Hong Ji Claypot Bak Kut Teh: Northenmost Blog Post

Singaporeans love to complain.  The most frequent complain that I get concerning the ieat hawker app is that there isn't enough eateries up North.  OK, the reason there aren't many red pins on the ieat hawker map is that there really isn't that many places up North that someone from the South would bother to drive up to eat.  Seriously.  Ever since I released the App last October I have made a concerted effort to seek out eateries up North.  So far, I have added, Chong Pang Nasi Lemak, You Huak White Bee Hoon and Yishun 928 Laksa which is already in the latest update of the App.  Although they are good, they are not quite as spectacular as a lot of the eateries further South.

See, I am complaining.  Singaporeans love to complain.



Anyway, I drove all the way to Marsiling Lane for this Bak Kut Teh because when I posed the question of what to eat up North on Facebook, this was the stall that got mentioned quite a few times. 

The special thing about this Bak Kut Teh is that it is the herbal type that is served in claypots instead of the peppery type commonly found here.  It was a pretty good meal, but it just didn't have that extra something to get you to drive all the way up North to try it.  And guess what,  at the end of meal, when I asked the stall for their namecard I found out that they have a branch at Bedok, just near my clinic!  So you see, I keep telling you, its hard to find something compelling up North!  Sorry Northerners!

Conclusion

A nice Bak Kut Teh to try if you are around the northern part of Singapore.  I am still searching for something really compelling up North that is worth the calories and fuel.

Hong Ji Claypot Pork Rib Soup
Blk 19, Marsiling Lane
#01-329
Singapore 730019
90901855 Ah Lim
8am to 9pm daily

Teck Kee Pau: A 62 year old Heritage Hawker Icon

It might be debatable as to whether Teck Kee is the oldest Pau stall in Singapore, but I would say that they are probably the most well known brand.  Who here doesn't recognize the iconic logo that is printed on the piece of paper at the bottom of each pau?  I must have peeled it off countless times as I was growing up!


The figure in the logo is the 2nd generation Mr Tan

Talking about peeling off that piece of paper, have you noticed that the tastiest paus happen to be the ones where the pau skin sticks onto the piece of paper so that when you peel it off and you are left with a bottomless pau which is a mess to eat?  Well when you think about it, it makes sense, because those are the ones where the skin is thin and soft.  They also tend to be ugly as the skin is often translucent in those areas where the meat sauce has been absorbed by the skin.  But I am sure you will agree that they are are bestest juiciest paus!


3rd Gen Mr William Whey striking the pose of his father on the logo

However, the problem is that most people don't want to buy paus that look ugly, so as a result a lot of pau shops tend to make their skin a little thicker.  That is exactly the case for Teck Kee Pau.  To be sure, most of the Paus are still very much handmade in their Serangoon Road Stall, but 3rd Generation owner, William Whey tells me that they have had to make their paus more resilient as people often reject the ugly ones.

Even their Char Siew Pau had to be altered in some ways over the years.  They are still roasting their own Char Siew in charcoal ovens but nowadays they have to remove the black charred bits before dicing it for the filling.  They had too many complaints from ladies in the past about "Chao Tar" bits!

William himself admits that their Paus used to be much better in the past.   The Paus nowadays have less fat than the ones in the past because of the more health conscious public.  But there are other factors which are beyond their control.  The quality of pork in Singapore isn't quite as good as it was in the days when Singapore still had own own pig farms and there is still a ban on Malaysian pork, so most of the pork now comes from Brazil.  Even the flour isn't as fresh as it was in the past!


The original roadside stall along Koek Road

Teck Kee's legacy stretches all the way back to 1948 when William's grandfather, Mr Whey Hui Tuck decided to quit his job as a chef at the Emperor restaurant to start his own business. At the time, you could only eat dim sum at the restaurants during the day, so he decided to set up a little roadside stall along Koek road (off Orchard Road) to sell Char Siew Pau and Bak Pau in the evenings!  It can be argued that he was the one who started the whole Pau Stall genre! 

You probably know that our local pau is quite different from the Hong Kong style pau.  Actually our style of Pau is quite unique to Malaysia and Singapore.  However, the origins of Pau is not very clear at the moment.  According to William, there are some Pau stalls which may be older than Teck Kee so he cannot be sure if it was his grandfather who started making Pau this way instead of the Hong Kong style pau with the puffed up top.

