The First ieat-weMeet-weEat session: The Aftermath

With liverpool, smart, iwatch_ueat, Amagada, Laplace, Caesium, eastcoastlife, EdAltis, sorjourner, SCS Butter, Happi Mummi, neuros neuros and friends still thinking about their pen names.


Create Your Own

Phew! After a month of planning we finally had the very first ieat-weMeet-weEat session. Here is the report and pics for those who could not make it. The ieat-associates have all rated the food and the results are in. So I am not going to comment on the food, but instead I will just post the pics and let the ieat-associates write their individual reviews instead.

The evening started with the ieat table quiz where everyone got their brains churning by trying to identify pictures of different foods from the blog. After 2 rounds of intense, appetite stimulating brain work, tables 1 and 2 were tied. It was eventually up to Caesium to break the deadlock with his brilliant answer to the question: "What is ieat's favourite lens?" (Canon 60mm f2.8 Macro)

The ieat-guru honours went to Happi Mummi after several rounds of intense brain wringing questions. She was deadlocked with liverpool in the naming of foods that have yet been blogged. Eventually she tipped liverpool with her strategic answer to the question: "How many hits does the blog get daily on average?" Liverpool, due to poor strategy and lack of self control, blurted his answer point blank -- 1200, to which Happi Mummi immediately quipped 1201! She won because the blog currently gets around three times that number of hits.

The final surprise of the evening was the arrival of our special guest -- The Butcher, who had just finished a hard days' work experimenting with possibly a first in Singapore and probably in Johor and Batam. He had finished his very first batch of Wagyu Sausages and whisked down to let the ieat-associates give their feedback on his new creation!

All in all, I think we all enjoyed the evening (me especially)and it was great to eventually put a face behind the pen name.

Here then are the pics of the 9 course meal we had and the aggregate ratings that were given. OK guys, time to Zhor Gang! (Do some work) Over to you to give your review of the dishes!


Cold Dish - Shark's Fin Egg Fu Yong, Braised Chicken, Heh Zhor 3.5/5


Special 4 Flavour Soup with Sliced Abalone 4/5


Thai Style Fried Fish 3.75/5


Dog Stew Duck 4/5


Home Made Tofu 4.5/5


Pork Rib King 4.5/5


French Beans with Sambal dried prawns 4.25/5


Special fried La Mien 3.5/5


Yam paste 4/5



Wow! This is the very first time I have come across Wagyu Sausages. Unfortunately the Wagyu Sausages were cooked by the Zi Yean Chef who simply blanched the sausages and served them. They should rightly be grilled so that the Wagyu fats could sizzle and release their aroma. Anyway it was still a real novelty and left a nice beefy aftertaste on the palate.

Acknowledgements

• Butcher Chia for providing the Wagyu surprise and the Sausage Samplers for everyone
• SCS Butter and Happi Mummi for organizing the games and sponsoring the table gifts and prizes
• iwatch_ueat for calling everyone up, registering and collecting the money
• Smart and Liverpool for encouraging me to stage the event
• Everyone who turned up and their support for ieatishootipost
• Apple and Lao Ban Niang from Zi Yean Restaurant who were extremely helpful with the organization of the event

Ha! eastcoastlife has already beaten me to the report! Hers came out on the night itself! Click here

Zi Yean Restaurant
Blk 56 Lengkok Bahru #01-443
64740911

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Stop Press! Hot Dogs! Get your Hot Dogs! @Astons

With PowerAunty, ArtyMary and iwatch_ueat

The Round $9.50

I have been learning to appreciate various types of sausages since I blogged about Butcher House and I thought that it would be great if these gourmet sausages could be available perfectly grilled and ready to eat. Luckily, I know a guy by the name of Aston who just happens to run a restaurant.

Aston is always looking for new stuff to wow his customers. As always, he offers quality stuff at really competitive prices. These Butcher House sausages are not your normal everyday sausages which use all the leftover meats, innards and gristle that have fallen onto the floor of the butchery. These are sausages that have been made with quality cuts of meats and have limited preservatives since they are made fresh at the factory everyday.


