I’m beginning to better understand wine after my WSET course, but the finer points of whisky eludes me. I occasionally use it for my Hojicha Whisky Tiramisu recipe, and did enjoy drinking that bottle of Monkey Shoulder neat while we were in Batam, which I gotta say, was easy to drink and pretty incredible for the price point. 

A whisky fair isn’t something that I would have normally signed up for, but I’m glad that I went. In fact, I had such a great time, I’m planning to visit every year from now on. I went with my friend EJ, who also holds a WSET (in whisky), and attending the whisky fair with him became a little like a crash course in the world of whisky. 

There were dozens of booths set up, and our entrance tickets let us redeem a sample dram at every booth. It was too much for a person to have a drink at every booth, but boy did I try my best to. The booths range from small niche distilleries to giants in the industry, and almost every was foreign to me. Over the course of the afternoon, we had quite a lot of delicious whiskies. 

The first thing I learnt about was the whisky wheel: a guide on the flavour profiles found in whisky, to identify the notes that you can taste. We lingered over Glenturret’s booth, where EJ was looking for their 15-year single malt, while I savoured the sweet notes of vanilla from their Triple Wood. I heard that Glenturret is not commonly available in Singapore, and it was a pleasant surprise to see them here. We’ve had drams from similarly prized distillers such Loch Lomond, Frank McHardy and Tomintoul, and found that Irish whiskies - such as from Tipperary - tend to be easier to drink. 

I certainly felt pleasantly buzzed as we made a circuit around the different booths, though we only sampled probably about a third of the stalls. We had a heavily-peated, intensely smoky whisky from Port Charlotte, as well as drams from new-world distilleries like Milk and Honey from Tel Aviv. I couldn’t help but to get a bottle of Milk and Honey, so taken I was by the smokiness of the brew. But perhaps the most interesting find was Currach’s Kombu Single Malt. Their whisky was aged in casks lined with seaweed, creating a briny, unami whisky. As I made our purchase, Patrick, the distillery owner, came up to introduce himself to us. The infusion of kombu in whisky was a stroke of inspiration that came to him as he was eating kombu chips with whisky in Japan. The whisky lends itself to being paired with savoury mains instead of as an after-dinner drink, and Patrick particularly recommends having it with grilled meat (particularly octopus) or especially with Rendang. 

Clutching my bottles of whiskies, we left the fair a tad tipsy. Because of other commitments, we could spend only a couple of hours inside, which isn’t nearly enough time to try the rest of the booths :'(. I’m content with adding these two bottles to my growing whisky collection, but sign me up for the one next year.

Mid Valley Southkey Mall is a relatively new shopping establishment, and we spent the bulk of our day here. We wandered around the mall, picking up things to purchase here and there. Shopping in a mall isn’t exactly the most exciting thing around, but my heart was pounding as I saw that the department store Sogo was having a terrific sale on wine glasses. I picked out a dozen gorgeous-looking glassware. We stopped at the Oriental Kopi, another recommendation from a friend that we reached just before they opened. And it was lucky that we did, as a formidable queue started right behind us. At first glance, it seemed like the usual soft boiled eggs-toast-coffee store, but we were roundly impressed by their iced mocha, which was one of the best thing that I’ve tasted in a long time. It was whipped til well-frothed, and I couldn’t have enough of that thick layer of luscious foam. We shared the toast: each slice of bread was buttered and grilled, and then sandwiched with thick slices of butter and kaya. One probably couldn’t (shouldn’t) eat the entire set by oneself. We love the kaya, and bought several bottles on our way out. The food definitely falls under the “Once in a While” category, and ditto for their famous egg tarts, which I find too buttery. 

And I bought the guiling gao, a truly incongruent dessert to sell (and for me to buy) in a toast-and-egg place. But it was good.

I honestly couldn’t remember what we did in the mall; it was a blur of bright lights and things to try on and to eat. (Anyone tried the Eureka sour cream flavoured popcorn? I’m a huge fan.) And we had lunch at Dragon-I, a dim sum outlet chain. But because we were absent-minded, we didn’t make an appointment for the massage parlours when we first arrived at the mall at 8am (!!!!), and the day’s slots had all been filled up by the time we realised our mistake. Rookie error. We also made a not-so-quick-after-all stop at the nearby KSL mall, and came to the realisation that other than a few niche things, there really wasn’t not much to do in KSL. 

