Ji Xiang Ang Ku Kueh: Before there was Mochi, there was Ang Ku Kueh

 

Ang Ku Kueh 60 cents each

Nowadays, our kids probably know more about Mochi than Ang Ku Kueh.  When I was a kid, everyone knows about Ang Ku Kueh, especially if you are Hokkien. You know what I am talking about right?  That Ang Ku Kueh song that starts with a Nun knocking on an olive:

L'Operetta (Act 2): Introducing the ieat Team

Report by ieat, photos by Joao and Cactuskit, review by Joao

ieat Team 2011

We kickstart 2011 with the target of organizing one makan session each month which is going to be a lot of work.  So I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the guys who will be helping to do all this work.  

Starting from the left and going clockwise is:

Kinki: Japanese with the Shiok!

Tai Carpaccio - Thinly sliced snapper with shio konbu and truffle sauce $26

I love watching Iron Chef.  In fact the reason I started subscribing to Asian Food Channel was so that I could watch Iron Chef.  For those of you who don't already know, Iron Chef was one of those Japanese variety shows that managed to achieve cult status by inviting Chefs of exceptional culinary prowess, dressing them up in ridiculous costumes and pitting them against each other.  It was like watching a gladiator match except that the only blood that was shed belonged to some unfortunate beast.  

Makan Session the First: Le Chasseur

Our first makan session of the year was a resounding success! Firstly because everyone turned up and secondly it is almost unanimous that everyone thought that the food was really good!
The highlight for me was the steamed fish with black olives 4.5/5, claypot rice 4.5/5 and the Tau Suan 4.5/5.  Most of the other dishes were at least a 4 to 4.25 which is a big achievement when you are cooking for 100 people!

Many thanks to Chef Andy and his crew for hosting us!  Big thanks to Soundman and Irene for helping organize the session and iJeff for the photos!  We are planning to have such makan sessions monthly this year so if you missed this one, don't fret!  We are already planning another one at the end of Feb!  See you there!

Read about Le Chasseur here.


Le Chasseur
31, New Bridge Road (opp Central)
Singapore 059393
11am to 11pm daily
63377677
91440322

The End of Char Kway Teow featured in Cuisine and Wine Asia

Cuisine and Wine Asia, Jan/Feb 2011 Pg 15, 16

Janggut Laksa: The Katong Laksa Story Part II

Laksa $3 to $4

It must have taken a healthy dash of chutzpah and two generous pinches of egotism to call a few hairs growing out of a mole on your chin a Janggut!

Out of curiousity, I asked my Malay friends what a janggut was, and they told me that it is supposed to be a beard!  You know, the type that Osama Bin Laden grows.  Now, we Chinamen, especially those of Southern decent just can't grow a mohair rug on our faces, so I guess some men might want to brag about the silky six inches of silver filaments which they can pill roll between their thumb and finger while chuckling over a cup of tea. But the only reason the darn thing is there is because while they bother to shave off the rest of the hair on their face, they seem to keep a few on the mole itself as if its a proxy for how long their beard could have grown.

Yet, Janggut laksa is so named because the hawker who first invented Katong Laksa had precisely this style of mole hair.  He started peddling his laksa along East Coast Road with a pushcart on weekends at the time when East Coast Road was still next to the sea.  In 1963 and his brother finally settled down in 49 East Coast Road and started Marine Parade Laksa.  He was the master from whom the other Katong Laksa decended from.

Marine Parade Laksa will forever hold a special place in my temporal lobes because it was there that I lost my Laksa virginity when my then girlfriend, Rockett Girl first introduced me to Katong Laksa.  When I was young, I never liked to eat spicy food, so I don't actually remember eating any laksa prior to meeting Rockett Girl.  I was so jolted by that first mouthful Laksa gravy that it really was a moment of metamorphosis for my cacooned foodie psyche.  Discovering how great Laksa was opened the doors to all the other chillified foods which have up till then been held at arms length.  I was like a brand new Trekkie who have just discovered that there are so many episodes of Star Trek left to watch!