I used to love Teck Kee Pau when I was a kid.  During the Pau Dark Ages in the 80's and 90's when commercial paus were introduced to the coffeeshops, Teck Kee stood out as one of the few stalls which continued to make their own paus by hand.  Thankfully, we moved out of the Dark Ages and people started making Paus again.  So there are many more stalls nowadays selling artisanal pau.

Although Teck Kee is still very much a family owned business and still making their paus by hand,  its unfortunate that they have to make Paus which appeal to the masses in terms of presentation.  As a result, with the Tua Pau, the skin is slightly thick and the Pau is healthier (fat and skin removed). It's still something that you can fall back on when you have a Pau craving, but only a shadow of what it once was. The Char Siew Pau is slightly better, the Char Siew has got that smokey flavour but as I mentioned earlier, all the nice charred bits have been removed, so its lost that rustic edge.  4/5

Conclusion

Teck Kee Pau is very much a part of our Food Heritage.  The Paus are still good, although by striking a balance between taste, health and presentation, I feel that they have lost that artisanal touch.  It would be great to see them introduce a heritage range of Pau which are made specially for foodies to enjoy instead.

Teck Kee Tanglin Pau
83 Killiney Road
Singapore 239531
9.00 am - 10.30 pm
Closed on Mon
6734-9253


For other locations, please check their website:  www.teckkeepau.com

Lau Goh Carrot Cake: The History of Carrot Cake (Chai Tau Kueh) revisited

Carrot Cake prices start at $4

Ask any baby boomer about White Carrot Cake they will tell you about the Legendary Lau Goh Carrot Cake at People's Park.  In its heydays in the 70's, Lau Goh was unrivalled.  When others were selling carrot cake for less than a dollar a plate, he was already selling it at $1 plus and despite that inflated price, people were still queuing for his Carrot Cake!

Lau Goh started selling Carrot Cake from a pushcart along Merchant Road in the 60's and was responsible for re-introducing White Carrot Cake to our local food scene.  The steamed rice cake is a common food in China and as far as we know, adding radish into the rice cake was something that has been traditionally practiced both by the Cantonese and the Teochews. During the 50's however, the most popular form was the Black version made from steamed rice cakes without radishes.  This was known as Char Kueh (Fried Rice Cakes) rather than Chai Tau Kueh (Carrot Cake).  During the post war years, Char Kueh was simply rice cakes fried without eggs or chye poh and Sweet Soy Sauce was the cheap and convenient means of adding flavour.

It is believed that Lau Goh was one of the earliest pioneers of White Carrot Cake.  He started making his rice cakes with shredded radishes and fried it without adding Sweet Soy Sauce. There was no Chye Poh (preserved radish) either and people would bring their own duck eggs for Lau Goh to fry with the Carrot Cake.  In those days, the Carrot Cake was cut with a string into long rectangular fingers, quite unlike the Carrot Cake you see nowadays.  In the 70's, Lau Goh was chased off the streets and relocated to a permanent stall at People's Park Centre. This was where Lau Goh's popularity hit its peak.

It is interesting to note that in China, this dish is not called Chai Tau Kueh ( 菜头粿).  In a TV series called "Food Hometown", Mediacorp artiste Chew Chor Meng, traced the roots of Carrot Cake back to its birthplace in Chaoshan and reports that they do have a similar dish of fried rice cake there.  But in Chaoshan, this popular snack is known as Fried Gaoguo (炒糕粿) rather than Fried Carrot Cake ( 菜头粿).  The steamed rice cakes are made from rice starch made from milling puffed rice.  They are then cut into 4 by 1 by half inch blocks, marinated in fish sauce and dark sweet sauce before frying.  During the frying process, eggs, fresh oysters and prawns are added.  Chinese BBQ sauce (沙茶酱) is also used to give it a spicy kick and a bit of sugar is sprinkled over the dish just before serving.  In Chaoshan, Chye Poh is never added to the carrot cake.

