One look at the photo and you would instinctively call this dish Ngoh Hiang, but have you ever wondered why it is called Ngoh Hiang (Five Flavours)? Well, there is a very simple answer to that. When our Hokkien forefathers brought this dish over from Fujian Province, there were only 5 different types of fritters that the dish was comprised of. These were Prawn Fritters, Pork Rolls (Ngoh Hiang), Pork Liver Rolls, Egg Rolls and the Pork Sausage, hence the name.
Time flies! Its been a year since the last Zespri Kiwifruit Season and I have been appointed Zespri Ambassador again this year.
I have written extensively about the nutritional value of Kiwifruit last year and since then Kiwifruit has been part of our family's diet because the kids just love them. During my talk, I highlighted the fact that Kiwifruits are excellent source of both Vit C and Vit E, both of which are potent antioxidants. Antioxidants are important to our health because they are like policemen who go around the body apprehending free radicals which are produced by the body. What makes Kiwifruit so special is that it has high levels of both Vit C and Vit E. Since Vit C is water soluble while Vit E is fat soluble, both of these Vitamins actually work together to produce a synergistic antioxidant effect in the body. Vit C works everywhere in the body where there is blood while Vit E is able to get into the fatty, cholesterol laden plagues to exert its protective effects.
Thanks for the overwhelming support! A email will be sent out to you to confirm your place soon.
Notice is hereby given that registration for Durian Degustation VI is now opened!
We should be expecting the usual varieties like Mao Shan Wang, D24 and Green Bamboo. Our supplier, Ah Loon tells us that even though there were heavy rains, the fruits are still excellent!
OK, I admit it, I actually quite like Foo Chow fishballs. My Teochew kakis would probably frown at my first statement because as a Teochew I am supposed to love our very own Teochew fishballs. But hey, when you bite into the ball out comes this burst of savoury pork flavour which is rather shiok! So, I would hesitate to say that I rather enjoy this more than Teochew fishballs!
It took almost a year to eventuate, but we finally managed to get Gen Shu to cook us a banquet! Last Friday, over 150 ieatishootipost readers gathered in Pasir Ris to share a Hong Kong style meal together at the most unlikely of places, a community centre. If you have never thought of eating at community centres, then JHK restaurant might just change your mind.
I guess for Chef Ip and Gen Shu, cooking for 150 was a cinch. In his heyday Gen Shu must have cooked for a thousand, and Chef Ip, who used to be the head chef at Four Seasons Hotel, would be no different. But here are two chefs from Hong Kong who loves Singapore enough to settle down in our country, cooking for a group of Singaporeans (and some Americans, Koreans and Australians too) in a neighbourhood community centre. It's quite something, isn't it?
Since we have HD Video recording technology in our Canon cameras (I used a EOS 5D MkII and Melvyn a EOD 7D), we were toying with the idea of going beyond standard photos to see how we can make a blog post even more droolworthy. So here is a HD video we did on one of our pizza experiments. Do let us know what you think!
Ah I must declare that I was using a body double for the clip! The hands you see are the hands of Damien, our Pizzaiolo!
The reason I am writing this post is because I cannot find a single resource on the internet that gives you everything you need to know in order to create Roti Prata/Canai. In order to make a Roti Prata that is as good, or even better than those you find outside you really need to know all the details, from what kind of flour to use, to how to prepare the dough, to how to flip the dough just like your favourite Prata Man. So this post is necessarily long because I want to include everything which I have learnt over the course of the last month or so from talking to Prata Men, studying Prata flipping videos and even to the extent of discussing the characteristics of flour with the expert at Prima Flour Mills. I have included a few recipes plus a slideshow on how to make the dough and 2 videos where I demonstrate, step by step, the dynamics of the Prata flip as well as another method to achieve the same Roti Prata which even a 5 year old can do. I hope that by reading this post, you will be making Pratas at home in no time and wowing your friends with your Prata Prowess.
