Chinese Recipes | Cooking Tips | Good Eats

Bánh Khot - Crisp rice flour cupcakes with shrimp and scallions, served with lettuce, mint and basil.

If not for Wandering Chopstick’s recommendation, I would never have ordered this dish. In fact, I may not even step into Vung Tau Restaurant in San Jose because:

1) I don’t know how to pronounce the restaurant’s name.
2) I don’t know how to pronounce Bánh Khot.
3) Crisp rice flour cupcakes doesn’t sound appealing to me without a picture.

Last weekend, I stepped out of my comfort zone, took the plunge and ordered Bánh Khot as recommended.

I was pleasantly surprised at what was served. Actually I did not know the proper way to eat it! There was a separate plate of lettuce, mint and basil served with the Bánh Knot. We had to ask the waiter “Er… how do we eat this?” He patiently explained that we can cut the Bánh Knot into half (cos it was steaming hot), put it on the lettuce with a piece of mint and basil, wrap it up like you would for a tortilla, then dip into the sweet sauce and DIG IN!

I tried my first Bánh Khot “wrap” without the mint and basil cos I thought I wouldn’t like the taste of that combination, but for the second round, I added a leaf of mint and basil and whoa! the taste absolutely changed! The flavors of the mint and basil complemented the juicy shrimp and fragrant crisp rice cupcakes very well and gave a light refreshing lift to the tight aromatic package “wrap”.

According to Wandering Chopsticks, Vung Tau is a coastal town so seafood is their specialty. Banh Khot is one of Vung Tau’s specialty dishes. It is made from rice flour with some coconut milk. Shaped into small, round rice cupcakes by hand, it is crispy and delicious with a shrimp in the middle. This particular dish must be eaten with the assortment of green garnishes (lettuce, mint and basil) used to wrap around each morsel.

Mint and basil are characteristic of Vietnamese cuisine, commonly eaten in salads, raw spring rolls and phở and this post is my contribution to this week’s Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by Küchenlatein.

Vung Tau Restaurant is a Vietnamese family business.

Vung Tau Restaurant
535 E Santa Clara St
San Jose, CA 95112
(408) 288-9055

Vung Tau II Restaurant is the second restaurant they opened. The menu may differ slightly from the original Vung Tau Restaurant.

1750 N Milpitas Blvd
Milpitas, CA 95035
(408) 934-9327

Generous pieces of fried fish in a steaming hot bowl of fish soup with thick white noodles, garnished with parsley, scallions and shallots; served with a small dish of light soy sauce with cut chilli padi… how does that sound to you?

This stall has been one of the longest survivor in China Square Food Court (Cecil Street). New stalls sprout and then close down, but this one is definitely one that will stay! As the name indicates, this stall is formerly located at Blanco Court (near Bugis) but that hawker center was demolished almost ten years ago (if I remember correctly) and is now replaced by Raffles Hospital.

It’s important that the stall preserves the name of its former Blanco Court location because people know what to expect with this brand name! Hawkers also have their own form of marketing, eh. I wonder if they go through any marketing courses or the art of business, marketing and making good food is all in their blood?

The queue at the Blanco Court Fried Fish Soup stall is perpetually long. To avoid the queue, you need to be there at about 11:30am to beat the lunch time crowd.

This is a continuation of My Singapore Food Cravings series. Previously, there were:

1. Sam Lo
2. Sardine Curry Puff
3. Hai Tien Lo Extravaganza
4. Kway Chap
5. Mixed Pig Organ Porridge

Eat and live well!

I am sure my westerner friends would cringe at the sight of this. First, at the pig offal. Second, at the porridge.

I remember when I was in Phuket with my Aussie colleagues, this big Aussie guy kind of snorted and asked what in the world I was eating, when I scooped myself a hefty serving of porridge with side dishes like salted eggs, preserved vegetables and some soy sauce chicken (at the Holiday Inn breakfast buffet).

Porridge is something I enjoy anytime (and I don’t have to be sick to enjoy porridge).

What you see here is Mixed Pig Organ Porridge (S$4) from Tiong Bahru Hwa Yuen Porridge, Stall #02-74. The stall also sells other delights like Steamboat Porridge, Frog leg Porridge, Fish Belly Porridge, Ikan Parang Raw Fish, Shredded Chicken Century Egg Porridge. Of course I did not have the stomach capacity chance to try all of them. I wonder how this compares to Zhen Zhen Porridge at Maxwell Food Centre? You tell me.