A young Peter Goh making Carrot Cake

So it seems like Chai Tau Kueh is unique to Singapore and the style of Chai Tau Kueh with the eggs and Chye Poh evolved locally over the years to the familiar dish that we see today.  Our facebook fans commented that in Malaysia there is also a dish of fried rice cakes.  However it is called Char Kway Koek (炒粿角) over there and is fried with Sweet Sauce with no chye poh which sounds very similar our Char Kueh of the 50's.

Unfortunately, Lau Goh is not longer around so I can only imagine what his dish tasted like. However, his legacy lives on in is his third son, Peter Goh, who continues to fry Carrot Cake over at Zion Road.  He is probably more well known as the hearing impaired hawker at Zion Road food centre where you have to order your food by pointing at the menu.   His version of carrot cake is quite unlike the legendary Lau Goh version.  One reason is that he has stopped making his own carrot cake and so his carrot cake is now powered by Chye Poh and fish sauce instead of radish.

However, it is still a carrot cake which I quite enjoy eating.  I like how the Carrot Cake is soft and mushy and wonder-Fully flavoured.  One of the  things that Peter does is to mash the carrot cake into smaller pieces by hand instead of using a wire mesh to cut it into cubes.   This results in pieces of carrot cake which have an irregular surface to which the egg, chye poh and fish sauce sticks to easily so that each morsel is covered with yummy umami. It isn't legendary, but it's still pretty addictive! 4.5/5


Peter Goh

Conclusion

Fried Rice Cakes is something that our Teochew forefathers brought over from China, but it isn't called Chai Tau Kueh back in its home of origin.  There are of course many variants of fried rice cakes in the region, but the  style of frying it with eggs and Chye Poh is unique to Singapore which had evolved from the black version in the 60's.  Peter Goh's current carrot cake might only be a faint replica of what it was in its heyday but its still a plate of carrot cake well worth some of your calories.

Lau Goh Teochew Chye Thow Kway
Zion Riverside Food Centre
Stall 26, Singapore 247780
12pm to 2.30pm
6pm to 11pm
Tue closed
96745483 (SMS only)



References:
1.  Black and White Carrot Cake,  Lian He Zhao Bao, 8 Jan 2006
2.  Food Hometown, Teochew Fried Carrot Cake Episode, Wawa Pictures, Popular Book Company ,2010

Dilmah Tea: School of Tea, Part II: Very Special Rare Tea

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Very Special Rare Tea:  Seasonal Flush UVA Estate August 9th 2011

Rockett Girl and I have been having a sort of Tea Renaissance ever since we came back from the Dilmah tea gardens in Sri Lanka.  During our trip, we tasted a wide variety of black teas but there was one that really stood out as the ultimate black tea for us.   It is the "show off" tea that I always bring out when friends come over because it is the always a joy to see my friends experience the "Wow!".

So what makes the Seasonal Flush UVA estate a "Very Special Rare Tea"?

Just like wine, the taste, flavour and character of Tea is affected by climate and terrain.  That is why there can be so many different types of Tea but they are all from the same plant, camilia sinensis.  The familiar black tea that we order at the coffeeshop is like brandy, where teas from different regions are blended together to give a consistent character.  The Seasonal Flush is more akin to vintage wine, where the tea comes from a particular region and its character varies from season to season depending on climatic conditions.

The four most famous black teas of the world are Darjeeling and Assam from India, Keemun from China and Uva from Ceylon. Teas grown in the UVA region of Ceylon are mid to high grown teas characterized by its intensity of aroma and flavour.  The best UVA teas are plucked between June and September each year but every year, the tea grower waits in anticipation for a confluence of climatic conditions that produces teas of exceptional quality.  They call this event the Seasonal Flush.

The tea plucking season at the UVA highlands starts when the South West Monsoon rains give way to the Eastern coastal winds in July.  What the tea growers look for is three continuous weeks of hot, dry days accompanied by cold windy nights.  There cannot be any rain during this time or the seasonal flush phenomenon will be disrupted.

Physiologically, what happens is that the tea bushes are stressed during this period and as a result, the chemical processes in the leaves (photosynthesis) undergo a fundamental change.  It might be a bit complicated to discuss it here in detail, but for those who really want to know, the process of photosynthesis shifts from inside the chloroplasts to outside and this produces flavour compounds that are not found in your normal tea leaves.  That is why Seasonal Flush is considered a Very Special Rare Tea!