But before we get into the nitty gritty details, let's talk about Roti Prata. I spoke to a patient of mine a while ago who happened to be from South India about Roti Prata. Many people have previously told me that the dish we Singaporeans call Roti Prata, (aka in Malaysia as Roti Canai) does not exist in India. My patient confirmed that it is not true. Roti Prata does exist in India, but only in a small part of Southern India and predominantly in a place called Chennai. Over there, this dish is simply called Prata. Indian migrants brought this dish to Malaya where it became known as Roti Prata. The Malaysians however, named this dish Roti Canai which means the "Roti" (bread) from Chennai.* If you still doubt that this dish is available in India, consider this: Most of the men who make the Prata in Singapore are foreign workers from Southern India. Do you really think that we brought them over to teach them how to make Prata? It's like bringing the Chinese over and trying to teach them how to play Ping Pong right?
Let's make it very clear that Singapore did not invent pork bone soup. The idea of boiling pork bones in soup must have been around since pigs were first domesticated in China more than 5000 years ago. What Singapore did invent was Bak Kut Teh which is when Pork Bone (Bak Kut) Soup is eaten together with a pot of Kung Fu Tea (Teh). As I have already documented in my previous posts, Bak Kut Teh was born around the Clarke Quay area as a tonic for coolies who needed an energy boost in the mornings for their back breaking work of carrying sacks of rice off the sampans into the godowns.
If you live all the way in the West and are looking for a plate of Nasi Lemak late at night, then you would probably head for Boon Lay Power Nasi Lemak. At least that would explain why there seems to be a perpetual queue of 20 people lining up for the Nasi Lemak. We were there from 10pm till 12 am and the queue never seem to wane!
Actually Nasi Lemak is very simple don't you think? The key to success is freshness. The best Nasi Lemaks in Singapore usually have long queues and as a result, the rice and Chicken wings are often served fresh and piping hot. When the rice is hot, the fragrance of the coconut cream wafts through the air and the combination of the warm coconut flavoured rice and the Sambal Tumis is so darn shiok.
So it seems to me that it is a self propagating spiral. If your Nasi Lemak is good, there will be lots of people lining up for it, the turnover will be fast and your Nasi Lemak stays fresh and the chicken wings crispy. The question is, how does one start the ball rolling in the right direction?
Anyway, there is no doubt the rice and chilli here is a powerful combination. The freshly cooked rice has the wonderful coconut fragrance coupled with the soft moist texture of fragrant Thai rice is almost perfect. One thing to note is that this is NOT traditional Nasi Lemak. The traditional version uses broken local rice which is dry and very light with little bite. You probably have had this at some Nasi Lemak stalls in Singapore. When I was in KL last year, a friend of mine brought me to the most famous Nasi Lemak there and they were using the broken rice. I think that cooking the Nasi Lemak with Jasmine rice is much better as it retains the moisture much better. The chicken wings are fresh but not particularly spectacular. 4.25/5
Conclusion
This is one very satisfying plate of Nasi Lemak. However, if you live in the East, like myself, there is no compelling reason to make a journey to the West as we have equally good Nasi Lemak at Changi Village. Plus, the chicken wings at Changi Village are better.
Those readers who have been following me on the facebook and the forum would know that I spent quite a lot of time over the last month doing research on how to make Roti Prata. The recipe has been finalized and I have finished shooting the slideshow and the video. I will be publishing my treatise on Roti Prata next week and the post will give you all the details on how to make your Roti Prata at home including step by step instructions on how to flap the Prata. This is the third in my series on local recipes which include my Pandan Cake Recipe and Tau Huay recipes! The post will contain all the information you need to successfully make Roti Prata at home, so look out for it!
This is a video I shot myself, the one next week was shot by Soundman and will be of much better quality!
Frying a plate of Char Kway Teow is a dying art in Singapore. Of all the hawker dishes, Char Kway Teow is the most artisanal because the essence of a plate of Char Kway Teow lies almost solely in the hands of the hawker. The other ingredients like Kway Teow, eggs, sweet sauce, cockles with the exception of maybe the chilli is pretty much generic. Unlike Hokkien Mee where the secret might be hidden in the prawn stock, with Char Kway Teow, everything is pretty much laid bare and there is no way to hide your poor frying skills.
What kind of restaurant will you get when you put two crazy foodies together with an Al Fresco Bar at Dempsey Road? The kind of restaurant I like, that's what.
