Sunday, January 27, 2008

Meat Ship

From the creators of the Meat House, they've now contructed a Meat Ship.


Made from:
~20 sausages
~48 rashers of bacon
1.2kg of sausage meat
1kg of pork mince
10 franks
1kg of pastry (not 100% meat this time)
1 onion
1 mushroom
2 packets of chipolata sausages
various food colourings
sage
It does seem like quite a mean feat.

The whole constructing process is documented in pictures at their photo gallery here. Honestly, it sure looks very tedious and meticulous. Wonder how long did it take them to make the entire ship, haha~


It was a pity the sail shrunk after roasting, perhaps the next time they could try using ham or some other flat type of meat product which won't shrivel up.

(hmm... I really should try making a little meat model myself, should I? haha~)

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Stewhaus

stewhaus cheese sausage
Cheese Sausage with a side dish of mash potatoes and garden salad with a mustard decoration from Stewhaus at $9.50 + 10%.

Tucked at a little lane in Siglap, this eating establishment is quite a nice little cosy and homely restaurant. They do no charge GST but do charge the usual service charge, so it might be a little pull factor to some people. As the name suggests, the specialities are stews, and more central european type of food. I went for the German styled cheese sausage for the sake of this blog.

Sadly to say, my sausage wasn't as wonderful as I hoped for, but I don't know if that's my fault or not. I think I might have spent too much time taking these food pictures, and because I was sitting under the air conditioner, and also more so because I ate the mash first, when I ate the sausage, it ended up cold and the cheese was clumpy and not oozy.

stewhaus
Forest Mushroom Soup $4, Cheese Sausage $9.50, Hungarian Beef Goulash $16.40 (I think), and root beer which I can't remember the price.

The mushroom soup was really good, though it had a thick layer of olive oil (I think) on top of it, but it added a lot of flavour to the soup. The mushrooms were finely chopped and velvety but also had some slices for a decent bite. The second best mushroom soup I've had in recent months, second only to the Ritz-Carlton one which had truffle oil instead of olive oil, haha. And do try out the Goulash, all the stews came on a hotpot with a flame burning under, the flame is something large than your normal tea lights, so it's really hot.

Although the place was not packed, it must disclaim that we were there on a weekday night. Also, while we were there, quite a few people came by with take away orders, so I guess that place must be really popular among those living around the area. *cross fingers* that I get a bike real soon, then I'll be checking out more eateries around my backyard.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Wiener Flower

How to make Gerbera-like wiener flowers


I thought this looks really cute. A very masculine and phallic like sausage can actually be transformed into a girly pretty little feminine flower. Do check out this link to see detailed steps on how to make this pretty little grub.

It would instantly brighten up any simple looking dish.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Waraku

Surprised to see a Japanese restaurant here? Haha... They incidentally do feature a sausage in their menu, the German Suasage, grilled and served on on a hotplate with two potato wedges.

waraku's german sausage
Waraku's German Sausage.

It was actually supposed to be an ordinary meal, I thought, without any sausages, because it was a Japanese restaurant. But the moment I saw sausages on the menu, I sausage radar went *ding ding ding*, and I knew I just had to order this if not for the sake of this blog. The picture of the sausage did look appetising and didn't have the look of cheap sausages that I can get off NTUC or Cold Storage.

It came in a sizzling hotplate and looked very much like the one in the picture, which was wonderful. You can't see that properly, but the sausage is one long sausage curved around the perimeter of the hotplate, so it's really long. Although I usually dislike ketchup on sausages and I abhor already topped condiments (other than mustard), after eating this German Sausage, I knew why the Japanese never questioned their chefs, this wasn't just ketchup, but a house mixed sauce, and it was good. The sweet tangy taste and the charred porky taste went very well together with the little bit of savoury gravy at the bottom of the hotplate. Nice~

waraku
Our full meal, a pork katsu with rice and soba, miso ramen, chicken karaage, miso seafood udon, seafood udon, german sausage, cheese salmon, five little ice creams, macha ice cream.

Not surprisingly, the sides were much more interesting than the mains.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

House Made from Sausages

Meat House


A roast house, made entirely from meat. Doesn't this just looks so juicy and yummy?