It’s a little difficult to make out the pork intestines, pork liver, pork stomach and cuttlefish swimming in the porridge. The pork intestines are fried and this adds a unique twist to the taste. You can also just order Fried Intestines Porridge (S$5 / S$7), with just the intestines alone.

The porridge was smooth and steaming hot. The auntie scooped out the porridge from a huge and deep pot, with a large wooden ladle. I was at the stall at about 10am. She must have started cooking since 6am? to get the porridge this smooth.

Oh. Just for records, mom and I shared this bowl of porridge cos we already ate the Kway Chap from the same Tiong Bahru Market, Stall #02-46. :)

Kway chap (粿汁 guǒ zhī) is a Teochew dish of flat, broad rice sheets in a soup made with dark soy sauce, served with pig offal (large and small intestines), braised duck meat, various kinds of beancurd, preserved salted vegetables, and braised hard-boiled eggs.

The stall at Tiong Bahru is one of my mom’s favorite, so I had her bring me there for breakfast, because she patronises the stall so frequently that the stall owner is on good terms with her and will accede to her request for more of this or less of that.

Located at the New Tiong Bahru Market, Stall #02-46, this stall existed (some place else) since the 1960’s and had been in Tiong Bahru for 6-7 years. The current stall owner is the grandson of the originator.

The kway chap is thin and smooth and the dark-colored broth is light and tasty. Mom would usually request for less of the kway chap so that she won’t be so full.

Clockwise from left, you have the tao pok (a kind of beancurd), pig’s large intestines, pork belly and a hard boiled egg. I really don’t have any specific favorites because I like all of them. Dipped in a tangy chilli sauce, and eaten with the steaming hot kway chap, everything was eaten in no time.

I tried to recreate their version of preserved salted vegetables, but I had not yet gotten the same texture and color as what you see here. Does anyone have any recipe for this? Actually, I am not even sure if I bought the correct vegetable. LOL! The packet I bought is labelled 梅菜 mei cai - I should be right, eh?

Kway chap makes a savory and filling breakfast, lunch or dinner. That’s the beauty of Singapore food. You can eat it anytime you want. :)

Hai Tien Lo is a fancy schmancy Cantonese restaurant located at the top of Singapore’s Pan Pacific Hotel. There is an ala-carte lunch buffet on Saturday and Sundays only.

For this ala-carte buffet, you have the choice of ordering either one bowl of Sharks’ Fin Soup or one bowl of Buddha Jump Over The Wall for each person.

My, my! Look at the numerous pieces of sharks’ fin in the bowl. This alone was definitely worth the price we paid for the buffet.

Roast Duck was moist and tender and not too fatty.

A house speciality, Sauteed Tenderloin Beef, the beef was cooked to tender perfection and literally melts in your mouth. Why did they serve so little? We had to order a second serving!

A limited selection of dim sum was available in this ala-carte buffet. We ordered Scallop Dumpling (picture below, front) and my favorite Phoenix Claw (no picture, I dived into it without any hesitation).

The Sea Cucumber (picture behind the scallop dumplings) was very tender. I, for one, don’t know how to prepare and cook sea cucumber, so this was a treat for me.

Oh. The other dim sum we ordered was Bean Curd Skin. There were five of us at the table, so they only served five pieces, which was a good idea, since each of us can have our own share, without the need to “give way” and act polite. :)

The dish behind was Sweet And Sour Pork. That’s the perfect kind of sweet and sour pork that I cannot find in the Bay Area. The sauce is orangey red in color, without being too overwhelmingly red and gory. The deep fried batter was just a thin layer, without the feeling that you are eating a layer of flour. And best of all, there was very little fats, yet it’s so tasty.

Of course my family did not just order the above. We were there for lunch, but ate for lunch and dinner. :D

Other delectable delights not to be missed are:

Bursting with flavor: Deep-fried Prawn With Wasabi Salad Dressing.

Light and smooth: Stir Fried Fish Slices With Ginger And Spring Onions.

Moist and tender: Barbecue Pork, roasted to perfection.

Light and fluffy: Seafood Fried Rice.

I was there with my family before and after Chinese New Year. Yes, we went there twice, despite the cost (but when I converted SGD 1.5 to USD 1, it really didn’t seem that bad).

On regular Saturdays and Sundays, the ala-carte lunch buffet is S$52+++ per person. During the Chinese New Year period, the price increased to S$58+++ (”+++” means plus 10% service charge, plus 5% GST and plus 1% government tax). Other plus plus pluses charged are: tea, towels and a plate of appetizers.

This restaurant is highly recommended. Remember to make reservations because this weekend buffet is very popular.

Go to Hai Tien Lo, because you are worth it!