u m a m i

Spring Rolls and Crispy Egg Cakes

Well, I am back. My brother came down to Singapore last Saturday to attend a wedding. He drove back to KL on Sunday morning and I followed along; husband did not come along because he is away on a working trip. Don't know what the media is saying about the weather, but Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in KL was completely free of haze. In Singapore the haze is still lingering, coming home to the burning smell is a bit of a rude shock.

Since my last trip home was not too long ago, the dogs and little nieces and nephews could still recognise me. My 22-month old nephew has already figured out how to use the DVD player, he was not too happy watching Stuart Little and decided to switch to his favourite Barney cartoon, all by himself, now no appliance is safe from his inquisitive little hands. On my first night home, I watched all three instalments of Infernal Affairs (IA), in Cantonese. It's just one of those things I like to do in KL, watch a Cantonese movie that is, because in Singapore the movie censors like to pretend that every Chinese person speak only Mandarin, and movies shot in Cantonese and other dialects are dubbed into Mandarin. Infernal Affairs is not really a trilogy. IA II is the prequel, and IAIII is the sequel. IA II was my favourite of the three, as the storyline covered why all the characters behave they way they do in the first movie; it also showcased Francis Ng, one of the more under-rated HK actors. The next two days were given to shopping excursions with my mum and sisters. In between these jaunts, I managed to read THREE books. Growing Up a Shaker by Sr Frances Carr was a quick 60 minute read, while Calvin Trillin's Feeding a Yen occupied me nicely on the bus trip to Singapore, but it was the adventures of Trinket Wei in the English translation of the famous Louis Cha's novel Deer and Cauldron that kept me transfixed and entertained, finally I understand why all my Chinese-educated friends were so addicted to mo hak siu shi , or Chinese kung-fu novels. The book was also quite foodie-friendly, because the main character also happens to manage the Imperial Kitchen, so there are plenty of food references to drool over.

Which reminds me....at dinner on Sunday I got to try for the very first time, Second Sister's Mother-in-Law's famous Fried Spring Roll. These are rather big rolls stuffed generously with crunchy vegetables and all sorts of goodies, and eaten with a killer home made chilli sauce. The chilli sauce, which I did not take a picture of, but it was in the sauce jar next to the rolls, is so special, everyone had their own way of incorporating as much of the sauce into the roll as possible, Mummmy's was to make little slits along the roll to drip the sauce into, Brother likes to pour and bite, and me, I dipped.

Third Sister also happened to be clearing her freezer. She usually has plenty of food on hand because she has a small catering business, and unlike me, when she clears her freezer, it is not at all unusual to find that she has excess crab meat to use up. Which she did by making delicious Crab and Caramelised Onion Quiche. Most of the quiche were sold off, but she kept one for the family.... mmmm, smooth custard and sweet juicy crab meat.

And before I knew it, it was time to return to Singapore. Mummy gave me a jar of Yuk Si (pork floss) which she made herself. No MSG or oyster sauce, and very tasty.

Back to Singapore

I took a picture of the nearly-new NICE 2 bus. NICE is the name of the bus company, which is clever really, because their buses are rather nice. They started off with single deck buses and when they brought in new double-decker buses, they called them NICE 2. These buses ply the KL-Singapore route, and tickets are RM60 each way. Quiet, air-conditioned and spacious, with a nice 'hostess' on board to hand out bottled water, boxed lunch, orange juice drink and a smiling offer of hot coffee or tea too. Lunch today was a decent version of Nasi Lemak, with the egg boiled just right and the sambal mildly spicy.

At the rest stop along the bus route, I avoided the flytrap-zones of the food stalls and checked out the shops. My food radar zoomed in on the little supermarket and we scored some tasty Malaysian snacks.

I used to eat these Preserved Limes when I was a child. Sweet and sour with the seeds giving a bitter jolt if one is not careful, it is eaten as a snack or made into a refreshing lime drink.

This is Shat Kek Ma, a sort of Crispy and Sticky Egg Cake. I like.

And this is Heung Peang, also known by other names like Beh Teh Sor and Pong Piah. Notice the garish packaging which has not changed much in over 30 years. This Tiger brand is not too bad, the pastry was flakey and crunchy and the maltose filling, though not terribly generous, was still fresh and had not hardened to the point of fracturing one's teeth.

Time for a break. I will be going home to my 'niang-jia' (mother's home) in KL this weekend. To catch up with family, to read, to watch Cantonese VCDs, to play with my many nieces and nephews, and of course to eat good old KL foods.

Zhong

Happy Duan Wu Jie!