Unfortunately, Marine Parade Laksa closed in 1978 due to an increase in rental and the stall was taken over by the current owner of 328 Laksa.  They went into a two year hiatus before re-emerging in Far East Square.  But by then they had lost momentum. Today, Marine Parade Laksa has rebranded itself as Janggut Laksa and rightly states that they are the original Katong Laksa, which paradoxically has its main stall located in Queensway Shopping Centre.  They do have another stall at the ground level food court in Roxy Square and another one in Bedok, but they have never recaptured the magic of the original stall.

It seems like such a waste that Janggut should be serving their legendary recipe in a Kiosk at Queensway Shopping Centre that could easily be passed off as just another Laksa stall.  But when I closed my eyes and imagine that I was seated at the original coffeeshop, that first spoonful of laksa gravy did actually trigger off a recollection of a familiar symphony of flavours which have been stored in the deep recesses of my subconscious.  Yes, this was the flavour I remember from years back. It was an Anton Ego moment. It was a little muted to be honest, like listening to an opera over the telephone, by certainly the gravy hints of the magic that was Marine Parade Laksa. 


Mdm Ng, daughter of the legendary Janggut

Mdm Ng explains to me that there are several factors preventing them from reaching the gold standard which they achieved in the good old days.  Firstly they can't use a charcoal fire anymore to cook the gravy and secondly, rising food costs and the price elastic character of consumers mean that they have to cut down on the amount of ingredients like dried shrimps and Ti Poh (solefish).  Still, they are trying hard to create a bowl of Laksa worthy of old Janggut and despite all the challenges, are able to produce one which crosses the Oommph threshold, but just barely. 4.5/5. Imagine what they can do if I gave them a budget of $5 a bowl?

Conclusion

The thing that first attracted me to this stall is that fact that their gravy has got that umami punch even though it is not spicy. Even though they are a shadow of what they were in the past, I daresay that this is one of the best bowls of Laksa being served anywhere in Singapore today.

Click here to read part I of the Katong Laksa Story

Postscript: 4 Mar 2011
I just finished filming a segment for Good Morning Singapore at their stall in Bedok yesterday and was amazed that they still have the old Marine Parade Laksa signboard there.  In addition, the laksa gravy there is cooked by the sister-in-law of Janggut and I felt it really captured the old taste of Marine Parade Laksa!

Janggut Laksa
Queensway Shopping Centre, #01-59
10am to 9.15pm
Branches
1 Roxy Square, level 1

2 Blk 128 Bedok North St 2, #01-02
HP: Mdm Ng: 96221045
Website

Fukuichi Japanese Restaurant: To Freeze or not to Freeze?

Sake Sushi (Salmon)

There are basically two types of Sushi Restaurants.  Those that you have to plan for months to go and those that you just drop in whenever you want.

Sushi is not cheap because it takes a lot of effort to ensure that the fish is "Sashimi Grade". So what exactly is "Sashimi Grade" fish?  If you try to buy salmon from the supermarket, you would be confronted with the warning that certain salmon are not meant to be eaten raw.  There actually isn't any authority that grades the fish into sashimi or non-sashimi grade fish.  So really, we consumers are at the mercy of the companies that sell us these products.

Sashimi Set $38

Raw fish, especially fresh water fish, can potentially harbor parasites. Salmon in particular which spend part of their lives in fresh water are common hosts for the tapeworm larvae.  When ingested, the tapeworm makes its home in our intestines where it can grow as long as 30 feet.  The parasite can be killed by freezing the fish to minus 35 degrees celcius for 15 hours.  In fact, the sushi chefs in Japan are all trained to serve only Salmon which have been frozen before.  So when we talk about good quality fish, it certainly does not mean that it has not been frozen before.


Kama Toro Sushi (Tuna Neck)

The other fish that we all love which has probably been frozen is the bluefin tuna.  Ninety percent of all tunas caught have been blast frozen when they are caught by the fishing boats.  Since the fishing boats spend months at sea, it is very rare to be able to eat tuna that has been freshly caught.  In general, when meats are frozen in our home fridges, the slow freezing process means that the water within the cells crystallize and puncture holes in the cell walls such that when they are defrosted, the water in the cells leak out and you have a piece of dry meat. Fish which has not been frozen and thawed properly turn mushy instead. In order to avoid this, meats have to be blast frozen so that the water does not have time to crystallize.  At sea, they would decapitate the tuna and throw them into a bed of snow and apply liquid nitrogen to quickly blast freeze the fish.  Fish frozen this way can be kept for 2 years and when thawed is supposed to be very close to fresh fish.

