My Quest to Make Sweet and Sour Pork Great Again!
Sweet and Sour Pork is one of my all-time favorite dishes, and on one of my previous trips to Hong Kong, we even went crazy hunting for the best sweet and sour pork on the island. Hong Kongers really take their sweet and sour pork seriously, and one of the things some of the restaurants do is serve the dish on ice to make the pork more crunchy. This might sound counter-intuitive at first, but the rationale behind it is to quickly cool the sugar coating so that it forms a thin layer of candy around the batter.
Although Singaporeans also love sweet and sour pork, our restaurants here don’t take the dish as seriously as the chefs in Hong Kong. Sure, most Chinese restaurants will have sweet and sour pork on the menu, but most of them are just okay. I haven’t come across a sweet and sour pork here that is as revelatory as the one I had at Shun De Kung Restaurant in Hong Kong.
So, as with Satay and Kaya Toast, I embarked on a personal quest to “Make Sweet and Sour Pork Great Again!” I met up with my friend Kai, from Fook Kin and shared with him the vision of creating a sweet and sour pork that will put his restaurant on the foodie map!
What we got his chef to do is to change to a wet batter which will give the pork nuggets a lighter crunch and then serve it over dry ice which will quickly cool the sugars on the outside. These tweaks resulted in a very pleasing sweet, tangy, and super crunchy shell which contrasts so well with the warm and juicy pork inside! 4.5/5
Other New Dishes we worked on
Sio Bak Fried Rice
While working on the sweet and sour pork, I also had Kai create a few more dishes. One of these is the Sio Bak fried rice. Being a Roast Pork restaurant, this is really a no-brainer since they have plenty of roast pork available. It’s essentially wok hei egg fried rice with Sio Bak, and they use their chicken rice for the fried rice base. Just imagine eating really good fried rice with the crunch of crispy pork rind in every mouthful! No horse win, this one! 4.5/5
Si Mei Sauce Roast Duck
The chef at Fook Kin has come up with a new gravy for the roast duck. It’s called 四美 (Si Mei) sauce because it is made with sour plums, candied ginger, wolf berries and rock sugar. It tastes a little like plum sauce but better! 4.25/5
La La Bee Hoon
Their La La beehoon is done very well with a rich robust stock, sweetened by the clams. The bee hoon that is treated to the scathing hot wok, is redolent with wok hei. 4.25/5
Pork Jowl Char Siew
Aside from the usual pork belly charsiu which is one of the best in Singapore, they have introduced charsiu made with pork jowl. I was very excited to try it! But I have to tell you that they still need to get a good supplier for the pork jowl as the current one is a little thin. So, I would still recommend you go for their tried and tested pork belly charsiu which is made with duroc pork. 3.5/5
Desserts
They serve some simple desserts at Fook Kin like gula melaka ice cream with adzuki beans and peanut paste with candied peanuts. The gula melaka icecream with adzuki beans is a good combination which should remind you of cendol. Their peanut cream is a little too thick and slightly too salty. Although it does have a very rich peanuty flavour. 4/5
Conclusion
This is so far the best Sweet and Sour Pork that I have come across in Singapore. I am also quite enamoured with the sio bak fried rice. Overall, I am glad that the Zi Char chef at Fook Kin was so opened to our feedback and passionate about delivering great food. Well worth a visit for your next Zi Char meal!
Disclosure
This post was done in partnership with Fook Kin