Duan Wu Jie is the Chinese Dumpling Festival, and it falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Lunar calendar, i.e. today. As every child here knows, long ago, in ancient China, 340-278 B.C, there was a minister called Chi Yuan. Chi Yuan was a patriotic and righteous man. He advised the head of Chu state to make peace treaties with neighbouring states so they can meet the threat of ambitious Qin state. The head of Chu preferred sweet sayings and flattery and was so displeased with Chi Yuan's advice he ordered his exile. Chi Yuan was depresssed and ended his unhappiness by jumping to his death in a river. The common folk, feeling rather sorry for the poor fellow, threw rice dumplings into the river so that the fishes would feed on the dumplings rather than his body. Chi Yuan was right of course, the head of Qin conquered all the six states and proclaimed himself the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. Two thousand over years later, people are still eating dumplings in commemoration of Chi Yuan.

Chinese dumplings are called zhong ji (Mandarin), chang (Hokkien) and zhong (Cantonese), depending on the dialect groups. I am Cantonese, so I'll stick with zhong. Zhongs are parcels of glutinous rice encasing sweet or savoury fillings, and then wrapped in bamboo leaves and boiled for about 2 hours till cooked. Yuk Zhong has savoury fillings of pork, beans, mushroom, dried scallop, oyster and shrimps. Sweet Zhong is made up wholly of sweetened glutinous rice or with fillings of red bean paste. A third type is a savoury sweet Nonya filling of ground pork, spices and sugared melon strips. The one pictured here was a Nonya Zhong, made by a friend of a friend of my mother. It was very delicious. The rice was peppery to cut through the starchiness, the pork's spicy sweetness was well balanced, and she had added some chestnuts which is more commonly found in the Yuk Zhong. She even coloured the rice blue with the juice of the Bunga Telang flower, but the effect was quite smudged and blurry, so I did not take a picture.

When we were children, my mother and Chan-Che would spend at least 3 days making zhong- separating the regular rice from the glutinous rice, marinading the pork in a five-spice mixture, cleaning the bamboo leaves, picking out the hard outer skin of the chestnuts, soaking the beans and dried seafood, frying the rice, wrapping everything up snugly in the traditional pyramid shape, stoking the charcoal stove, filling up huge vats of water and boiling bunches of zhong for hours. What a to-do. In those days families were very large, and it would not be economical to eat out or buy commercial zhong of the same quality so most people made their own. Nowadays, families are smaller, and most women work, so there is less of the need or desire to make zhong. Like many traditions, the art of making zhong is slowly and inevitably being lost. Just the other day, there was news that the dried goods wholesalers were lamenting that the demand for zhong ingredients is at an all-time low. People are just not making their own zhongs anymore. I have never made zhong in my life either. So enjoy it while we can. Zhong on.

Chan-Che's Sardine Beehoon

I had to think hard about what to cook for today's IMBB V-Fish event. My fish repertoire is very narrow; fresh fish is either steamed or deep-fried. Occasionally I might bake a whole fish in aluminium foil, or cook a fish curry. The other factor to consider is if I wanted to use fresh fish, I had to drag myself to the fishmonger, and this morning I woke up late, so no fresh fish. And the family was waiting to eat a fishy lunch. Luckily I had an old family recipe up my sleeves: Chan-Che's Sardines Beehoon.

Chan-Che (Elder Sister Chan) was my mother's domestic help/cook/gardener/housekeeper and she looked after our family of five children while my mother went out to work. She was and still is, a terrific cook, so good that my mother's cooking never quite matched up. She left our household after we grew up and is now cooking for other lucky families. I used to watch her cook but did not learn her recipes, which may explain why I like, and know how to eat well, but am not terribly competent at cooking. Anyways, Chan-Che was always cooking because we teenagers had huge and ravenous appetities. One day she ran out of fresh ingredients and had no time to go to the market (similar to my situation, ahem), so she put together this dish with whatever was in the kitchen cupboard.

Ingredients (amount can feed 4-6 hungry teenagers):

1 pack of beehoon (thin rice noodles)- soaked in hot waiter till 95% cooked
3 medium cans of Sardines in Tomato Sauce. I like to use Ayam Brand.
1 piece of ginger, about thumb-sized- finely julienned
2 large onions- cut into half rings
3 large chilli- deseeded and finely sliced
6 small chilli- deseeded and ground finely
Tomato ketchup
Chilli Sauce

Sardine Beehoon

1. Saute the onions till it is transparent but not soft. Remove and set aside.

2. Heat some more oil in the wok. Saute the ginger in oil for about 20 seconds.

3. Add the sardines, ground chilli, tomato sauce and chilli sauce. The sardines get smashed up somewhat, don't worry, it is supposed to do so. Cook the mixture down until it is thick and nearly dry.