130@Dempsey is the kind of place where foodies like myself would imagine running. Just get a hole-in-the-wall place so that you can make the kind of food that you are passionate about in order to show your friends how you think things should be done. It's the kind of accidental restaurant that was started out of impulse rather than a sound business plan. The owners, Josephine and Adel became friends when they met each other at foodie meetings years ago. Since then, they have been going all round the world looking for things to eat together. When 130@Dempsey became available, the two friends took over management of the bar first, before thinking about what they wanted to serve. After experimenting unsuccessfully with bar food, Josephine decided to serve the kind of food that she grew up eating, ie traditional Hainanese food.
As you all know, I have a regular column at insing.com where I recommend my picks of the best hawker stalls around Singapore. Insing is intent on building their site as a veritable food directory of restaurants and hawker food and have asked me to be involved in their hunt for their resident Hawker Food writer. They are now organizing a competition to find their Hawker Food writer ala "American Idol" style. The new Hawker Food "Idol" will win a Canon EOS 550D DSLR worth $1350 and a contract to write for Insing.com for 6 months which is worth $6000.
This is an excellent opportunity for budding food bloggers or aspiring food writers to gain instant recognition (you are going to be read by 1 million each month!) and at the same time earn something in their free time (Yes, as we say in the army, it's "own time own target"). If you are already doing some informal food reviews, that means you can get paid $1000 a month for doing what you are already doing!
This is how it works. In round 1, you will need to register at www.ilovehawkerfood.com.sg and submit 3 reviews of hawker food. In Round 2 we will then shortlist the top 20 contestants to attend a Food Blogging and Food Photography workshop which I will be conducting. From there we will shortlist the top 3 to go for the final selection! It's going to be challenging and great fun and contestants will learn a lot along the way!
Here's a little hint for you. Photos are going to be very important, so submit nice photos. In the first round, we will be looking for your style of writing. So don't submit a long arduous article. Submit one that is entertaining and is something that would make us want to go visit that particular stall at once!
You can find out more info on www.ilovehawkerfood.com.sg. Good luck and I will see you at the workshop next month!
Even though the Teochew style peppery Bak Kut Teh is more popular in Singapore, the response from our Facebook Fanpage showed that there are a significant number of foodies who are looking for the Hokkien Herbal version. So our kakis set off to look for one and ended up in Joo Chiat next to Tian Tian Chicken Rice. Not only does this restaurant serve the Hokkien version, they also serve the Teochew version, so you can have the best of both provinces. What's more, they are opened 24 hours a day!
Another thing that sets this stall apart from the rest is that they serve yam rice to go with their Bak Kut Teh. The rice is flavoured with dried shrimps as well as yam and is really nice even if you ate it by itself.
Between the Teochew and the Hokkien version, I must say that I still prefer the Teochew version. Their soup is sweet and peppery and a tad darker than many Bak Kut Teh being served nowadays. According to the aunty here the darker Bak Kut Teh is more traditional and it only became the lighter version more recently. 4.25/5. The Hokkien version is reminiscent of the Bak Kut Teh that we get in Malaysia, but I found that the taste of the herbs was a bit too mild such that there was not enough kick. 4/5
One of the good things about eating at Sin Heng is that they can still serve you your pot of Kung Fu Tea. They are now using portable stoves instead of the gas cylinders for the kettles. So I can still order my tea, You Tiao and a claypot of boiling Bak Kut Teh! Ahhhh..... another great breakfast idea.
The side dishes at Sin Heng are very good. We tried their pork spare parts with ginger and shallots and they were excellent. 4.25/5 The sauce was thick and flavourful and excellent with rice. Besides the usual Bak Kut Teh side dishes, they also serve a menu of Cze Char dishes which you can order if you are after something a bit more substantial for lunch.
Conclusion
Herbal or Pepper Bak Kut Teh? You can have both at Sin Heng, 24 hours a day. We had a great Bak Kut Teh meal here and if you are still not full, you can hop over to Tian Tian Chicken Rice 2 stalls down for some Chicken which was exactly what we did.