The Grand Sampler $12.50 From top: Kielbasa, Chicken n Cheese, Bratwurst and Snail

The Grand Sampler is just what it is, a sampler of 4 different kinds of sausages which is great as a side dish if you are dining with several friends. The Chicken and Cheese is made from seasoned chicken thigh meat and Gouda Cheese and is really juicy and savoury. The melted Gouda sets this Chicken and Cheese apart from others that I have tasted 4.5/5

The other sausage that was really good was the Kielbasa, which is a smoked Polish sausage made from roughly chopped pork and beef with majoram, mixed spices and lots of garlic. 4.25/5 You probably have seen the Snail sausage before at Marche. It is a pork sausage that has lots of italian herbs. 4/5

Last of the sampler is the Pork Bratwurst (Brat - finely chopped, Wurst - Sausage) which is a German sausage made from chopped pork and spices. This one was good but we thought that perhaps it would be nice to offer something a little more different from the Snail. So tomorrow onwards it will be replaced by a Spicy Italian Sausage.

Conclusion

If you are a sausage lover, I think you will agree that Astons has pulled off yet another value for money deal. The great thing is that the alliance between Astons and Butcher House means that they are going to rotate through the almost 50 different flavours of sausages that the Butcher House produces. The Butcher House is also able to custom make boutique sausages for its customers. Who knows? One day they might even do a Uniquely Singaporean Super Duper Die Die Must Try Sausage. Any suggestions, anyone?


Astons Specialties
119 East Coast Road Opp Katong Mall
91474627
astonsspecialties.blogspot.com

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Special Feature: Butcher House: German Sausages made in Macpherson!

When I was just a kid I remembered going to the neighbourhood "Kek Huay Tiam" (Grocery Store) to buy a can of sausages. I had to repeat the word sausage three times before the lady got the message and blurted out "Orh, you want Haw Lok (hot dog) izzit?"

It was while I was studying in Australia that I realise that most butcher shops actually made their own of sausages. As Singaporeans become accustomed to having more authentic western cuisine, specialised butchers like Swiss Butchery and Espirito Santo began to appear to cater to the growing number of well travelled Singaporeans as well as expats. These butchers offer specialty cuts of meats, cold cuts and sausages which are difficult to find in your friendly neighbourhood NTUC or even Cold Storage.

The latest specialty butchery tapping into this growing market is Butcher House located in River Valley Road. Opened only 4 months ago by Mr Y L Chia and his team of butchers, this is probably the first "Western" Butcher that is wholly Singaporean own with their own sausage production facility.

Mr Chia is just your regular Teochew Ah Hia (like me) who has never even been to Germany or Europe for that matter. But when you taste his sausages, you'd think that there must be some German blood in him. He was making sausages for the Swiss Butchery for 10 years before he decided to start his own factory to produce his own blend of sausages. You'd be amazed at the variety that he churns out. From Bockwurst to Spicy Italian to Chicken and Cheese, the list is exhaustive.

The Chicken and Cheese is the best I've ever tasted. He uses only chicken thigh meat and does not add any flour or starch fillers. The big difference in the taste comes from the use of quality Gouda cheese. At $24 per kilo, the chicken and cheese is great value and guaranteed to give you that umami rush. 4.5/5



Besides sausages, he also makes his own variety of cold cuts. I really enjoyed the beef pastrami and mushroom lyoner. They also produce whole legs of honey baked ham. Mr Chia explains that hams are now injected with brine rather then soaked, which drastically reduces the marination time.


Smoked Duck Breast

The service at the butchery is excellent. Because they make all the sausages themselves, the butchers are more than happy to present some freshly grilled sausage samples. Beware though, you are not likely to walk away empty handed once you have tasted the sausages! You must get them to grill some smoked duck breast for you to sample as well. It was very tender and smoky and really good for a tasty warm sandwich. 4.5/5



The butchery also stocks very good cuts of Beef like Wagyu grade 7 Ribeye ($280/kg), NZ rack of Lamb and Kurobuta Pork. If you like to prepare Korean BBQs, they have nice Beef Short Ribs (Aust) here for $32/kg. Those planning a BBQ might like to do something fancy and pick up a selection of marinated skewered meats and specialty sausages rather then settle for the usual chicken wings and chicken franks.



