These travel pictures smell delicious!

All taken from the recent trip to Delhi, Agra, Jaipur. 

The papad seller outside City Palace, Jaipur. They were Rs.10 each and tasted a lot like tapioca papads from Kerala - absolutely delicious. Look at the happy grin on TH's face!

Freshly roasted peanuts. ~ Outside Dilli Haat, Delhi. 

Fresh and green! ~ Near India Gate, Delhi. 

Boiled sweet potatoes, freshly cut star fruit, with a dash of squeezed lime. ~ Near India Gate, Delhi

Boiled eggs for the hungry ones returning from work. ~ Near Gurgaon railway station

Breakfast in the Delhi-Agra Shatabdi Express. Brown bread, vegetable cutlets, Amul butter (YUM!), jam, and juice. Coffee/tea was served first with Marie Biscuts. Never knew such service existed in Indian Railways. Thoroughly impressed! 

Dinner on the Agra-Delhi Shatabdi Express - Panner Butter Masala, Chhole Masala, Vegetable Pulao, Chapati, Dahi and cut carrot-radish salad. Like I said, impressive. Meals are included in the ticket cost - about Rs.400 per person, one way. 

Mobile Chaat Counter. The Govinda poster was popular. Almost all chaatwallas had it. ~Near India Gate, Delhi

Freshly cut fruit salad. ~ Near India Gate, Delhi

Absolutely delicious Matka Kulfi - Rs.15 per piece. ~ Outside City Palace, Jaipur

Oh meetha paan, how I've missed you. One of the best meetha pans I've ever tasted! ~ Connaught Place, Delhi

Let's talk about Chocolates!

Isn't it crazy how some of your favourite stores have already started selling Christmas Gifts? I mean, what's with that?

I am only excusing these folks right here because they are selling Chocolate.

And something called Advent Calendars, which I know nothing about, except that they are cute. And I wouldn't mind one for Christmas either, if it comes with a box of their chocolate.

But a bit more about how I fell into the trap that's Hotel Chocolat. A colleague brought back a box of their chocolates from London. I took one. I was speechless. I went back and took another. Then I hovered around till no one was looking and took a third. I may have taken 2 more after that but let's leave it at that.

Its a Wednesday, I am too lazy busy lazy to upload pics and post a recipe so I am leaving it at a review. If you love chocolates or have loved ones who do, do yourself or them a favour and grab a box. Life is too short (my standard line when I defy my no-chocolate-everyday diet!

Disclaimer: I received a box of chocolates as a gift from the company but I would never recommend something unless I have tried it myself and genuinely feel the way I write. 

Ocean Curry Fish Head, Telok Ayer Street

Curry fish head is a Singaporean specialty. During my initial days here, I used to wonder "a curry with fish head? But isn't the head the part we usually discard?". Well, apparently not. Pictures like the one below are pretty common as are restaurants offering curry fish head.

Ocean Curry Fish Head is one of our favourite haunts from work. Its a 10-min walk from work and any time we have a new joinee in the team (roughly once a month or so), there will be a calendar invite from someone saying "Curry Fish Head with ----".

Well, it kinda looks like this in real life! There's a fish head in there somewhere. Its huge and its got meaty parts too. The thing is, when a claypot that's bigger than my head comes bubbling to the table, the smart thing to do is stay a bit away and click carefully.

The curry is very hard to describe. It definitely doesn't taste anything like any Indian curry but it has coconut and all the spices and vegetables that we normally use. And its pretty darn good.

This place also has a whole range of other food we can pick, to go with the steamed rice and curry fish head. We have some regulars..

Like the tofu salad with raw mango slices. The sauce is tangy and spicy and light.

Then, of course, the stir fried bean sprouts.

This is a favourite for quite a few people at work. Fried anchovies (ikan bilis) with peanuts. Its slightly sweet but definitely tasty. I suspect if they add honey to this.

One of my faves. Fish Otah (aka otak-otak). Its mashed, spiced and steamed fish in banana leaves. It looks like raw fish marinated in masala, I know. But you have to taste this to see how awesome fish can taste. Really! Ocean Curry Fish Head place has one of the best otahs I have tried.

Some kang kong to balance out all that fish!

This is something we don't usually order but someone was feeling experimental that day. Which ended up being a good thing because this was super good. Jumbo prawns in a hot and sweet sauce with pineapple chunks, chillies and spring onions. I usually don't like pineapple in my food (yes, not even in Biriyani) but for this dish, I could just ignore that.

In case you thought we are eating too much fish, think again. This pepper chicken is just the right kind of spicy and tasty as they come. A crowd favourite, although this place is better known for their seafood, and of course, Curry Fish Head.

What you've seen here is probably just 1/3rd of what they have to offer. We usually go in a group of 6-8 people and order a bunch of stuff like this. You can also dao bao (take away) your lunch.

The queue around noon is extremely long so be prepared!