The walls were made of sausages lined up and held in place by bamboo skewers, otherwise known as satay sticks. The roof was made from bacon, omg, I just love bacon, almost a tiny little bit more than I love sausages, either way I love both sausages and bacon. I so wish I roasted this house myself. haha~

Click on the link up there to look at the geniuses, or rather those guys who had too much time on their hands, and see how that house like thingie was made! They even made a lawn and a little sausage car parked on the lawn too~

PS: Link edited, do click on the edited link, it's the original one~

Monday, January 7, 2008

Joan Cooked Sausages 4

joan cooked sausages 4
Cheese sausage with extra slice of cheddar, asparagus, topped with mustard on a slice of bread.

I love sausages. But eating only sausages is not really that balanced a diet. I'm not really that anal on having a balanced diet, but recently I've been trying to lead a healthier lifestyle, hence I started pondering over what type of greens go well with sausages to make a hotdog a balance meal on its own.

I've tried the most common lettuce, and I thought it didn't go well with each other. Lettuce goes best with bacon, with all the oil and fats. I tried cucumbers, the second most common type of greens, but well, it felt too cool that it was just weird. I think cucumbers go best with cold cuts. I decided to experiment with asparagus because I know of dishes with asparagus and the light taste in asparagus can bring out stronger tastes of its mains, and the result was just marvelous. I've henceforth decided that the best pairing of sausages and greens is the greens of asparagus.

It's nice and crunchy, yet not overpowering even though there's a hint of vegetable taste. And the asparagus goes well with mustard, the choice topping of sausages. Mustard don't go well with the raw greens.

Okay, another thing I'd like to introduce today in this entry is the Fairprice cheese sausages. I don't like them. This sausage is more like cheese Taiwan Sausage rather than cheese sausage. I've had them before and always thought that there's this sweet taste of it that irks me. Yes, I have a strong dislike for Taiwan Sausages because I have strong dislike for sweet stuffs on supposedly savoury stuffs.

After checking the ingredients list, indeed sugar was listed as one of the ingredients, and it was listed before salt. Meaning, there's more sugar in that sausage than salt, which is what I prefer.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Western Food 85

western food 85
Grilled Bratwurst $5.50, Dutch Smoked Sausage $6.00, and other western food such as pork chops and pork knuckles at hawker centre prices, found at Blk 85 Fengshan Market, around Bedok North there, famously known as the Bak Chor Mee place. This stall Western Food 85 is at #01-257, it is also well known for its curry rice, on top of the western food.

My dad got this recommendation from his friend, who gave him the address and told him that the German pork knuckles sold there is cheap and good, and authentic. Hence we trotted down to see what more than Bak Chor Mee can Blk 85 offer us. And my god, was the pork knuckles really good considering it's price. But this is my sausage blog, so I'll be talking about the sausages instead.

The grilled bratwurst is not home made, so the standard is about average. What wow-ed me was the chargrill-ness it was, nicely done, not overburnt but having that charredness there. The fries and coleslaw are but normal. Overall, a normal dish at very low prices. Think for the price itself, it's well worth the trip down. The Dutch Smoked Sausage isn't quite Dutch, but is has a hammie smoked flavour which reminded me kind of like the ham in luncheon meat, not that it's a bad thing, really. What was missing was the mustard sauce, I need to have my own supply with me the next time I pop by there.

Still, I think the most should-order dish is the pork knuckles, it's really cheap there compared to other German restaurants. And it's nicely carved up for easy eating. And it's really well done.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas

My dear sister emailed this to me this morning, or maybe last night.
Merry Sausage Christmas and a Happy New Sausage Year.



I'm aware that I'm not blogging as often as I should be, but this the holiday season, and I'm eating mostly turkey and ham, not much sausages. And I've been sick (again). And the holiday mood is getting into me and I'm feeling lazy. Okay, the last reason should be the key reason, but well, Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

1901

1901
Cheese Hotdog from 1901, set comes with mash potatoes (which sucks) and a drink, costs $4something, I can't remember. I bought this at the Suntec branch.

I've tried them once before, and thought it was quite a decent bite, more like a quick snack. It's normal, plain, quick, decent, no complains there. But it's also because there's nothing exceptional about it, or special, or different, there's also nothing to shout about.

I had the cheese hotdog this time round and it's a tad bit better than the plain chicken sausage. The cheese is oozy and abundant as you can see in the lower right corner. One thing interesting about this stall is that it has common condiments for you to squeeze yourself, but the condiments aren't in bottles. There's this udder like structure with tubes (udders) for you to squeeze out the condiment you want, and your preferred amount of it. It's like squeezing udder, or phallus, or erm, erm... ya...

