Habibie’s Chicken Porridge and Chicken Rice

Chicken Porridge is always good when you’re sick. Anyone dining at Habibie Muslim Seafood Restaurant must try this delectable dish, with its steaming semi-liquid texture and the harmony of its spices. The only sad thing is that since I’m having a very bad sore throat now, all food that goes into my mouth taste vaguely disgusting and utterly repulsive.

Haven’t I told you all that the best Chicken Rice in Singapore (at least the halal versions) comes from Habibie? The rice is unbelievably soft and moist and the chicken is absolutely succulent and simply tantalising! Having eaten this for years, I have ultimately committed the various subtleties in taste to memory!

Wish I was well again. Being sick absolutely sucks big time.

Barbeque and Roti John!

Happy New Year To All! Spent my first day of 2006 at a family chalet with so much delicious food to eat! Had lots of fun catching up with my cousins as we barbequed all there is to barbeque over the fire.

A neat row of Otak-otak steaming above the smoldering coals, waiting to be cooked. Otak-otak (which literally means brain-brain in Malay) are spicy fish paste barbaqued between two piece of coconut leaves. Etymological derivations of this word remain unknown to me but some have started using the term otah or otah-otah to call this Malay food. In any case, this was factory produced otak-otak which was too sweet for my taste buds and too little to satisfy my appetite. I love the one sold illegally at the bus-stop near my block. Whenever he’s there (which is not very often since they often raid his stall), I’ll buy two dollars worth of otak-otak. I prefer my otak-otak to be cooked and firm, rather than the soft sticky paste that others prefer.

Barbequed chicken, burnt to a crisp! Actually the chicken marinate was a little screwed up because my mum forgot to bring oyster sauce to the chalet. Luckily we improvised and with enough light soy sauce and pepper, the chicken tasted surprisingly good actually. Sorry for the lack of clarity in the photo! I had to eat as many as I cooked because it disappeared so quickly! Sigh. Wish I had more.

Buttered corn cobs, ready to be served. We did not want the corn to be burnt so we used aluminium foil to protect it from direct heat. Once I took a bite off the corn, I thought it wasn’t the best corn cob I ever tasted since I have been fed with the sinful corn in a cup variety that is full of butter and salt! I thought it needed slightly more butter. Hehehehehehe.

Last but not least, we have SATAY! This was a special occasion since these were specially made by my mum who is the BEST COOK IN THE WHOLE WORLD! Although the beef version received the thumbs up by everyone, the chicken satay received quite a lot of flak for not even remotely tasting like the chicken satay you see in shops. Its like chicken on a stick! Hahahaha. It needed more rempah or seasoning to make it much more sweeter and delicious! Of course my mum’s version was healthier in a sense because it had less sugar than the standard satay. With my mum abstained from all forms of sugar, a little sugar is a little too much. But it was still delicious though, especially when you lather and soak the satay totally in the rich peanut sauce which was also made by my mum! Sigh. I want more!

We had this for breakfast today at East Coast Lagoon food village. Roti John from East Coast Lagoon Food Village. It was surprisingly soft and crispy, and though it looked like a burger from far, this stall uses the smaller versions of the french loaf, making it look circular and larger than before. Sambal was spicy and sweet too! A definite must try for all! Except for the fact that I forgot to take down which stall it was. It was quite close to the lagoon. Hahaha. Oh well!

Looking forward to the next family gathering, especially when there’s so much delicious food around! Sigh.