Sin Heng Bak Koot Teh
439 Joo Chiat Road
Tel: +65 6345 8754
If you are dining at Ghim Moh Food Centre and are hankering for a plate of roast meat, then the stall with the longest queue is invariably Jiu Jiang Shao La. This stall had many fans recommending them, so we had very high expectations.
Notice is hereby given for our next Makan Session!
At last we managed to get Gen Shu to come out of retirement to cook us a banquet. Our ieat Team have been enjoying private sessions at Gen Shu's place where he cooked up some Hong Kong classics for us to sample. But we have always felt that such talent should be shared with the rest of our readers. However, the problem is that Gen Shu's place is much too small to host so many people. What we needed was for someone to offer him access to their kitchen so that Gen Shu could make a guest appearance. This makan session is almost a year in the making and I am so glad that we finally managed to get Gen Shu to make a guest appearance at Chef Ip's J.H.K kitchen.
Here are the details:
Venue: J.H.K Kitchen, Pasir Ris East CC, No. 1 Pasir Ris Drive 4, #01-07
Date: 25 June 2010
Time: 7.30pm
Cost: $35 per pax
To register write toieatishootipost@gmail.com and in the Title write JHK Makan Session. In the first line indicate Name, Nickname, Hp number andno. of pax.
Please note:
1. Once we confirm your seat, please be responsible and find your own replacement if you can't make it.
2. Chef Ip and Gen Shu will generously donate $10 per pax to our ieatishootipost Van project to help the kids in Sandakan.
Here is the menu
1. Sichuan saliva chicken (This is spelt correctly! Its a Gen Shu dish)
2. Oat flake prawn balls
3. Fried crispy beancurd
4. Steamed Patin fish
5. Black-bone chicken soup with cordy ceps
6. Dongpo pork
7. Vegetables with dried beancurd (soup)
8. Fried Yee Mee with mushrooms
9. Durian snow skin moon cake and Black sesame snow skin moon cake
I found out this morning that our counter has surged past 10 million hits since the blog was started in August 2006!
Thanks to everyone who has logged in to read the blog and especially to those who have stayed around to become our makan kakis and for helping to organize all our activities! Four years on and there are still so many hawker stalls which have yet to be blogged! Singapore is indeed a food paradise! Most of these recommendations come from our forummers who are busy scouring for good places to eat and these are the same guys who actually organize for our makan outings. So if you want to get involved, do join our forum!
We are going to have our next makan session on 25 June and we have managed to persuade our favourite Hong Kong Masterchef Gen Shu to come out of retirement to cook us a banquet. Details will be published before the weekend. So do look out for the announcement! Due to popular demand, we are also planning another Durian makan session soon!
You can categorize hawker foods several ways. You could have a group called "Superstars of Hawker Cuisine" which would consist of foods like Chicken Rice, Hokkien Mee, Laksa and Satay where every tourist that comes to Singapore must eat. If that be the case, then the next category would be the "Unsung Heros of Hawker Cuisine" which are the dishes that most Singaporeans love, but which get no attention from the Singapore Tourism Board. These would be dishes like Mee Pok Tar, Wanton Mee and Fish Soup. Or you could categorize them into "Sinful Hawker Foods" of which Char Kway Teow and Orh Luak (Oyster Omelette) would feature as the prime culprits.
Now what kind of category would I place Lor Mee under, you think? I guess it could go under "Less popular Hawker dishes with long Queues". Under this category, I would also put dishes like Satay Bee Hoon of which there are a few popular stalls that command super long queues but which no other hawkers seem interested to steal a piece of the pie.
Lor Mee is not one of those dishes that I dream about eating frequently, like, say, Roti Prata. That is of course a personal preference. I wonder if there are any readers out there who would eat Lor Mee on a weekly basis? Well, you might if you found a bowl of Lor Mee as good as the one at Bukit Purmei.
Tasty Crunchy Bits
The beauty of Lor Mee lies in the contrast of textures. The most prominent is the contrast between the sticky, gooey, slimy sauce and the crunchy fried bits. For me, the shiokness of Lor Mee is nibbling on the crunchy, salty, savoury fried nuggets of flavoured batter coated in the slimy, sweet, garlicky, sourish sauce. Ever wondered what those frilly fried bits are? The closest thing I could compare them to are the crunchy fried bits that go into Poh Piah, or even Popcorn Chicken. It is a wonder why I don't eat Lor Mee more often!