Amaebi $3 ea (Sweet Prawns)

So, when the restaurant declares that their fish are flown fresh from Tsukiji or Hokkaido what does it mean?  It certainly does not mean that the fish has not been frozen.  Perhaps the Hamachi (yellowtail) is fresh since it is a farmed fish in Japan and it can be shipped directly.  Some of the other fish like Saba (Mackeral) and Kohada (Gizzard Shard) might also be fresh, but when it comes to Tuna, it would still be likely that it was frozen on board the ship.

Fukuichi restaurant stands out from a lot of other Sushi restaurants in how they source their fish. Instead of flying in the fish fresh, they tell you straight off that their tuna and swordfish is all frozen and fresh off the fishing boats.  The story is that the parent company is involved in processing fish, freezing them and exporting them to Japan.  Singapore, being a trans-shipment hub is an ideal place for fishing boats to off load their tuna to be processed into sushi blocks before exporting to the Japanese market.  So the owners thought it was a good idea to make some of these fish available to the local market and tied up with a 100 year old restaurant chain from Japan to set up Fukuichi.


Aburi Shio Maguro (Albacore Tuna)

I am pretty weary about eating cheap sushi, but at the same time I am also weary about having to pay over $100 to sit at the Sushi bar to enjoy a Sushi course.  So Fukuichi seems to fill the gap in between by providing good quality fish at a more affordable price.  Just for comparison, their Toro is $11 per piece and Ama-ebi is $3.  I tried their sashimi set and the fish is excellent even though they were frozen fish.  Then again, most of these fish would have been frozen even at your high end restaurants.

A few years back, I baulked at the thought of eating raw fish.  But now I love sushi.  I was converted when I started my research into sushi and was taught by the Sushi Sage, Nogawa-San,   how to enjoy sushi. (Check out my video on how to eat Sushi in the post) Up till then my experience with sushi has been limited to conveyor belt sushi.  But when I was converted when I learnt the pleasure of eating sushi at the bar.  Here you can interact with the sushi chef and learn a lot about the seafood you are eating.

Cold Kani Tofu Starter $3

The cooked food at Fukuichi is very good too. Chef John (previously from Shimizu at Gillman and Shinobu at the PSA bldg), who is a veteran with 25 years cooking Japanese food in Singapore is very competent in tweaking Japanese food to our local palate while still preserving the Japanese character of each dish. The Kani Tofu starter is one good example.  He marries cold tofu with crab meat and dresses it with a sauce made from Century Egg and Mirin.  This makes a nice refreshing starter which I quite enjoy.  4.5/5



Kama Toro $35 by itself or $50 with 4 sushi

Since Fukuichi specializes in tuna and swordfish, any of their dishes here that features these two fish are very good value.  For those who like Otoro, you should really try the Kama Toro or Tuna collar.  This dish comes as a set since the amount of meat available for sushi comprise only a small portion of the tuna.  So when you order Kama Toro, they extract some bits for nigiri sushi and the rest of the collar is grilled and served plain.  This is a great dish for two as there is quite a lot of meat in the collar which is flavourful and quite fatty since it is from the portion of the fish just in front of the part they carve out for Otoro. 4/5

Grilled Swordfish Belly $12 for 3

Swordfish (mekajiki) is very nice for sushi as it has a creamy, buttery texture.  But the belly is a little too soft to be served as sushi, so they serve it as a grilled set which comprise of teriyaki, mentaiko mayonnaise and miso flavoured skewers.  This is very nice to go with sake as it is very rich and you really can't go wrong with the familiar flavours. 4.25/5