4. Add the beehoon to the wok. Toss quickly to coat with the sardines. Do not toss too much, or the beehoon will disintegrate like what happened to my dish (never mind it was still very tasty, and we couldn't do another because we ran out of sardines). Toss the cooked onions with the beehoon just before serving. There will be some lovely charred bits sticking to the bottom of the wok, rewards for the cook. Enjoy.

Bak Kwa

Last week I received an e-mail from a reader asking about Bak Kwa. Also known as Rou Gan in Mandarin, and for KL-ites we call it Long Yuk. Pork slices are marinated in 'secret' ingredients and grilled. Chinese pork jerky of sorts. Most popular with Singaporeans during Chinese New Year. We buy Bak Kwa all year round, from a shop in Chinatown called Lim Chee Guan, but not during Chinese New Year as the queue is too long and the prices go up astronomically due to the high demand. Bak Kwa is also the #1 most requested food item for friends and family when I visit them in London.

How is it eaten? I usually cut it up and store it in a Tupperware so we can snack on it anytime. The picture above is of some we bought this morning. I also like to make sandwiches of it, the thought of bak-kwa sandwiches for breakfast is definitely an incentive to get up in the mornings.

I love the Lim Chee Guan signage. And the Japanese Good-Luck Cat, a typical fixture at the cash register, apparently to help bring in lots of business.

Spicy Prawn Snack

I love this spicy version of prawn crackers. This type of crackers is a common snack item from my childhood days, but it is the Koreans and not the chilli-loving South East Asians who came up with this brilliant idea of spicing it up. Kerr-unch!

Cantonese Pickled Vegetables.

My Mum, Second Aunt and their friend Auntie J visited with us over the weekend, not because they missed me, but because they were attending a religious convention in town. Actually Third Aunt and Cousin N was supposed to come along too, but their luggage (including passports) were stolen at the bus station at Kuala Lumpur, so they did not manage to make the trip. You can imagine how traumatic the experience was for Third Aunt, but Mummy and Second Aunt were pretty shaken too, they kept a tight grip on their handbags everytime we went out.

I spent most of yesterday making dinner for Mummy and everyone; if they had to talk endlessly about the incident at least they ate well while they did so. Between trips to the kitchen to check on the duck roasting and doing the food prep, I also spent a lot of time doing back stretches on my gym ball, enjoying the upside-down view of my apartment and the skies and treetops outside and getting totally relaxed. The menu was made up of tasty but fuss-free dishes like Nasi Ulam, Roast Duck with Mamalade Gravy, Steamed Prawns, Steamed Kai Lan with Fried Ikan Bilis and Cantonese Pickled Vegetables.

The Roast Duck is a doddle to cook: Place the cleaned duck in a windy place for 2 hours to dry the skin, rub plenty of sea salt and pepper over the skin, stuff some orange rinds and onions in the cavity, and roast on a rack set over a roasting pan, in the middle of the oven at 230 degrees C for about 1.2 - 1.5 hrs depending on the size of the bird, and voila, juicy duck with crispy golden skin. Sorry, forgot to take a picture before we hacked it up Chinese style. Tip: pour some water into the roasting pan, so that when the duck fat drips onto it there is less sizzling and smoking. Combine some pan juices (the layer beneath the duck fat) with bitter marmalade, stock, orange juice and whiskey to make the most excellent gravy, I could have sworn people were eating the gravy with duck rather than the other way round.

The Cantonese Pickled Vegetables were adapted from "Yan-Kit's Classic Chinese Cookbook". I learnt all my Cantonese cooking not from the cooks at home, or my mother (who is not Cantonese but Hokkien) but Ms So Yan Kit. How to steam fish, which cleaver to buy, velveting meat, she covered it all. These pickles are really easy to make, and make the perfect side dish when the weather is very hot. Come to think of it, Papaya is a fruit not a vegetable, the same can also be said of Cucumbers. Hmmmmm.... The fresh chilli is my own twist on the recipe because I find the chilli makes the pickle even more appetising. The recipe also eliminates the traditional boiling of vinegar and sugar, this step is not necessary because the pickles would be eaten up very quickly and would not have time to spoil.

Ingredients
4 local cucumbers
2 carrots
1 unripe papaya
Sugar
White wine vinegar ( I use S&W Distilled White Vinegar)
Fresh chilli.

