Venice ; The Last Years

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Please click on the ^^  above mp4 video to view the video. 

This was the unforgettable trip we made in Dec 2017, the video of the Rialto river coming up and the lovely 16 - 18th century buildings on both sides of the waterway. With global warming going on unabated with each passing year, low lying cities like Venice will be completely submerged in 50 years or less, so predict climatologists. My wife and I visited this wonderful spot in December 2017 and were enchanted by the waterways, the buildings which were built in ornate Baroque style and of course the many boutique shops of all the famous brands like Dior, Chanel, Hermes, Boss, Bottega Venetta, Louis Vuitton and Prada - all with payment options like Alipay, Wechat pay and the traditional forms of payment.

Surreal view of a boutique shop along the narrow streets of Venice.

This phenomena highlights the growing influence of the Chinese tourist dollar, which has been steadily coming in, first as a trickle, now a fast flowing stream. Much to the delight of the tour operators, the sales industry and of course the museums etc.    

St Mark's Basilica Dec 2017 

The Apostle Mark, one of Jesus's 4 apostles who ventured into Egypt and was instrumental in the  setting up of  the Coptic church  in the first century A.D. My late father Geoffrey must have taken inspiration from Mark's gospel in the Bible to Christen me as such.

Mark the soldier and Mark the apostle.

Mark the Tourist ; 5 th December 2017

I am glad he chose such an inspirational and great man, and was not swayed to name me after one of the members of the Beatles (Ringo or Yoko) or Rolling Stones  (Mick or Keith)

Outside our hotel, 6th December 2017 

Wolves 2 Torino 1 - Adama Traore has come of age !

Kudos to Nuno and his compact squad, they have played 6 Europa Qualifying games and won all 6 ; against Crusaders (Ireland), Pyenik (Armenia) and Turin (Italy) all with winning margins.

Its time for the boys to focus on the domestic Premier League, as this is where the bread and butter viewership and reviews will subsequently come from.

FWAW. 

Thunder Road - One of the Best Covers I have Heard ; Kendrik Zane

Thunder Road Bruce Springsteen London 2012

Indigo Blue - Top Peranakan Food Blog 2 of 2

Ayam Buak Keluak (Betel Nut Curry Chicken) Best !

I can safely say I have not eaten a better Ayam Buak Keluak in a long while. Such is the high standard of Indigo Blue. The chicken is cooked in the curry sauce so that the meat is very tender while the Betel Nut (Buak Keluak) is cut open with easy access to the goody black 'meat' of the nut. The gravy is not too thick and the taste of the cinnamon together with the betel nut and spices remind me of the days of visiting Malacca and sampling their best Peranakan cuisine !  

Shiok ! Very very tasty in my humble opinion.  

Babi Nonya

This is the fatty pork done with the lemak (cocunut) flavour, mildly spicy but I would say not too impressive compared to the degustation 3 servings, and the Ayam Buak Keluak.  As Peranakan Chinese people, they have fused the pork dish with something which most indigenous people would associate with either Chicken or Dou Fu.  

We sat at the table at the forefront 

The setting of the place is simple, well lit, blue (hence the name) tones with clean overall look. I commented that they must have very strong supply and exhaust fan ducts (I have experienced in this) such that the detached kitchen when open does not emnate strong lemak and other smells which are so typical of older establishments. 

They have done a major coup this time, the Les Amis Group.

My ratings :

Food           : 4.8 / 5   (I could not give a 5, the babi lemak was only so so)

Ambience   : 4. 5 / 5 (50 persons in an 2500 ft2 area with clean lines and bright lighting)

Service       : 3. 8 (the serving staff while helpful were clueless about several dishes)

Price          :  $ 150 approx. for 3 persons, $ 50 per person with more than enough food for 

                     each person

Overall       : 13. 1 / 15 

                     4.4   / 5    ;  Excellent (short of perfect)  

Would I come again ?  :  Yes 

INDIGO BLUE KITCHEN 

1 Scotts Road

#03-09/10/11

Shaw Centre

Singapore 228208

Tel : 6235 3218 

Best Tasting Peranakan (Straits Born Chinese) Food 2019 ; Indigo Blue 1 of 2 Post