The one item that I have to go back to eat is Gindara Saikyo-yaki which is Gindara marinated in Saikyo miso, mirin and sake.  Now, I am very partial to Gindara Teriyaki and it is a dish I order all the time, but I was very very pleasantly surprised by Chef John's Gindara Saikyo-yaki, it was easily the best I have tasted.  Granted it is different from Gindara Teriyaki, but from now on it has become my benchmark for any Gindara dish.  For $16, the portion is generous and if you love Gindara, you will love this!  There is no sauce in this dish, unlike Gindara Teriyaki, but the marinade has seeped into the connective tissue between the muscle sheets, so you get a wonderful flavour that hits the back of the palate when you start chewing.  4.6/5



Ebi Teppan $20

If you are looking to have one dish that will help you finish a whole bowl of rice, then you might like to try the  Ebi Teppan.  This is of course a very familiar dish but I like how Chef John managed to infuse a nice charred flavour to the prawns by dicing it and pan frying it over a hot plate instead of the more common way of butterflying the prawns and grilling it.  The flesh of the King Prawns is nice and juicy and you may be tempted to order another bowl of rice to go with it.  4.5/5

Fukuichi Style Yu Sheng

For those looking for Yu Sheng which is a little different, you can try the Yu Sheng at Fukuichi.  All the dried pickles and ingredients are made in house and they use Salmon, swordfish and octopus for the raw fish.  The sets are $38++ nett (salmon only) and $68++ nett (Salmon, Octopus and Swordfish).

Photos by Joao and ieat 

We recently held our Canon-ieat photography workshop at Fukuichi and our participants were treated to some excellent arrangements by Chef John.  I shall leave it to you to admire the photos courtesy of Joao who attended my class last year.  Thanks for the photos Joao!

Conclusion

If you enjoy Japanese food with the family this is a good place to check out.  Prices are reasonable and the quality of sushi is much better than the usual chains at the shopping centres.  So you probably end up paying just a little more but you get much better ingredients. The restaurant owns the processing plant in Singapore and so the items which feature tuna and swordfish are really great value. 

Special for ieatishootipost readers

Mention ieatishootipost and get 20% off ala carte items and a chance to sign up for a one year VIP pass which gives you 20% off for one year!  Offer is valid until end Feb.

Fukuichi Japanese Dining Restaurant
TripleOne Somerset Road
#02-11/12
Singapore 238164
Tel: 6271 5586

L'Operetta: Singapore's first Vera Pizza Napoletana

A VPN pizza is supposed to be cooked between 60 to 90 seconds!

When I first wrote about the Vera Pizza Napoletana (VPN) certification back in 2009, I never thought I would see a VPN certified pizza in Singapore so soon. But as you can see from the video, it looks like Singapore will get its very first VPN certified pizza early this year. But hold your horses, in case you are expecting to see an Italian man behind the pizza peel, think again. Instead of "Buonjourno!" when you step into this pizzeria, you are going to be greeted with an "Irasshaimase!" instead!

Roxy Laksa: The Katong Laksa Story Part I

Laksa - Singapore's Ultimate Shiok Food

To me, Laksa is one of the tastiest things on earth and one of Singapore's culinary contributions to the world.  It is the kind of food that, when done right, has that "Oooomph" that would compel you to bellow out an almighty "Shiok!" just to get that intense emotion out of your system.

Katong used to be the Laksa Mecca of Singapore.  It's still the place to go to find a good bowl of laksa, but just like Hollywood, its heydays were back in the time when there was an interval during the movie so that the projectionist could change the reel.  In those days, Roxy cinema was the place to be for teenagers to show off their Brylcreem set Elvis hairdos.

The End of Char Kway Teow featured on Silkair Magazine

Silkair Inflight Magazine, Jan/Feb 2011, Pg 15

The First Makan Session for 2011

Sorry but registration is closed! Thanks for your overwhelming support!

Notice is hereby given that registration for the first Makan Session of the year is now opened!

Lai Heng Fried Kway Teow: Episode IV: A New Hope

For the people living in Char Kway Teow land, a new hope has dawn.

When Adam couldn't cope with the stress of looking after the garden of Eden all by himself, God created Eve to help him.  It was a young Joan of Arc who saved France from British domination in the Hundred Years war and the Chinese wrote ballads of Hua Mulan to celebrate her accomplishments in an all male army.  Now it seems that when all hope is lost for the Char Kway Teow Man, a Woman comes along to save the day.  OK OK, very corny lah.... I am, afterall, no wordsmith which the Business Times so accurately proclaimed.