Sticky, Gooey, Goodness!
Now, it is not easy to get so many textures and tastes in perfect balance. But when it happens, you have a bowl of gooey goodness to behold. The owner, Mr Teo, somehow just manages to do that and has produced one really tasty bowl of Lor Mee. Unlike the Lor (braising sauce) of Braised Duck where the role of the Lor is to flavour the duck, the Lor in Lor Mee is the main star of the show. Mr Teo tells me that the sauce made from pork bones, spices and egg white and is made fresh every morning when he gets to the stall at 5am. By 7.30am, it is ready to be served. Aside from the Lor, the other two ingredients which act as supporting actors are the chopped garlic and black vinegar. The vinegar is also specially flavoured with a secret blend of spices and this very important condiment gives the Lor a well balanced and rounded taste which coats the whole of the palate. 4.5/5
Now, here is a little tip for those who are visiting the stall for the first time. The standard bowl of Lor Mee comes with sliced lean Lor Bak, crunchy bits, ngor hiang, pork chops and charsiew. If you want to make the Lor Mee extra special, ask him for his special stash of braised Pork Belly which he prepares for his regulars. He tells me that most people nowadays try to avoid fatty meat which is why he serves the lean braised meat. But for the ultimate bowl of Lor Mee, his regulars know that the secret is in the braised pork belly!
Lor Mee is a Hokkien dish that originated from Xiamen in Fujian province. When Mr Teo's father arrived from Xiamen in the 50's, he started selling Lor Mee because that was what he was familiar with. In those days, Lor Mee only had three ingredients, viz shredded fish, belly pork and egg. Mr Teo tells me that the Lor Mee in the past was even more sticky then it is nowadays! Wow, that is really sticky!
He and his sister took over the business and settled in a stall in Tiong Bahru food centre in the 70's. Then 15 years ago, he left the stall in Tiong Bahru to open his own stall in Bukit Purmei. It is at this time that he made the crunchy bits in order to differentiate himself from his sister's stall in Tiong Bahru. He also stopped putting shredded fish in his Lor Mee because there were occasions when he couldn't get hold of the freshest fish, so he decided to do away it it altogether. So, like many of our other hawker dishes, our Lor Mee had its origins in China, but has sinced evolved into something unique to Singapore such that it is nothing like the version you get in Xiamen today.
Conclusion
It's sticky, gooey, crunchy, savoury and shiok! Need I say more?
Bukit Purmei Lor Mee
Blk 109, Bukit Purmei Ave
#01-157
7.30am to 3.30pm
Closed on Mondays
When I was a kid, mom used to buy Charsiew home from the market. The Charsiew always comes with a little bag of sweet Charsiew sauce which is great to use for our fried rice. I think the last time I ate it must have been 20 years ago. Hey, as kids we just love everything sweet OK?
Now, this Wanton Mee stall is famous for one thing and that is the fact that it is one of the few Wanton Mee stalls which douse their Wanton Mee with sweet Char Siew sauce. They do have lots of fans who rave about their Charsiew sauce. With such popularity, I often wonder why not many other Wanton mee stalls just copy what they are doing? Afterall, it is just a matter of adding the Charsiew gravy onto the noodles right?
While I think that this is a nice plate of Wanton Mee but I am not crazy about it. The Charsiew is nice but not stellar even though they are charcoal roasted on the premises. They have a special machine to slice the charsiew and it always comes out a little ragged and by the time you eat it and it is a tad dry. I have eaten here a few times already and everytime, I always come away feeling that the noodles are a little starchy. Wontans are good but again, not remarkable. 4/5
Conclusion
I think my personal taste for Wanton Mee has changed over the course of the last few years. I would have loved this Wanton Mee years ago because of the Char Siew sauce. Now however, I am looking for a plate of noodles where I can appreciate the original flavour of the noodles with just a light flavouring sauce. The Charsiew is still important to me and if I can get a few slices of succulent Bu Jian Tian (marbled Charsiew) that would score big time. However, if you are hankering for Wanton Mee late at night, this is still a famous stall where you can satisfy your Wanton Mee craving.