Mr Chia was kind enough to showed us around his brand new sausage factory in Macpherson and gave us an overview of the sausage making process. Basically, the meats and spices are finely chopped up in a special machine and then pushed into the sausage casing which is usually derived from sheep intestines. Interestingly, this is the most expensive part of the sausage but most of the time you will not even think about it when you are savouring your sausage. The outer casing is made by stripping away all the fleshy intimal layers so as to leave only with the tough, transparent outer layer (Serosa). This is the same stuff they use to make strings for your squash and tennis racquets. (Which is why they are called Gut) After the filling process, the sausages are either cooked in 70 degree water or put into the smoker (pic above). Sausages prepared this way is deemed cooked and ready to be eaten!



Conclusion

I really admire the entrepreneurial spirit in Mr Chia. He grew up in Hougang "6 pieces of rock" (lit Teochew translation meaning "six milestones") helping his Uncle sell meat in the wet market before joining Swiss Butchery as an apprentice sausage maker and working his way up to become the Top Dog (head sausage maker). When you talk to him you would hardly consider him to be "Ang Mo Pai" (westernised), but his sausages are so authentic that he has even earned the stamp of approval from local German Chefs. If you love sausages, you must make a trip down to the Butcher House to try their wide selection. I think you'd be amazed that these "German" Sausages are actually made in our very own backyard!

Note: All sausages are currently on 10% discount!

Butcher House
464 River Valley Road
(Opp Valley Point)
68873464/98339280
Monday to Thursday 10am to 7pm
Friday to Sat 10am to 8pm
Sunday closed
Acknowledgement: Recommended by sailfree

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Erich's Wuerstelstand: The last Sausage Kiosk before the Equator

This blog is NOT about food. It's about a unique food experience.



Most readers would already have known about Erich Pollski, the eccentric Austrian Sausage Chef who is married to a Philippino and has chosen to settle in Singapore after travelling the world.

So what would a quirky Austrian do in Singapore? Run a German Sausage stand, that's what, AND put the stall in the middle of Chinatown of all places! If you ask me, it's just a stroke of marketing brilliance! Within the 2 years that he has started the stall, he has already shaken hands with the President, the Austrian Ambassador and even helped make a 88m long sausage for charity!



When I got there, there was a bunch of noisy Japanese tourists who have just finish their visit at the store. Yeah, come to Singapore Chinatown and see the last German Hotdog stand before crossing the equator! He is even famous in his homeland, Austria where he is featured as part of the MUST SEE attractions in Singapore! The map shows the towns in Austria from where his Austrian customers have come from. (And you thought we don't get many Austrian tourists!)



Ok back to the food. The sausages are all imported from Germany so they are all very good. I especially like the Cheese Sausage and the Bratwurst. Erich also bakes his own onion loaves which are great with the sausages. 4/5

Conclusion

It's just got to be one of those things you have to do some day! Erich's a real character! I've been planning to visit his shop since I first saw the TV documentary few months ago!


Erlich's Wuerstelstand
Chinatown Night Market
3 Trengganu Street
96274882
3pm to 11pm daily
He has been there daily for 700 plus days and counting!

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Retrodog: Good olde Hotdog

There's a new dog on the block! Retrodog takes the good old hotdog and makes it better. And for $2.80 for a dog and drink set, you really can't go wrong.

The hotdogs are not your run of the mill dogs, they are the grade that they serve in hotels. But don't expect German Bratwursts. They are pretty tasty mid range dogs. What really sets retrodog apart are the really soft buns which they put in the special steamer and the range of condiments they provide.

Everyweek, they will have a special sauce to enhance the hotdogs. We just missed the mango relish which they make themselves. But we were pleasantly surprised with the cheese sauce, chicken tomato sauce together with the onions, lettuce and relish which they provide.

All in all, really good value for the money and a welcome innovation to an old favourite, which I feel has up to now, not been given enough justice in Singapore.

Not something you would travel all the way from the West to eat, but certainly worth a try if you are in town!

4/5 for value and range of condiments
Retro Dog Cafe
3 Simei St 6, Eastpoint Mall
#02-47
91835576
retrodogcafe@yahoo.com.sg

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