Penang, we were very fortunate to be joined by leading Penang blogger, CK Lam, who blogs on the very popular www.what2seeonline.com. CK tagged along for all four days and we managed to cover quite a lot of food stalls. And the best thing is that being a blogger, she didn't just bring us to the famous ones but also included some hidden gems which our tour guide knew nothing about.

We went during a very festive period in Penang and managed to capture shots of World Heritage sites like the Kek Lok Si temple, Clan Houses and Chew Jetty which were all lit up for the Chinese New Year celebrations. Our photography tour also included the butterfly gardens, Penang Hill, Fort Cornwalis and we even ventured to "The end of the world".

Being with a group of "Camera Siow" enthusiasts can be quite daunting. Some of the photographers were going around with equipment worth a whole years' salary hanging off their necks, waists, backs and any anatomical parts where you could hang an equipment bag. On one of the nights, I actually "caught" four grown men giggling away behind the door of their hotel room with all their cameras set on tripods taking photos of each other's cameras! You might think that that kind of behaviour is a bit queer, but then again, they might also think that a bunch of people running around town just eating at stall after stall haven't really got their lens screwed on too tight either.

Anyway, we all had a great time and I am satisfied that I have tasted enough of Penang food to make up my own mind on how green the grass in Penang really is. So, stay tuned over the next few weeks as I slowly work through all the stalls that we visited. In the meantime, you might like to try identifying the stalls that we visited from the photos in the slideshow.

Many thanks to Canon for jointly organizing the trip with ieatishootipost!

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The First Blogger Blood Donation Drive attracted 150 bloggers!

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Congratulations to Nuffnang Singapore for successfully organizing the very first blogger blood donation drive on Saturday, 29th November!

A total of 150 intrepid bloggers turned up for the event to do their bit for the blood bank. I am sure some must have been fighting belonephobia (fear of needles), but in the end, it was the combination of friendship and an atmosphere of fun which helped them get over the fear. Besides, it was a great way to make new friends and of course there was lots of food as well.

If you have missed this blood donation drive, don't worry, as I am sure there will be a sequel some time in the future. In the meantime, you can see what you missed here.

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Join the First Bloggers Blood Donation Drive in Singapore

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We all know the importance of the blood bank in Singapore and I am sure a lot of us wouldn't mind giving blood. But usually the thing that holds us back is the lack of opportunity as well as the fear of the needle.

Well, one good way of overcoming this is to rally a couple of friends together and do it as a team effort. Safety in numbers is still quite a strong survival instinct, so when you go with others, it is usually less daunting and a lot more fun.

To make it even more fun, Nuffnang is organizing the first bloggers blood donation drive in Singapore. As a run up to the event, they are also playing the role of the SDU and getting our prospective participants to signup on their Facebook account so that we can get to meet new friends as well.

So do visit the Event Microsite by clicking here, and also join the Facebook group here. Join the community and make history by being part of Singapore's first blogger blood donation drive!

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Hovid New Website: Buy your Nutritional Supplements online!

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The last time I had my cholesterol levels done, I found that my triglycerides were a little elevated. So I started taking Omega 3 fish oils which have been scientifically proven to lower triglyceride levels. Although triglycerides have not been shown to be a risk factor for cardiac disease, it is still prudent to keep the levels low as high levels may lead to other problems such as pancreatitis.

Nutritional supplements are useful to keep one in optimum health. It is true that you are what you eat. So for foodies who love to eat all the yummy hawker fare, it is good sometimes to stop and do a stocktake. Of course, the best way is to keep to a good balanced diet with lots of fruits and vegetables. However, sometimes it is hard to adhere to a strict diet, so that's where supplements can sometimes play a role. Personally, I don't get to eat a lot of fish, so a supplement of Omega 3 fish oil capsules is a convenient way to ensure that I take something useful to maintain my health.

Another useful supplement is glucosamine which has been proven to help people who have joint pains due to osteoarthritis. Glucosamine is a component of cartilage (soft bones) and medical professionals routinely prescribe it to patients suffering from degenerative joint problems.

You may also know of the benefits of Vit E as an antioxidant and its use in cosmetic products. Some research has also shown that a form of Vit E called tocotrienols are more potent in their antioxidant, cardioprotective and anti cancer effects than normal Vit E (tocopherols). Proponents of Anti-aging medicine advocate that anyone above the age of 40 should consider taking a daily supplement of tocotrienols to maintain a healthy heart as well as to prevent cancer.



These useful supplements are widely available in pharmacies. But, for those who prefer the convenience of buying your supplements online, you might like to check out Hovid.sg. Hovid is an established pharmaceutical company which operates their cGMP compliant manufacturing plant in Malaysia. In fact, I do order some of my generic drugs in the clinic from them, so it is a familiar brand name to professionals in the healthcare industry. Hovid also holds the patent on extraction of tocotrienols from palm oil and operates the largest integrated plant in the world for the extraction of this phytonutrient. Their tocotrienol products are also available for sale online under the brand name Tocovid.