Handful of good sized Prawns for frying Hokkien Mee
I love talking to Heritage Hawkers like Uncle Loh and his wife who runs a little stall selling Hokkien Mee in East Coast Lagoon Food Centre. Uncle has been frying Hokkien Mee since he was 15 years old back in 1958 where he worked as an apprentice for Hokkien Mee Hawker who has been selling Hokkien Mee from a pushcart since 1940. He tells me that it takes 5 years to master the art of frying Hokkien Mee, or at least that is how long he took before he struck out with his own pushcart along the Tanjung Rhu area in 1963. He finally got his permanent stall in the 1970's when they open East Coast Lagoon Food Centre. If you live in the East like Holydrummer, you might have also grown up eating his Hokkien Mee!
Uncle is already past 70 but he is still spends most of his time at the stall frying Hokkien Mee. Aunty still goes about her work of taking orders with a big smile on her face and her eyes will light up when she talks about her son who is working in the EDB as one of their Directors based in the US. It doesn't sound like there is going to be anyone to take over the stall once Uncle decides to retire. So, if you want to try some authentic, old school Hokkien Mee, you should make a beeline to this stall soon!
Hokkien Mee: Price from $4
As you well know, there are two broad schools of Hokkien Mee. The original version is dryer and fried with thin Bee Hoon. The newer version has the thick laksa bee hoon and is wet and gooey. I like both versions depending on which stall I am eating at. The beauty of the thin bee hoon version is that they add the bee hoon while it is still dehydrated, so the bee hoon soaks up all the prawn stock and is especially tasty when they are fried well. Actually, this type of Hokkien Mee should be called Hokkien Bee Hoon because there is more Bee Hoon than Mee!
I have eaten at this stall several times, but I never really took much notice until this occasion. The noodles I had this particular night was exceptionally tasty and well fried. Perhaps Uncle wasn't as busy that night and managed to give the noodles a few more swirls. The bee hoon were very tasty and they are actually excellent value as even the $3 plate comes with nice and juicy medium sized prawns. It's too bad that Uncle has decided not to add the belly pork anymore. 4.25/5
Conclusion
Great place to get a plate of old school Hokkien Mee to go with some Satay! If you are a fan of thin bee hoon style Hokkien Mee, then this should definitely be included in your eat list!
Sheng Hokkien Mee
East Coast Lagoon Food Centre
Open 12 am to 12pm
Our Seng Kee uncle is busy trying to build up his Cze Char business in the evenings and has been experiementing with different dishes to put on the Cze Char menu. The kakis have been patronising the Crab Bee Hoon over the last month or so and I have personally been there twice for the Crab Bee Hoon already. In the previous post, I already felt the Crab Bee Hoon was very good, but this time round the flavours were even better! I think he almost perfected the recipe for this dish and it is partly due to our ieat community going down to give it a try and offering our feedback. 4.5/5
Asparagus with Oxtail Ravioli $26 from Bistro Du Vin
Singaporeans are not used to thinking about foods seasonally because we get produce from all over the world so we almost forget that most fruits and vegetables are only available for a certain part of the year. The big exception is of course Durians. But even then, durians are now almost available throughout the year but we all know that it is during the peak that they are at their cheapest and best.
Our recent polls showed that most of our readers consider Tian Tian Chicken Rice to be the best Chicken Rice in Singapore. Coincidentally, Tian Tian has also just expanded from a humble hawker stall in Maxwell Road into a full fledged restaurant in Joo Chiat. So it is only right that I pay them a visit to congratulate the Aunty at Tian Tian as well as to find out what the new restaurant is like.
I am so glad that Tian Tian has decided to open their own restaurant. Now you can eat Tian Tian Chicken Rice in air con comfort with several side dishes to choose from rather than having to sweat it out at Maxwell Road Food Centre. It is also a great place to bring overseas guests to showcase one of Singapore's iconic hawker dishes!
Over the past two months, I have blogged what our readers consider to be the 10 best places for a bowl of Ramen in Singapore. Now we shall see if we can find the Ramen King of Singapore!
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