**All pics taken with my Nexus One with a very hungry group of people around so excuse the picture quality :)

Ocean Curry Fish Head

181 Telok Ayer Street S(068529)

Tel: 6324 9226

Closest MRT: Tanjong Pagar

Avg cost per person: 12-14 SGD

Maggi Pazzta Masala Penne Review

I thought I should occasionally include reviews of new food products that I try. Sometimes, sharing a one-liner on Facebook or Twitter just doesn't do it for me.

So, the Indianized version of pasta - Maggi's Pazzta Masala Penne. I got this from Hypercity in the Inorbit Mall in Hyderabad. I grabbed one pack each of the Cheese Macaroni (which I am yet to try!) and the Masala Penne.

The verdict:

The package says "cook for 5 mins". This was obviously not enough. I mean, how many of us really cook the Maggi Noodles for just 2 mins? Me? Never. It always takes longer than that. So that's fine. I can wait 7-8 mins for a dish of pasta.

The Masala smell while cooking was very "Maggi". I love the flavours usually so it was good. The quantity of pasta was surprisingly little. It would probably feed a 10-year old. Or maybe not. Anyway, it was really really little. I would guess between TH and me, we would require 3 packets.

The first taste and owww! It was very very salty!! I know the masala that comes with Maggi Noodles is heavy in salt but this was ridiculously salty. Did anyone else have this same experience?

I am in no hurry to try the Cheese Macaroni yet. Will keep you guys posted!

Note: both images taken from the Maggi website.

Penang Hawker Fare at York Hotel

I suck at restaurant reviews. I mean, if I was looking for a restaurant review, I wouldn't read mine to judge whether I should go to the place or not. Unless its a definite no 'cuz the place was roach-infested or something.

But I can't let this fact come in the way of you and this Penang Hawker Fare at York Hotel in Singapore (right behind GoodWood Park which has amazing high-tea buffets btw and beside Far East Plaza on Scotts Road).

I headed out there this Saturday with Joann and Pui, the ideal eat-out partners I must say.

This fare runs from 12th to 28th March and as far as I know, visits a couple of times a year. There are small stalls set up where food is freshly prepared. You can queue up and get 2 plates at a time. We spread out to get different stuff and meet back at the table.

Joann picked the queue for Char Kway Teow.

Worst pic but best dish of the day. It was just rightly flavoured and the bean sprouts gave it a nice crunch.

The Prawn Mee was a close second - fresh prawns, fish slices and bean sprouts in a delicious noodle soup.

Kang Kong with Cuttlefish - Pass! I am not very daring when it comes to seafood.

Duck Porridge - belongs right down there with the cuttlefish. Boring.

I want you to say hi to Lor Bak. Its fried pieces of prawns, sweet potatoes, fish and tofu in a tempura-like batter and served with a sweet sauce. It was good, really good. If I wasn't so overwhelmingly full at the end of tasting everything else, this is what I would have gone and gotten again.

That doesn't mean the Oyster Omelette was not good. It was a bit on the oily side but the egg : oyster ratio was perfect and the coriander leaves and chilli sauce were a lovely combination. Next time I make scrambled eggs at home, I am garnishing with fresh coriander, yes I am!

I was a bit disappointed with the Penang Laksa, although this is what I was looking forward to the most. While I expected a soupier and tastier version of the Singapore Laksa, it was significantly different in looks, taste and even colour. The Singaporeans say this is an acquired taste but I am not sure if I choose this dish again.

Ah yes, dessert, finally.

This pancake right here, this took me all the way to my childhood and back and I was amazed at how similar Malay and Kerala cuisine can be, mostly because of the liberal use of coconut and coconut milk.

It a slight sweet crunch from the fresh grated coconut and its a bit spongy. There's one small piece of banana and some gula melaka (similar to jaggery) syrup added to the centre while cooking. Its called Apam Balik. Did you get that? Apam! Weird but true.

This was the general favourite. I mean, what can compete with crispy and light as air pancakes filled with roasted, crushed peanuts liberally doused with sugar and gula melaka syrup?

We considered going back and eating just a gazillion of these thinking it would be totally worth the cost of the buffet, especially since they are not available in Singapore. Oh and its called Ban Chang Kueh but don't ask me how you say that.

There were other desserts too, like Ice Kacang and Chendol but we were full beyond belief at this point so just decided to end the madness. Check our Joann's blog for her review.

You want to check out the Penang Hawker Fare at York Hotel too? Here's where the action is:

York Hotel
21 Mount Elizabeth
Singapore 228516
Tel: (+65) 6737 0511
Website

You can't make reservations so check the timings and get there about 15 mins early. There are tons of tables but they filled up fast so queue up and grab your favourite corner and do us a favour - eat the pancakes, lots of 'em!

Cost : SGD 28++ (came up to about SGD 33)

** All pics were taken with my Nexus One because I forgot my camera **