The website is quite easy to navigate. It is very much like most online shopping sites. The items all come with a picture and price tag. Click on the tab to add to your shopping cart and then check out at the end. They charge $10 for delivery in Singapore so it makes sense to order in bulk. Few items that I checked out was Omega 3 and glucosamine.

So if you are an armchair shopper looking for some health supplements, you might like to check out their new website at: http://hovid.sg.

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The Ieat - Canon Food Photography Workshop

Isn't it amazing to see so many DSLRs snapping away in a restaurant? I wonder what the restaurant manager would have done if our group had arrived unannounced?

Last Saturday, 30 kakis gathered at Shin Kushiya restaurant at Vivo City for the very first ieat - Canon food photography workshop to "EAT" and "SHOOT". The session started with resident professional, Jino giving a presentation on the technical aspects of photography followed by my presentation on food photography.

After getting some tips to work on, we unleashed our hungry photographers onto the unassuming food. If this had been a war movie, it would look like a scene where hundreds of canons (pardon the pun) are being fired upon a flock of sheep! Anyway, our photographers all exhibited the marks of a true food photographer, patiently snapping away at the food rather than succumbing to the temptation to eat it first.

After the session, our photographers submitted their best photos for the competition. So without further ado, may I present the winners of the photo competition!

Taste in food is subjective, so is taste in photography. So let me just state that the judge's decision is final and blah blah blah.......and so on and so forth and so fifth.

1st Prize - Jimmy Lee


This is the runaway favourite. Very nicely composed picture. The backlighting highlights the translucency of the shallots and the shadows give the picture a very dramatic feel. The steam rising from the miso soup is very difficult to capture and Jimmy managed to catch the moment beautifully. Perhaps the only thing is to pay more attention to the arrangement of the crockery in the background.

2nd Prize - Wahcow


I like the bokeh (the blurred bits) of this photo. Wahcow managed to get the rim of the bowl plus the rice on the chopsticks in focus and the background is a very pleasing arrangement of bowls which tells you the story of what is happening. This picture would have scored higher if the rice grains on the chopsticks were a little more accentuated. The top is just slightly overexposed. Would also be nice to see a little shimmer on top of the rice.

3rd Prize - Michael Luthi


The thing that is most pleasing about this picture is the balance of colours between the yellow cheese cake and the blue plate, accentuated by the green mint leaf. There is also the nice inclusion of elements such as the texture of the lemon slice and the fork. The contrast between the yellow surface of the cheese cake and the shadows on the sides accentuates the corners of the slice. Would be nice to see a bit more of the red on the top right corner.

OK, so those are the winners. Next let me post some of the consolation prize winners. Sorry guys, you don't actually get a real prize. But since you won the "Consolation" prize, here is the "Consolation": "There, there, its a good effort. You'll do better next time!"


Photo by: Kerk Sheen

Nicely composed. I like placement of the grilled pork skewer over the rice which gives the picture a point of focus. However, there are 2 things that can be improved. The chopsticks are overexposed so we can't see the texture of the wood grain. The pork looks dry, probably because it was left for too long before the picture was taken! So sometimes have to be quick to shoot!


Photo by Terrence Yap

I was attracted to the colour balance of this picture. There is the blue on the right top corner, the green on the left, bit of golden yellow from the tungsten light reflecting off the plate and the translucent grey jelly in the middle contrasted on the black plate. The problem is that the cream has melted so it looks unappetizing.


Photo by Denison Tan

I like the highlight on the legs of the crab which tells you straight away that you are looking at a crab and the way the legs draw the eyes diagonally across the picture. However I think the photo was not cropped properly so it is not so well balanced.


Photo by Wilson Tan

This photo demonstrates quite nicely how backlighting can show translucency of food, in this case, the salmon flesh. It would be nice to also capture the shimmer of the surface of the flesh. One way to do this is to have the salmon arranged in such a way that it has one surface horizontal to catch the shimmer and the other vertical to catch the translucency.


Photo by Brandon Yeo

The diagonal placement of the skewers lends a dynamic edge to the photo and the red coloured prawn heads with the charred legs immediately gives you that feeling of crunching the crispy legs in your mouth. I think it is slightly overexposed and may look more balanced if it not cropped so closely. Also it would be better if the legs and head of the first prawn was all in focus.

Now, I was pretty busy that day to really pay attention to all the food. But the one item that really stood out were the Kushiyaki. They specially import "White" charcoal from Japan to grill the skewers which results in a nice smoky flavour that is crisp on the outside and juicy on the inside. The pork Kushiyaki was something I can eat quite a few of. 4.25/5

Conclusion

I thought it was an enjoyable session overall and I also learnt a lot from it. It's always nice to meet with like minded people!

Have a look at the pics and let us know which are your favourites and why!

Thanks to Shin Kushiya for helping to organize the event.

Shin Kushiya
#02-120
Vivo City
11.30am to 11pm daily

This session was made possible by the nice people at Canon.








Remember to vote today! Click here

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