Book Signing Event on Sunday at Prologue, ION Orchard

We are holding a book signing event this Sunday at the { prologue } bookshop at ION Orchard between 12.30pm and 1.30pm. I do hope you can come and join the fun!  I will be talking about trials and tribulations of writing The End of Char Kway Teow and reveal the mystery of who came up with the Hokey idea of the title.  (It was Jaime Ee of the Business Times that asked that question)  You can check out { prologue } facebook page here.

And of course, it wouldn't be much of an ieat event if there weren't any food around, so we got our sponsors Kim Joo Guan to provide some Bak Kwa just to get you into the Chinese New Year mood.

By the way, in case you want to order Bak Kwa for Chinese New Year and don't want to be clearing your day's email on your smartphone, then you might want to consider the Fast Pass from Kim Joo Guan.

The End of Char Kway Teow is No 2 on Kinokuniya's Bestsellers list

It was a nice surprise to find that The End of Char Kway Teow is currently 2nd on Kinokuniya's weekly Bestsellers List!

Thanks to everyone for your support!

 
Kinokuniya Website 11 Jan 2011

Win an Autographed Copy of The End of Char Kway Teow

How would you like to win an autographed copy of The End of Char Kway Teow?  It's very simple.  All it takes is for you to write 10 words.

Log onto our facebook site here, and in TEN words (no more, no less), tell us why Singapore Hawker Food is so great!

Best of Luck!

i-weekly feature on The End of Char Kway Teow

 
i-weekly supplement No. 689, 13 Jan 2011, Pg 3

Many thanks to Shi Yun for translating the text!

Why did you publish a book?
Last August, the publisher asked if I wanted to print a book out of my blog posts. Back then the movie "Julie & Julia" was screening, and the plot was based on a true story of a food blogger. My first reaction was, "wow! that seems like a lot of effort!" But in the end I was successfully persuaded by the publisher.

Centre Satay Bee Hoon: Does this appeal to Gen Y?

Peanuts. 

I think peanuts are very underrated.  If you think of it, peanuts are actually very tasty.  But I think it is so common and so cheap that people overlook it for the more sexy Cashew nuts or Hazelnut.  But I am sure I am not the only one who enjoys eating peanuts, especially the Japanese version where it is coated with flour, deep fried and laced with nori.  Dried groundnuts must be one of those really addictive things that I NEVER think about eating these days unless I am at a funeral.  I don't know why.  We used to eat them all the time but I guess nowadays I overlook them for more sexy stuff.  Or how about steamed groundnuts?  They used the be the best things to nibble on on a cool rainy evening.  Peanuts are yummy and I daresay, more yummy than Brazil nuts, Almonds, Walnuts and can even give Macadamia nuts a run for the money.  The only other nut I prefer over peanuts are Cashew nuts.

When it comes to cooking, we South East Asians do use a lot of peanuts.  They add that wonderful savoury flavour to Chinese Rojak, Som Tam (Thai Papaya Salad), Gado Gado and of couse Satay sauce.  Which brings us to Satay Bee Hoon where the peanut sauce takes centestage.

Satay Bee Hoon is a Teochew dish and it is not hard to imagine how it came about.  Obviously some Teochew man liked the peanut gravy that the Malays served with Satay so much that he wanted to eat more of the gravy and added it to Bee Hoon.  At least, this is the story from the stallholder, but I haven't managed to get any more details.  So if there are any Satay Bee Hoon experts around, do enlighten us!

There are not many Satay Bee Hoon stalls around and I suspect that it might not be popular amongst the younger generation of Singaporeans.  My mother absolutely loves it and would join the snaking queue at East Coast Lagoon whenever she is in town (She lives in Sydney).  I have always wondered why there aren't any Satay stalls that sell Satay Bee Hoon at the same time.  The peanut gravy might be slightly different (Satay gravy is thicker), but it shouldn't be too much of a problem to modify the recipe a little. 