Level 3 of Shaw Centre 

This is the Les Amis group's newest offering, the Peranakan style of cooking which is characteristic of Straits born Chinese (called Baba Nonya) people. Some 500 years ago, the first Chinese people came as traders, and settled in Malacca (Malaysia) and Singapore amongst other locations in South East Asia.  Some married the local indigenous people (Mala) and while they were here, adopted many of the customs of the indigenous people such as their style of dressing (Baba Nonya), men wore sarongs (cotton cloth shawls around their lower part of their bodies), the methods of local farming and infused many of the local herbs, spices and vegetables into their methods of cooking.

Hence Peranakan cooking is quite similar (except that pork is allowed) to Malay style cooking. Les Amis is a 2 Michelin starred restaurant along the walking section of Shaw Centre in Shaw House, and I have not had the opportunity to try their (I believe very expensive) fine dining. 

However, as we wandered past Indigo Blue, we figured that the adherence to the finest culinary standards by the Les Amis group should be on display at Indigo Blue, we popped in. My, what a serendipitous dining experience ! I had not eated such tasty Peranakan food in years, the last was possibly 8 years ago in Malacca (Malacca Raya has several, the most famous being Oleh Sayang). 

Degustation (Tasting) Menu of 3 Favourites 

The prawn crackers (gratis) was crunchy (of course) and flavourful, as was the Keropok Berinjau (hard to describe, but some wheat cracker with local flavour). For starters, we had the deguatstion tasting menu of 3 favourites ; 2 of which were 'on point' and 1 miss, the string bean salad was also great tasting (see below). There was some prawn together with boiled egg tossed (fried) with a crunchy prawn paste garnish. Super. ! 

Degustatation Menu of a) Kueh Pai Tee b) Ngoh Hiang and c) Otak Otak 

The Kueh Pai Tee which has cooked radish as a base, you then add the half prawn and garnish with parsley as a topping, add some chilli and sweet sauce and Voila ! you pop it in your mouth. I personally perfer the ones served at My Cosy Corner on 2nd Floor of Coronation Plaza.  The radish is rather chunky and the Pie Tee comes up as rather a filler and no oomph or punch to it.

Ngoh Hiang (foreground and Pie Tee behind - tall tower of crispy pastry topped with prawn and garinsh with parsely 

The Ngoh Hiang (friend pork and prawn wrapped with bean curd dumpling) was just nice, quite moist to the taste and enough of meat fillings to satisfy the hungry palette. 

Otak Otak (at front) ; Ooh La La  !

This Otak is practically the BEST I have tasted in a long while ; the mackeral is cooked in a paste inside a pandan leaf with just the right texture, colour and the taste of the coconut just makes me want to eat it over and over. Best in Singapore !!! 

String Bean Salad ; Excellent Starter ! 

The salad was just nice, light and the string bean salad was crunchy and the garnish of a crunchy (I suspect prawn) topping made the dish a crowd pleaser. Will eat it again 

Nonya Chap Chye 

The Chap Chye I found only average though my wife liked it, bear in mind there is pork lard cooked with the food, so the nice lingering taste is probably due to that. The ingredients as you can see are simple, cabbage (2 types) ,some fungus mushroom ,stir fried and served.

The restaurant was packed (luckily this is only a 50 seater) and with some families booking you know their food is of a pretty high standard 

Wait for the next post on the Ayam Buak Keluak, Batang Fish and Babi Nonya    

Staying the Course till the end of the year

This time last year, 2018, we were in just starting out with some testing from a local Pharma company, and one year on, we are indeed a serious testing company with big intentions. New machines have been bought, and perhaps later on, new staff will be added to the team so that we are ready to take on bigger and better things. 

The economy may be really tough at this point, but we are not taking any self defeating news to heart ; the strongest will be the ones who survive and fight day in day out to not only offer the best to their customers, but to continue to engage and grow their business at all times, good and bad.

Challenges abound, personal health is my top priority and may we have an uneventful passage till the end of 2019.

Carpe Diem !