Quentin's

Quentin's is a new Eurasian restaurant along East Coast Road. It really is authentic Eurasian as attested to by the true blue Eurasian who was with me. And when I looked at the menu, the words "prawn bostadar" leaped out at me. This dish is a green chilli prawn sambal and can be eaten on its own or in a sandwich. I've never seen it on a restaurant menu before. Looking further down the list, I spotted other favourites - corn beef cutlets (it was called something different in the menu, but that is what it is), fish moolie. So the dishes were authentic enough. How about the food?

We ordered three dishes: sambal kangkong, mackeral curry with pineapple and a fried tofu dish. I would have liked to try the corn beef cutlets but today is Friday and so no meat for us. Nonetheless, I enjoyed our lunch. The dishes were well cooked and nicely presented. The fish curry was tangy and spicy, and the kangkong nicely cooked with some red chilli and fried onions. The only downside was that my mother (revealed! the identity of the T.B. Eurasian) had indicated "less spicy" for the sambal kangkong which meant, for me, that it was not spicy enough. She said that the previous time she had tried the dish, it was extremely hot and spicy, hence the request. Well, we will have to find a way to convey the desired level of spiciness.

My mother said that the food reminded her of her mother's cooking. So let me end off with a food recipe as recollected by my mother.

My grandmother's corn beef cutlets
(in true traditional style, some quantities are agak-agak)

ingredients
1 tin of corned beef
2 medium to large potatoes (boiled and mashed)
1 egg
3-4 stalks of Chinese celery (chopped)
Bread/biscuit crumbs

instructions:

• Mix the corned beef, mashed potatoes, celery and bread crumbs together. Add the egg as necessary to bind the ingredients together.


• Make the patties/cutlets. Break off a portion of the mixture, roll into a ball and flatten. I like my patties about the length of my thumb in diameter (please excuse the unit of measurement).


• In a frying pan, fry the patties evenly on both sides till cooked a nice golden brown. Try not to use too much oil (unhealthy!).


• Serve with sambal belacan.

Yum!