According to the literature, this tea offers a "complex of citrus, with hints of eucalyptus, mint and an energetic personality."  Honestly, for an untrained palate like mine, I can't taste the citrus, eucalyptus and mint.  But I can honestly say that every time I drink the tea, the intensity of the tea aroma brings me back to my visit to the Somerset Estate tea processing factory and especially in the room where the teas are being baked.

This tea is not available in Singapore, but you can buy it from the Dilmah online store. They only produced 5000 tins of it and each one is individually numbered and signed.  It costs $US35 for 100g and delivery is free.  It's excellent value and worth every cent.  I just bought another two cans from the online store and they arrived by Fedex within two weeks so I can confidently tell you that the service is very dependable.



Another "Very Special Rare Tea" that I have been enjoying is the Ceylon Silver Tips White Tea which is also in the Dilmah t-Series range.

There has been much talk in recent years about White Teas containing the highest amount of antioxidants which has resulted in White Teas appearing in our supermarket shelves.  But if you are about to pick up a pack of White Tea for $4.50, you should stop and ask yourself if you are getting the real deal, because White Tea cannot be so cheap.

It is said that White Tea used to be served to the Emperor of China and the leaves are never touched by hand.  Instead, the tea pickers, (who have to be virgins) use gold scissors to carefully cut the buds of the tea plants and place them on a golden platter!

Of course, nowadays, the tea is plucked by hand and there is no requirement for the tea plucker to be a virgin.  The reason they are still handplucked is because White Tea is only made from the buds of the tea plant and they have to be carefully picked and placed in a silk bag so that they don't get bruised. (Once bruised they start to oxidize and turn brown)  They are then carefully dried in fitlered sunlight and packed.

So, when you open a bag of real White Tea, what you are supposed to see is only pale greyish spears with little downy hairs giving them that whitish appearance, hence White Tea. The brew is very gentle and lightly fruity with floral tones and full of antioxidants!

Again, this is only available at Dilmah's online store.


Get the Dilmah Exceptional sample pack by signing up online

So far I have been telling you about their t-Series which will hopefully be introduced to the Singapore market sometime in the future. What Dilmah has just introduced to the Singapore market is the Dilmah Exceptional range which you can find on the shelves of NTUC Finest and Cold Storage.

The Exceptional Range is made from quality single estate Ceylon tea which have been carefully selected to pair with a range of nature identical flavours.  With many of these flavoured teas that you can find in the market, you might find that the tea itself only adds tea colour to the brew as inferior tea leaves are often used.  With the Exceptional Range, the tea makers at Dilmah have carefully chosen teas from their various Estates to complement the flavours. 

If you enjoy Earl Grey Tea, you should give their Elegant Earl Grey a try.  The tea used as the base is a delicate Ceylon Pekoe which is flavoured with Bergamot which results in a tea which is very bright with a nice balance of astringency and citrus flavour.  The Rose with French Vanilla is also very good but unlike the delicate Earl Grey, it is medium bodied so you get a bit more mouth feel to complement the wonderfully floral Rose and Vanilla fragrance.

Get Free Samples Online!
No point me trying to describe all the tea flavours here.  The best way for you to appreciate the tea is to taste it for yourself!  All you got to do is to sign up at their website to receive a free sample of 6 different flavours Dilmah Exceptional tea delivered to your mailbox.  Here's the link:  http://dilmah.sg/trial-signup/.

Read my previous post on Dilmah's orthodox tea making process here.
Read about the MJF foundation's various social enterprises here.

Yakiniku Ten: Wagyu Beef on Rice, Very Nice!

Oumi Tokujo (premium) Kalbi $39.80 for 100g

Don't you find it amazing that Japanese Cattle can walk around with so much fat in their muscles and yet the cow doesn't die of a heart attack?  That incredible marbling is the result of years of genetic selection and careful choice of feeds. 

Up till only a few years ago, Wagyu beef was still very much the stuff of legend.  Tales of how the cattle are fed beer and get massages to produce that beautiful marbling were propagated in the West by videos such as the one below, giving Wagyu beef that Eastern mystique.  But just how much of it contributes to that intense marbling?


Classic Wagyu Beef Video

Very little.