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Auntie Anne's

auntie anne
Pretzel Dog at $3.10 from Auntie Anne's Parkway Parade branch. A long string of pretzel, rather than rolled up into a pretzel shape is rolled and wrapped around a chicken hotdog.

I've only eaten Auntie Anne's pretzels a couple of times when I was in secondary school, had the pretzel dog another time, and this is the second time I'm eating the pretzel dog. It's just as how I remembered it. Salty pretzel, with juicy sausage within. It's denser than a normal hotdog bun, but the hotdog taste is stronger due to the high density, lower volume of the dough part.

I'm not a fan of pretzels, or American-styled pretzels. I'm more used to the German style Bretzel, which are fluffier, bigger, and more like bread. In fact, to me a Bretzel is something very Germanic. It's like all German bakeries use the Bretzel shape to indicate that they are a bakery. Werner's Oven and the Swiss Backerei both have the Bretzel as their logo. But even with the standard German bread, and the Germans being most famous for their sausages, couldn't come up with a pretzel dog.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Coffee Club

coffee club
Bangers and Mash from Siglap's Coffee Club at $11.50 +10% service charge +7% GST. Includes three cuts of sausages, a chicken one, a cheese one, and a coarse cut banger, comes with a side of mash potatoes and half a grilled tomato.

This marked the first day of my vacation. I woke up late, took a sunny stroll down to lazy Siglap for a relaxed lunch, my absolute dream vacation. But of course, I'm still busy, I had to go down to school today to do some stuff, then I still have driving, then I still have other appointments. But well, that's not the topic for today.

I was a bit skeptical when I saw the menu, Bangers and Mash didn't sound that much delicious, and at a steal at $11.50, my expectations were low. But when the food came, oh wow~ The sausages were decent in size, looked nicely grilled, and the portion was just right. There were three sausages, a chicken one, which was more like a normal American hotdog, or a Wiener; a cheese one, which was really yummy and the cheese nice and oozey; and a coarse meat banger which was nice and meaty, but I ate that last and was feeling rather filled so I thought it was rather dry and too meaty because it was one fat sausage.

For the sides, the tomato was nicely grilled yet juicy. And the mash potato had chunks of potato inside, so there was a good bite of potatoey flavour. The mash sauce was also really good and went well with the mash and the sausages. For the price, it's value for money. But of course, these sausages mustn't be compared to the German restaurants of Brotzeit, Werner's, and Paulaner because these aren't self made sausages.

It's still great for a lazy late afternoon lunch though.

Friday, December 7, 2007

Breaded Hotdog

breaded hotdog
Breaded Hotdog from Cathay Cineplex AMK Hub, $4.90 (I think).

This is one of the nicest food to go with a movie because it's so yummy, so easy, so convenient. I first had it when I went to AMK Hub to watch a movie, then I tried to find it in other Cathay Cineplexes, but I hadn't seen it anywhere. I even tried to replicate it at home, to not quite satisfactory results. It was edible, just that the breadcrumbs part was a bit over so it was tough to chew. So it was to my delight that the next visit to AMK's Cathay I found this little bite again.

I'm not so sure if this item is exclusive to AMK, but with my exams finally over, I'm sure to check out more movies and eat more cinema snacks and find out if this is sold in other Cathays. Yup, now that I'm done with the exams, I'm back eating out. Soon I'll be able to clock in more sausagey entries.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

An Eating Disorder and an SMS

This is just a short note to say that I'm still alive, I've one more paper to go, so continue to wish me the best for my exams. Thank you very much. This afternoon, my sister sent me a hotdog related SMS from Taiwan. On a food-related but not hotdog-related note, I'm suffering from a Bizarre Eating Habit (click on the link to learn more).

My sister's currently in Taiwan on a 3-week immersion programme. Out of the blue she sent me this SMS this afternoon:
"At shihlin, there's black sausages, sausages with a huge bone as stick, and sausages as big as my arm. and no, i'm not taking pic :)"
wahahaha~
How can she not take pictures?!!

Then while I was surfing the net just now, I came across this website about bizarre eating habits and saw one which I thought sounded a bit like me.
3. Autosarcophagy
This is the disorder of self-cannibalism. It is categorized as pica (disorders relating to consumption of things that should not be consumed). Some people will engage in self-cannibalism as an extreme form of body modification, for example eating their own skin. Others will drink their own blood, a practice called autovampirism.

