Thai Pomelo Salad n other news

I made this on thursday night sort of on a whim.

The assignment for this week's flickr group friday food fiesta is fruits and I wanted to get a picture of a cooked food dish made with fruits rather than just a usual picture of fruits like what most people have got in the group. So anyway, the only two fruit dish I know of are both thai in origin. Papaya Salad and Pomelo salad. I usually go to Orchard Towers for the papaya salad and basement of takashimaya for the pomelo salad but ever since Thanying (the thai restaurant at Taka ) closed down, I havent been able to satisfy my craving at all. The thai pork green curry dish (and spicy basil pork) I attempted last week was really sucessfully so I thought I would try my luck again today which explains the making of the aboved dish on a whim.

I've researched the basic pomelo salad recipe on the web and tweaked it a little to make it more similar to what I had at Thanying. The results were surprisingly good (am very proud of myself) so here is the recipe.

Recipe

Pomelo (broken into small bits)
Cooked chicken breast (shredded)
2 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
Juice of a quarter lime
Deep fried chopped garlic
Deep fried chopped dried shrimp
Deep fried sliced shallots
Chopped chilli (seeds removed)
Slivered kaffir leaves
Dollop of coconut cream

Mixed all up and enjoy

Note: I've marinated the chicken breast in chinese wine and cracked black pepper before cooking for more flavour. Otherwise steamed plain is also fine. Ingredients which I havent got amounts for are meant to be added according to personal preference.


In other news, we went to Mag's wine kitchen to celebrate Hubbz's bird day. The food was really realllly good even though they werent of gigantic proportions. No pictures either (reasons below) but I do planned to go back there again some time soon so I'll promised to take pictures then. The place wasnt really quite what I had envisioned. I was thinking more of a calm super efficient kitchen since it was open concepted but I think (actually I know) the chef /owner (Maggie) was in a really volatile mood tonight.

The place was packed when we arrived. There seem to be a wine tasting group at the big communal table next to ours. Their bottles of wine were wrapped in foil and everyone was busy scribbling on the pieces of paper they had in front of them and having animated discussion. Not sure what was being discussed because it was all done in north european language. Another table had 2 couples that were perpetually going outside to have smoke breaks. Another couple came in right after us and halfway thru dinner, we realised that there was also another big party upstairs. Yep definitely very packed.

Not sure if it was the stress of cooking for so many people at one go or if it was because her staff were quite inefficient but we could hear the chef's raised voice the whole night. Scolding the other chef cooking along side with her, yelling at the waitress, cursing at the waiter...
When we heard the first faint "F" word over the noise in the restuarant, we thought it was one of the 2 couples sitting at the other end because that was the only table with women that I couldnt really see from where I was sitting but nope...it came from the chef. I guess this would be pretty normal in most restaurants. Afterall, restaurant kitchens are a highly stressed workplace but this did take some getting used to. After we got over our initial surprise, the rest of the dinner was "audio-ly" quite entertaining.

So, conclusion. The food was fantastic. I would definitely be going back there again even if the chef was still cursing and swearing at her staff. Patronising on a quiet, not so busy afternoon might be a good idea if you find the thought of hearing the chef sprout "F" words disturbing. 2 course dinner is $40 +++, 3 course is $55 +++, 3 course lunch goes at $35+++. Wine can be bought by the bottle but the ones I saw on their list were pretty pricey. Glasses of house pour wine at $12 were of pretty good quality though. Hee.

Mag's Wine Kitchen
86 Circular Road
Singapore 04943
8telephone: 65 64383836
email: mag@magswinekitchen.com