Violet Oon - Singapore's Food Ambassador

Find Violet on Monday Sept 17 at 6.30 pm to 9.30 pm at the Live Kitchen by Mayer at #02-05 Great World City, where Violet will be sharing some of her exclusive Curry recipes using her own Curry Power Collection.

You are invited to come enjoy the free cooking workshop and tastings - register here and submit the e-Form.

Updates on NEW YORK: August 19

It was a great day for enjoying Singapore Chilli Crabs and Tiger Beer at the Tiger Beer Singapore Chilli Crab Festival from 12 noon to 6pm on at the Riverview in Long Island City. This festival was organised by Tiger Beer and the Singapore Tourism Board had specially arranged for me to fly in to New York.

I had a great time sharing our beloved Chilli Crab recipe and Kueh Dadar in two cooking workshops at 1 pm and 3 pm and the event had a great turnout - there was Lion Dancing, face painting, Yeo's Chicken Curry and Prima Tastes Chilli Crab Mix was sold out. We were even featured on New York TV on Friday August 17 morning and I had a one hour live talk show at Martha Stewart Radio.

Aug 7: Beverly Hills

Here I am eating out - al fresco in Beverly Hills - sun-kissed and feeling luxe! Forget about niggly bits of haute cuisine with small portions on large plates. I am luxuriating with a plateful of superbly fresh top of the line gigantic artichoke before me, char grilled to perfection - plucking each leaf off and sucking oh so yummily on the soft end and really there are few natural tastes and textures to match that of a perfectly cooked artichoke.

Served with a Spicy Vinaigrettte and a Garlic Dip, this shiokalicious treat (see picture of my plate of half eaten artichokes) was enjoyed on a beautiful clear skied evening at 6 pm on Beverly Avenue, just a stone's throw away from the street of excess ostentation - Rodeo Drive.

This epicurean experience was not enjoyed in a high end culinary temple but in one of the branches of the chain restaurant group that is the Cheesecake Factory, at 364 N Beverly Drive. Priced at a modest US$8.95, this is truly a dish to enjoy.

And although there is much to celebrate in America's haute food destinations like the Napa Valley's French Laundry (quite arguably one of the top restaurants in the world) and Nobu in Malibu, what most distinguishes dining out in the USA, is the high quality of cooking and freshness of the ingredients in the middle class restaurant scene.

Come to think of it, this is very much like the high quality of cooking one finds in Singapore's Cher Char street side restaurants. But while the Cher Char stall restaurants offer great cooking by individual chefs, the middle class American restaurants offer you food created by a culinary team that places great emphasis on quality.

What's great fun about eating in these places is the fact that the prices are very reasonable and the portions ginormous - each serving is usually enough for 2 persons.

Just a road away is another favourite cafe of ours - me and my daugther Su-Lyn. It is a small Italian joint called Il Tramezzino (http://www.iltramezzino.com), at 454 N Canon Drive, Tel: 1-310-273-0501, and within sight of the Beverly Hills seat of local government - see picture too with the tower and the palm trees.

The specialty Panini (sandwiches) made with chewy hard Italian baguette, white bread or ciabatta - opt for the Italian baguette - are a hot favourite of my daughter's and after introducing me to the sandwiches, no visit to Los Angeles is complete without a taste of one or all of our three hot favourites - Grilled Breast of Chicken (sundried tomatoes, avocado, Provolone cheese, basil garlic sauce), Prosciutta Special (thin slices of the cured Italian ham called Prosciutto, aragula, Brie, cantaloupe melon, balsamic vinegar) or Bresaola Classico (thin slices of cured beef, Mozzarella, Roma tomatoes, aragula, lemon, oil).

The enduring charm of the il Tramezzino restaurants, started in 1991, is clearly the product of its founder's European heritage. Il Tramezzino's founder, Veronique de Lestang, recognized that there was a unique and essential desire for the opportunity to bring to Beverly Hills an eatery, which catered to the real life needs of busy people in a thriving metropolis - besides great casual food, the cafe is family friendly, child friendly and dog friendly policy and was the first of the food outlets in Beverly Hills to win from City Hall the permit for outdoor seating. Other restaurants have followed suit, giving the whole Rodeo Drive-Beverly Hills shopping enclave an air of relaxed restaurant row ambience.

While Cheesecake Factory is invitingly familiar to the local Americans, Il Tremezzino attracts a more cosmocrat clientele - you sit down for a sandwich and various lilting accents are to be heard coming forth from elegant lips in elegant faces and even more elegant bodies. Opening at 7 am, the cafe closes at 9 pm except for Sundays when closing time is 6 pm but on Friday and Saturdays it attracts the glitterati party crowd as it closes at 4 am.

These two places are great to eat in if you want to keep all your money for the shopping in Rodeo Drive. If you are more flush with filthy lucre, you might want to end a day's shopping with dinner at the best steak house I have ever eaten in, Wolfgang Puck's Cut, in nearby Beverly Wilshire Hotel at the junction of Wilshire Boulevard and Beverly Drive, Tel: 1-310-275-5200. I need not describe the menu and place - just try to make a booking week's ahead and you'll be rubbing shoulders with some of the best beef in the world as well as some of the best Hollywood stars - Jim Carey was dining there the same night I was. Be forewarned. This place is humming with noise and activity - not the place for a quiet relaxed luxurious dinner - but the place for a buzzy, noisy luxurious dinner - at top dollar rates!