Erm, no, I'm not that extreme, but I do take great pleasure in eating the peeled skin of my lips. I'd peel them out in pieces and eat them up. Sometimes I'd eat the skin I peeled out from my finger, but I prefer the skin of my lips. Another thing I used to enjoy but not too much recently is to suck my nails. When my nails crack, I'd lick and suck them to wet and soften it, then peel them out and put them in my mouth to suck. I won't swallow them la, just suck until it's really soft then spit it out. I once sucked a piece of nail from my thumb for a couple of days, I'd put it by my pillow before I sleep and continue sucking it when I woke up. But now I don't do that anymore la. Now I only eat the skin of my lips.

Okay, it sounds a bit gross, well, there are more gross stuff but we'll leave those for another day. It's back to Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler and Franco for now.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Movies and Hotdogs at Cathay

cathay cineplex
Jumbo Hotdog Combo with coke from the Cathay cineplexes, $7. A Jumbo Hotdog alone costs $4.80.

Other than hotdogs, I love to watch movies. And one of the best part about going to watch a film, is to eat hotdogs. So much so that I plan my movie trips when I have cravings and where the hotdogs are good. I prefer the hotdogs from Cathay as compared to the other cinemas. Cathay's hotdogs have a smaller piece of bread, or a larger piece of hotdog whichever way you want to look at things. I don't like bread that much and I love my hotdogs, so this is the hotdog for me.

But what I like most is the melted cheese on top of the hotdog. Doesn't it look just so inviting? I was eating it and almost gagging as I watched the comedy Wo ist Fred.

I'll see when I trot down to other cinemas and do a corresponding review on the hotdogs there, but it won't be that soon. Exams are coming, and Joan is stuck at home studying and eating potato chips for breakfast lunch and dinner, so apologies ahead in the coming weeks when posts become rather scarce. Jiayou to all having exams!

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Taiwan Shihlin Street Snacks

Taiwan Shihlin Street Snacks
Sausage Cheese Egg Crepe, $3.20 from the outlet at The Cathay.

I was feeling a bit mouth itchy, and I had time to waste while waiting for my friends to arrive. Sitting at the basement where all the food are, and remembering that I had this blog to maintain, I decided to grab a little bite at Shihlin. This little bite didn't come in cheap. The portion was a little small, but I needn't that much, just that the price tag was a bit unjustified.

My previous visits to Shihlin all ended up in disappointments because the food just too spicy. I even tried to had them go easy on the spice, but it was still too spicy. It's quite a pity because I thought that the food was good despite not being able to tahan the spice. Well, this crepe being a non-spicy item was something I pretty much enjoyed. Yes, it was good~

There were enough sausages and cheese, and the crepe was fragrant with the scent of fried eggs. The sauce added a bit flavour to the entire package. Just that there was some weird vegetables which I don't know what it is inside the crepe. The flavour was not overpowering but it did added crunch to the crepe. The only gripe, the corriander. I hate corrianders. Even by removing it from the crepe, that piece of crepe which housed the corriander still reeked of corriander taste.

In all, it's not bad. But I'll only get it again when I'm feeling a bit rich. haha~

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Hotbake Again

Remember the Hotbake Machine? I promised to review it again, when there's the Hotdog Melt featured. Presenting, Outback BBQ Hotdog Melt...

hotbake again
Outback BBQ Hotdog Melt, a sandwich consisting of hotdogs, cheese, BBQ sauce and pineapple bits, $2 only. The one at the right bottom is a Pepperoni Melt which also included a bit of hotdog slices, $2.50 if you buy it separately but $4 for both sandwiches.

There's a ton more hotdog slices in this sandwich as compared to the one I featured earlier, but I think there has been a slide in quality of sandwiches since last semester. The sandwiches now have lesser filling, and the fillings are concentrated too much in the centre. The sides are just plain bread, which gets a bit frustrating because I want to eat the sandwiches for the fillings and not for the bread.

On the whole, discounting the fact that there's too much bread, this is one yummy filling for a sandwich. The sauce is tangy enough and the meat is good, I mean, you can't go wrong with sausages, right? There's quite a lot of fillings in the centre of the sandwich, so with each bite, there's a meaty punch in there.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Food For Thought

food for thought
Big Breakfast ($10.90, no extra charges for taxes) from the All Day Breakfast menu from Food For Thought. Big Breakfast includes toast and butter, eggs, snail sausage and salad. My friends had the bratwurst and spicy sausage sandwich.

