And now back to some local fare... more variations on the curry puff this time - tom yum chicken puff and beef rendang puff from Tip Top @ Raffles City, Singapore. It's kinda like what Old Chang Kee was trying to do with their chilli crab puff and salted egg prawn puff - turning rich gravy-type local dishes into pie and puff filling. And I must say, it's a really good idea!
The one on the right with the greenish dot of colouring was tom yum, and the one on the left with the bluish dot was the rendang one.
This was the tom yum puff, which had strong tamarind and lemongrass flavours. Not too spicy. It came across as rich, moist and hearty, like a good stew in a puff.
There was a good amount of chicken in my opinion. Naturally, they couldn't afford to fill the whole thing with chicken, so potatoes took up quite a bit of the space. But that's common with curry puffs too. And although potatoes are not usually associated with tom yum soup, I thought it was acceptable as the buttery and smooth potato usually pairs well with the puff pastry.
The beef rendang puff was more impressive. For some reason, it had a good amount of juicy and tender beef chunks compared to potatoes... perhaps a fluctuation in distribution? The beef was soft and had bits of soft cartilage or tendon - the kind you get in good stews. The spices were also spot on, like the tom yum flavour.
The pastry for both was fair, but not outstanding. It was a bit greasy and slightly soggy, like it had been cooked and left to stand for very long. I think perhaps these new flavours don't sell as quickly as the regular curry puffs, for which they are famous.
But if you think of the puff pastry as pie pastry, which is naturally slightly more greasy, like the Peramakan pies, it isn't so bad.
Overall, I thought they were great ideas, as these fillings packed a lot more flavour than Old Chang Kee's salted egg prawn puff (which I notice they've stopped selling). I would even pay just to eat the filling on its own!
And I suppose they should be easier to do quality control on, because with very flavourful gravies, you can't go too far off in terms of flavour as long as all the ingredients are there. Furthermore, the longer these stew-like fillings are kept, the richer the flavour becomes.
For some reason though, I don't see the tom yum puff flavour on Tip Top's official website... I hope they didn't pull it from sales due to low sales volume...
There was a good amount of chicken in my opinion. Naturally, they couldn't afford to fill the whole thing with chicken, so potatoes took up quite a bit of the space. But that's common with curry puffs too. And although potatoes are not usually associated with tom yum soup, I thought it was acceptable as the buttery and smooth potato usually pairs well with the puff pastry.
The pastry for both was fair, but not outstanding. It was a bit greasy and slightly soggy, like it had been cooked and left to stand for very long. I think perhaps these new flavours don't sell as quickly as the regular curry puffs, for which they are famous.
But if you think of the puff pastry as pie pastry, which is naturally slightly more greasy, like the Peramakan pies, it isn't so bad.
Overall, I thought they were great ideas, as these fillings packed a lot more flavour than Old Chang Kee's salted egg prawn puff (which I notice they've stopped selling). I would even pay just to eat the filling on its own!
And I suppose they should be easier to do quality control on, because with very flavourful gravies, you can't go too far off in terms of flavour as long as all the ingredients are there. Furthermore, the longer these stew-like fillings are kept, the richer the flavour becomes.
For some reason though, I don't see the tom yum puff flavour on Tip Top's official website... I hope they didn't pull it from sales due to low sales volume...
Found this puff interesting? Check out more unusual pastries here!
But for some reason it red-shifts my images when I export them... I've tried to change some of the colour settings from forums that I googled, but to no avail.
Also, I much prefer Adobe's sharpen and blur functions compared to GIMP's convolve function. Maybe I just don't know how to use it yet. But Adobe seems more straightforward on those.
So now use GIMP for some colour functions, then use Adobe to sharpen and readjust the other colours.
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Update on GIMP experience: I prefer it compared to Adobe photoshop for these functions: undo history, levels, canvas resize and maybe a couple others. But for some reason it red-shifts my images when I export them... I've tried to change some of the colour settings from forums that I googled, but to no avail.
Also, I much prefer Adobe's sharpen and blur functions compared to GIMP's convolve function. Maybe I just don't know how to use it yet. But Adobe seems more straightforward on those.
So now use GIMP for some colour functions, then use Adobe to sharpen and readjust the other colours.
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