We made a stop at Keijometo in the afternoon. It’s a cafe, with a nondescript entrance amongst residential houses in a neighbourhood. The numerous parked cars crowding the side of the road was the only indication that something extraordinary was happening in the walls within. We couldn’t otherwise see a signboard or any indication that there’s a business from the outside. Nevertheless, it’s thriving somehow via word of mouth. The matcha was on the sweet side, and I’m glad to have shared the Mentaiko Tamago Sando, so full that we were from our multiple meals. 

We try to head back to Singapore in the early evening, as the causeway gets progressively crowded as people get off work. Our last stop of the day was to Siang Kee, a seafood zichar store by the roadside which Miss XS’s colleague swore by. We told the rest of our family that we were buying dinner back for them, plus we were much too sated from grazing the entire day to properly give the food the attention they deserved. So we got the food to go - perfectly fried cereal crawfishes, flavourful beer pork ribs and huge portions of their mee goreng - and then left for the causeway before the queue got worse. (The friend was right, by the way. Dinner was amazing.) 

While JB has a reputation for being a cheap destination, it’s not really true. It’s cheaper to stay at home in Singapore, after all, and one doesn’t go to all these trouble of crossing the borders to eat an unremarkable plate of noodles. It’s a place to spend a day hanging out with your loved ones and to indulge in the best of Chinese cuisine: seafood, herbal ducks and (whole) suckling pigs. 

This recipe is no less stunning. It's made in the same vein, using Guinness and bacon to amp up the flavours. If you haven't heard of Chef JP before, you're missing out on a great deal. I spent many evenings indulging in my ennui on his YouTube channel and watch him enthusiastically working in the kitchen. As testament to the fact that you don't have to be a jerk to be a great chef, this recipe creates one of the best, most flavourful stews that I've had. It's also more forgiving, and you can use whichever cheap cut of beef that you have on hand.

Chef Jean-Pierre's Guinness Beef Stew 

Original recipe from Chef Jean-Pierre. Video available here. 

This recipe calls for roux to thicken the stew up at the tail-end of the recipe. I had a miscalculation when I was experimenting with French onion soup recipes in April, and made far more roux than I knew what to do with. So I froze the excess, which 6 months later, I'm still going through. But if you hadn't been careless enough like me, it's easy enough to whip up on the side during the long downtime while the stew is in the oven. 

INGREDIENTS
1.6 kg Chuck Roast (or any cheap cuts), cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm) chunks
225 g Bacon, diced
1 large Onion, chopped
15 g Fresh Thyme Leaves, chopped
22 g Fresh Rosemary, chopped (or substitute with oregano)
4-5 Garlic cloves, thinly sliced
800 g (28 ounces) canned of peeled Italian Tomatoes, drained
440ml Guinness Beer
300g Leeks, thinly sliced, both white and light green parts
225 g Celery, diced
225 g Carrots, diced
600 ml Beef Stock or Broth
150 g Pitted Prunes
Salt and Black Pepper to taste
Roux, or all purpose flour, as required 

STEPS
1. Preheat Oven to 190°C (375°F). 

2. Heat vegetable oil in a large frying pan, then add the beef in batches and lightly season with pepper (you may lightly season with salt too, if your beef stock does not contain sodium.). Sear the beef until well-browned on the exterior. Frying in batches is tedious but necessary to ensure proper browning. Remove the seared beef and set aside.

3. In a large Dutch oven or in an oven-safe pot (I use a stainless steel pot), set over medium heat and sauté diced bacon until it starts to render. Add the chopped onion, stirring occasionally, until the onions are light golden brown. Add thyme, rosemary and sliced garlic and cook until the aromatics releases their fragrance. 

4. Add the drained tomatoes, Guinness beer, leeks, celery, and carrots, then the seared beef. Add the beef stock and then the prunes. Allow the stew to come to a simmer, then cover with a lid and place it in the oven to continue cooking for about 2.5 hours. (At the 1.5 hour mark, check on the level of liquid and top it up with boiling water if necessary.) 

5. Around 45 minutes before the stew is ready, remove it from the oven. The beef should start to be more tender but not yet fall apart when tested with a fork. Set a metal strainer into the stew, and add raw flour into the strainer. Using a whisk, stir the flour, which will begin to mix with the stew and then leak out of the strainer. (If you have roux, or if you’re feeling industrious enough to mix some up - it’s not that difficult! - you can add the roux to the stew using the strainer method as well). Add until the stew is thickened to your preference. Return the pot to the oven and continue cooking for another 45 minutes, until the meat is tender enough to be cut with the side of a fork.