My Version Char Siew Wings

Last weekend, "B" and me went to Lau Pa Sat to have the BBQ Honey Wings. It's the craving that made me decide to have dinner there. I NEVER like to eat at La Pa Sat because of the exorbitant prices, bad food, endless tauting and poor service. It's one of the tourist attractions in Singapore but I wished the food served are at least decent enough to be eaten evenso the prices are way off chart. I don't really mind paying more IF I could swallow the food or worst chew it at least! I reckon, they're taking advantage of the tourist dollars and TOTALLY ignored the quality and not mentioning quantity of food served. Damn, the craving! I totally wasted "B's" $$ eating here.

Seriously, how could one actually do much wrong in cooking a simple plate of Mee Goreng??? It looked alright in photos (well don't they all?!) and I did saw a full nice heap of seafood mee goreng served to an earlier order. So, I ordered. The lady didn't seemed pushy and abide to my requests of a spicier and wetter version of Beef Mee Goreng. "B" ordered the Nasi Ayam Goreng (Fried Chicken Rice). It came minutes later and still looked alright. But wait till you taste it though! The noodles were tough and I meant rubber tough. WHERE DID THIS LADY KEPT/GET HER NOODLES!?!! I needed 'extra' energy to chew the noodles down! The beef were no different too. There's only one measley strand of chai sim in the noodles. Jeesh! I pushed the plate to "B" to finish it off!. "B's" plate of Nasi Goreng Ayam smelt ok. But again... the rice were hard. It's as though they were made days back and refrigerated over and over again. That kind of dryness and hardness I'm talking about. At least the chickens are edible. NOT really nice but eatable. Each dish costs "B" SGD4. I could have had better elsewhere with a decent amount of ingredients. SO DISSAPPOINTED!!! But, at a place like this I should have expected it...! Stoopid me! We of course ordered the BBQ Honey Wings too at stall 8. I don't think ordering at other stalls made much of a difference though. A plate of 5 wings costing @SGD1.50 each. The price had rose from SGD1.20 before. The wings were half nice now. The chilli dip's off. I SWORE to make my own in future. NO MORE coming to Lau Pa Sat. Hmph...!

Today however... I was in two minds to either reminished the BBQ Honey Wings or make Chicken Char Siew instead. Hmmm... I decided upon the latter. I came up with my own follow-by-the-taste marinate of char siew sauce. I don't know the exact taste of char siews coz most are made with pork and I can't eat that, thus I made mine with chicken wings. Judging at the recipes stated, I new they ought to be sweet and have a burnt-like taste due to the roasting. Mine turned out great! The sweet sticky sauce was delish. The redness gorgeous. I yielded a lot with 1kg of chicken wings and costing me much... much lesser than the 5 pieces I bought at Lau Pa Sat. "B" and me ate to our hearts content in the comfort of home while watching Transformers with a giant cup of ice Milo accompanying the movie. Also made "B" the Nasi Ayam Goreng that he didn't get to enjoy at Lau Pa Sat. I can say, mine's a million times better. HmmMpH...!!!

Ingredients for Chicken Wings Char Siew
(my own version)
1kg chicken wings
3 tsp cumin - pound
1 tbsp dried rosemary - pound
5 cloves - pound
sesame oil
1 lemon - squeeze juice
salt to taste
crushed black pepper
honey
chilli sauce (Del Monte brand)
Method
Add in the pounded ingredients first together with salt and black pepper. Then pour in the lemon juice and a couple dashes of sesame oil. Mix well. Lastly, add in the chilli sauce and honey till all chicken wings covered. Don't add too much of chilli sauce and honey as the marinate will tend to get too watery later. Marinate for an hour or overnight. The longer the better to get the ingredients infuse together. The taste later superb! I don' have a BBQ grill so I baked mine in the oven @220'C for 30-40 minutes or till the the chicken wings began to charred a bit. Once in a while, I'll glaze the wings with the extra sauce from the marinate so it'll stay moist rather than too dry.

I took 3 pics and wanted ALL up ;-p

I'm gonna have in mind this marinate for any coming BBQ events. I believe they'll do well on meat too! I'll try them soon enough. Before the fasting month arrives. If not after. winks*

Pics are bright red due to the chilli sauce and my camera flash too??? I did edit the pics to be sharper but maintained the natural colour still.