This stall is a branch of the very well known Satay Bee Hoon Stall at Ang Mo Kio Centre which many of our readers have told me about. The gravy is well balance in terms of taste but heavier towards the earthy, licorice tones of coriander seeds in flavour.  The big difference between the Satay Bee Hoon gravy and the Satay gravy served in Malay Satay stalls is the inclusion of Chinese Five Spice in the mix which gives it a distinctive Chinese flavour which is so subtle that you might not consciously recognize it. 4.25/5

Conclusion

So are you a fan of Satay Bee Hoon?  Would you be Gen X, Gen Y or Baby Boomer?


Centre Satay Bee Hoon
Sembawang Hill Food Centre #01-22
590 Upper Thomson Road Singapore 574419
11am to 9.45pm
Closed Tuesdays

Soon Lee Hainanese Porridge: Not Comfort Food, Comfortable Food!

When I was a kid, I don't remember ever having Cantonese Congee in the hawker centres, do you?  When my Pa said we were going to the market to eat Jok (porridge), it only meant the Hainanese style Jok where the rice is boiled till it is broken but still retains a grainy texture, unlike the Cantonese Congee where the rice is boiled to a smooth paste.  Incidentally, I just found out that Congee is actually derived from the Tamil word kanji which is an Indian dish of boiled rice.  I would never have imagined Indians eating porridge, then again you wouldn't imagine an Indian man selling Satay would you?  Why Satay? Well, the word Satay was derived from "sathai" which in Tamil means "flesh", and the concept of grilled meats on skewers came from the Indian Muslims migrants. So there you have it, Indian Congee and Indian Satay.

Typo in "The End of Char Kway Teow"

It has been brought to my attention that there has been a cardinal typo in my book.  Cardinal because it involves the surname of one of my sponsors.

The mistake is found on Pg 32, on the second line of the last paragraph.  The tea merchant mentioned in the book was supposed to be Kenry PEH instead of Kenry POH.

It seems that spellcheck changed Peh to Poh and I overlooked it during the proofreading stage.  Since I was the only one who could have picked up the error, I am entirely responsible for the mistake.  The mistake has been rectified and the correct version will appear in future reprints of the book.

My sincere apologies to Mr Kenry Peh of Pek Sin Choon Tea Merchants for the oversight. 

Waku Ghin: The Movie

Having a meal at Waku Ghin was something I had wanted to do ever since I heard that Chef Tetsuya Wakuda had set up his only other restaurant at Marina Bay Sands.  I have been wanting to eat at Tetsuya's in Sydney ever since my days as a medical student at the University of Sydney.  That was almost 20 years ago.  I remember my friend Terrence raving about the $200 degustation menu and 3 month waiting list.  Of course, I wasn't as well heeled as my friend was, so I never did get the chance to eat at Tetsuya's.  Now that I live in Singapore, it is even harder to get a reservation at Tetsuya's whenever I get the chance to visit my parents in Sydney.

Dining at Waku Ghin was something really significant for me. So to write a review of Waku Ghin is not easy.  With which restaurant can you compare a meal at Waku Ghin with in Singapore?  Not many offer an audacious $400 degustation meal with a personal chef to bring you through a ten course menu made with the finest ingredients on earth.

Canon-ieat Food Photography Workshop: We go Sushi!

Sorry, the class is full! 

Please write to cliff_lim@canon.com.sg if you did not managed to sign up. If there is enough interest, we will do a repeat class soon!


Notice is hereby given that registration for the next Canon-ieat Food Photography Workshop is opened!

Happy New Year One and All!

2010 is an amazing year for the blog.  I can't believe that I have been doing this for four years already and even got a book published.   I wish to thank the people who have been the foundation of the blog, namely the ieat kakis. 

The blog may be about hawker food, but in reality, it is more about people -- both hawkers as well as our kakis.  Over the last four years, I have had the opportunity to meet so many friends who love food and who have joined our community to share their food finds.   These are the kakis who help to organize our makan sessions and form the backbone of our foodie community.  They continue to scour the island for the best eats and post them up on our forum.  Some of their recommendations eventually get blogged.  But apart from that, they are my source of encouragement and support on a personal level.  This year's Book Launch and end of year lunch event wouldn't have occurred without the persistent encouragement from my kakis.  So THANKS very much guys!