If you think beer gives the Cattle great marbling, think again.  How many guys do you know who have beer bellies?  That's the result of an accumulation of visceral fat, ie fat in the abdominal cavity. That is the kind of fat found in-between the intestines, liver, stomach etc, which results in a rounded tummy that rests precariously atop of the belt.  But that is not the kind of fat we want in Wagyu.  That intense marbling is the result of intramuscular fat which is the fat found in between muscle fibres. 

Now, Cardio vascular disease is directly related to visceral fat and not intramuscular fat, so that is why the cow does not die of a heart attack.  Actually I only assume they don't (I can't find any stats on it), but the point I am trying to make is that it is not the drinking of beer that creates that Shimofuri (snow flake) marbling in Wagyu.  You can feed an Angus steer all the beer you want and it still wouldn't develop the marbling of a Wagyu.

So do they actually feed beer to the cattle?  It turns out that it does happen in some Waygu ranches, but only during the summer months as a way of stimulating their appetite. Sake massages are done to keep the animal relaxed as too much stress will result in poor quality meat.  Some ranches do play music while others rear their cattle in pairs.  All of these are strategies to keep the cattle relaxed to improve the quality of the meat.  But that intense marbling... it's all down to the genes.

Australian Kalbi vs Japanese Oumi Kalbi

When you eat at a Yakiniku restaurant or Shabu Shabu restaurant for that matter, most of the work of delivering a great meal experience has already been done by the farmers beforehand.  So if the restaurant carries beef from a good source, then most of the battle is won since all you need to do is simply grill the beef and eat it with a bit of salt. 

If you are looking for Japanese Wagyu at a good price, Yakiniku Ten is one place which you can consider.  As with many restaurants that are located in golf clubs, the main mission of the restaurant is to provide great food for their members at reasonable prices.  What a lot of people may not realize is that a lot of these restaurants are also opened to the public and it is often at these places that you can find great value deals.

The selection at Yakiniku Ten is quite wide and you can order both Australian as well as the Japanese Wagyu here.  For example, you can get 200g of Australian Premium Wagyu Kalbi for $39.80 or 100g Japanese Premium Wagyu Kalbi for the same price.  So the Japanese beef is twice the price, but there is a discernible difference in the quality.  Whether that difference is worth twice the price is, of course, subjective.  It would have been perfect if they served a good Japanese rice with the beef and used real Japanese charcoal in the grill instead of an electrical BBQ, but all these extras would push up prices.   4/5


Enmaru Roll $21.80

The other item that is well worth ordering is their house specialty, the Enmaru Roll.  This is basically a sushi roll that is filled with cucumber and pickles and topped with a variety of ingredients like tuna, salmon, ebi, unagi, tamago etc. For around $22, you get 12 pieces of sushi which is rather good value and everyone on the table can take a pick of what they like.  4/5

Conclusion

Japanese Wagyu is not cheap, so I am always on the lookout for places where you can get it at a good price.  The place might not have all the bells and whistles of a fine Japanese restaurant, but it's a great place for family and friends to gather around for Yakiniku. 

Special Japanese Wagyu Set for ieatishootipost readers

Oumi Premium Kalbi (60g)
Oumi Kalbi (60g)
Satsuma Sirloin (50g)
Served with Rice, Miso Soup and Pickles
$59.80++
Just ask for the "Ieatishootipost Set" when make your reservations.  Offer valid till 29 Feb 2012

Yakiniku Ten
Laguna National Golf and Country Club
(Turn right at the main entrance)
12pm to 2.30pm
6pm to 9.30pm
62481722

This was an invited review

Featured on Cover of Buzz Magazine

Nasi Padang River Valley: Less spicy, more sweet, Yummy all round!

If you love Nasi Padang, I am sure you would have at least heard of Nasi Padang River Valley.  This place is probably one of the most well known places for Nasi Padang in Singapore and it is quite a known fact that one of their regular customers is the Sultan of Brunei who would tarpau food from there whenever he is in Singapore.

The restaurant started off as a little stall in River Valley at the corner of Mohd Sultan Road in 1957 and were infamous for its snaking long queues.  That was one of the reasons they moved to their present location in 1998.  The 2nd generation owner, Zul, tells me that he still pretty much does most of the cooking which is based on his mother's recipes from the Bukit Tinggi region of West Sumatra.

But do they serve authentic Nasi Padang?