Food for Thought is this quaint little cafe somewhere near the National Library. I really like its ambience and the decor, and I thought that that mission is really cool. Do check out their website!

Foodwise, I like the concept of their sandwich sets, and the variety of sandwiches, and quality of it is really great. The sad thing is that other than sandwiches there's really nothing much left to choose. The soups they claimed are supposed to be very healthy, with no cream added to the mushroom soup, but somehow, maybe it's just me, I would prefer something unhealthy, something with cream. haha~ But I enjoyed the salad quite a good deal depsite me not being a salad person. The dressing was tasty and the vegetables were fresh.

More importantly is the sausage. I had the snail sausage with my breakfast set and my god was it good. There was the smokey taste of a smoked sausage, but it was nicely grilled that the insides were juicy. When the sausage was unravelled from its snail shape, it was really long. The breakfast set is very value for money as it is extremely filling. But the fillings might be due to the four pieces of toast which I thought was way way too much. Maybe two pieces would have been more than enough.

According to my friends, the sausage sandwich was just as good and get the set to share, it'll be much cheaper. I'd like to go back there and try the sandwiches the next time.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Ikoi

Surprised to see the name of the famous Japanese buffet restaurant on a sausage blog like mine? Introducing the sausages of Ikoi...

ikoi
Grilled Cocktail Bacon Rolls, included in the buffet spread. Total cost of buffet $35, but well, you get unlimited amounts of sashimi, grilled stuff, tempura, sushi, and lots more other Japanese food.

This cocktail rolls are one of the best I've had, it was grilled to perfection. The sausage oozed out nice yummy bacon fats juices but was also crisp and crunchy, mixed together sausage and bacon was heavenly. Even my friends loved it so much that we ordered many seconds of this. The only thing that I ordered more was the salmon sashimi. haha~

There's also the seafood roll, which is a crabstick wrapped with bacon. It's not as nice as the cocktail roll. I was popping the whole thing into my mouth to absord the most out of the bacon and the sausage. Other must try items from Ikoi would be the sashimi and the other grilled stuff, especially the grilled salmon.

For the $35 price tag, we ate till we were so stuff, and it was sure worth the price. Extremely value for money.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

McDonald's Pseudo-Sausage

mcdonald's sausage
McDonald's Sausage, seen here alone and in a Sausage Egg McMuffin.

Ever since I set up this blog, my sister has been bugging me to feature McDonald's sausage, but I never thought their sausage is considered sausage even though they named it as sausage. So even though I eat it regularly, this is my first time featuring it.

The sausage is featured in the Big Breakfast, Hotcakes with Sausage, Sausage McMuffin, and the Sausage McMuffin with Egg. I usually have the Big Breakfast when I have McDonald's breakfast, but occasionally when I'm cravvy for cheese, I'll go for the Sausage Egg McMuffin. Once in a while when I have cravings for pancakes, then it'd be the Hotcakes with Sausage. In a way, yes, I love McDonald's sausages even though I don't think it can really be called a sausage.

Anyway, I like to eat can already. haha~

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Botak Jones Revisited

This the second time heading down to Botak Jones for sausages for this blog. You can see the other review here.

botak jones swanky franky
Swanky Franky set from Botak Jones Clementi at $10.

Let's just say that this didn't go well into my stomach. I felt queasy and a bit of heartburn after the meal. Someone, who had a Botak Burger, came down with food poisoning the next day. I guess this spells the end of my Botak Jones escapades.

The meal itself when eating wasn't too bad. Swanky Franky was a chicken frank wrapped with two slices of bacon and two slices of cheddar melted over it. Of course, there was to be onions but I didn't want it as usual. haha~ It came with the usual fries and coleslaw. It wasn't anything special. I didn't know what I was expecting when I decided to have that, but it turned out to be nothing more than the usual chicken frank just with the aditional toppings. The bacon was badly done somemore. It was grilled but not thoroughly grill, not charred nor crispy, but very fatty.

And with the sickly feeling in the stomach after that, well, guess that's it for Botak Jones. Granted, my usual trips to the Ang Mo Kio branch hadn't made me sick before, so don't know if this is just a one time off thingie.