1. Slice the cucumber lengthwise into 4 pieces. Discard the seedy inner part. Cut the rest of the cucumber into thickish pieces at about 7mm intervals. Place in a colander set over a basin. Sprinkle two teaspoon of salt over the cucumber, mix and leave to stand for about 3 hours. A lot of water will be drawn out of the cucumber so that it becomes more crunchy.
2. Roll Cut* the carrot into similarly thick pieces. Add the carrots to the cucumbers in the colander.
3. Cut and remove the papaya skin, and slice the papaya lengthwise into 6 sections. Discard as much of the seeds and the white membrane surrounding the seeds. Cut the sections into pieces as thick as the cucumber. There is no need to salt the papaya as young papaya is not very "wet".
4. In a clean bowl, mix sugar and vinegar in a 2:3 ration, adjusting to your taste. I prefer a more vinegary taste. Add 2-3 split bird eye chillies, including the seeds. Add the papaya and mix. Place in the fridge. The cucumbers and carrots join the party after their prescribed salting time. Let the mixture pickle for at least 3-4 hours. It tastes better overnight, and can be kept for about 3 days.

*Roll Cutting describes how the vegetable, usually a long type like carrot, is cut on the diagonal then rolled 90 degrees and cut again, cut-roll-cut until the other end is reached.

Canton Wok by Chef Kang

Is it possible to have an 11-course Chinese feast for $240 in Singapore? Yes, if you know where to go, and it was a good thing our group of 15 knew, because oh boy, did we have a marvelous meal last night. We're not talking about the ordinary Chinese dishes that you can get at Chai Peng stalls all over Singapore, no, when our bunch of food enthusiasts gather, we have very high expectations of the food. Especially considering that we had to journey to the inner depths of traffic-clogged Serangoon Central and then spent even more time locating this rather obscure Cze Char place that is the Canton Wok by Chef Kang. We were definitely not disappointed. If the name sounds familiar, it is because Canton Wok was previously located at a more convenient location at Havelock Road.

From the outside Canton Wok looks like any other Cze Char eatery, but there is an upper section which is air-conditioned and more comfortably furnished. Once we settled in comfortably and the first of the six bottles of wine was opened, the dishes started coming.

This is the Fried Skin of Sang Yu. This fish is also known as Snakehead Fish, which has sweet delicate flesh and eaten in dozens of ways by the Chinese. Fresh Sang Yu is also prized for its healing properties, e.g. it is usual to consume Sang Yu soup after a surgical procedure as it is believed that the wounds will heal without much scarring. The fish itself is very hardy and can multiply very quickly; in United States it is considered something of a pest because its growth is so uncontrollable. Maybe the Americans can learn from Chef Kang how to fry the skin so that it is rendered as crispy as pork cracklings, and season it generously with plenty of garlic and bird eye chillis. This dish typifies Chef Kang's style, he really makes the most of his ingredients, and his style is not exactly fusion, but he has a fresh perspective on even the most familiar foods.

The second appetiser was just as pleasing and novel. Thinly sliced pork belly is marinated with nam-yee (red fermented bean curd) and fried till crisp. Like bacon, but nam-yee flavoured, a mix of sweet, savoury, beany and salty. Yes, even bacon can be improved upon. To wash down the second bottle of wine.

In case we got sloshed too soon, the carbo dishes was served early in the meal. This is no ordinary fried beehoon. Thin beehoon (thin rice noodles) were braised in an Abalone sauce till it took on the flavours of the braising liquid and then quickly fried with some chives and shitake mushroom. Comfort food indeed. There was also another classic dish of kway teow (flat rice noodles) stir fried with beef and black beans to help line the stomach for the wines and meats that will follow.

Prawns marinated in wine and grilled on a hotplate was quickly devoured, some even ate the prawn whole, shells and all. Finger-licking good.

There were other dishes that were very tasty but did not photograph well, like the double-boiled Dried Clam soup, and other Cze Char classics like Three Cup Chicken and Pork Ribs Braised with Bitter Gourds. This Pork Chops in Portuguese Sauce is another original Chef Kang creation. The pork chops were meaty and juciy with a crunchy batter, and the accompanying sauce intrigued with its smooth, creamy consistency, its liberal scatterings of onions and Chinese parsley and its delicately mild vegetal taste.

Roast Duck braised with Tofu. The dish that made us order rice so that we could use up its delicious gravy. Personally I felt that this dish, like the other braised dishes we've had, was a little too sweet, but this may be a move to cater to the local preference for sweet-ish foods.

Another creative dish. Fat and tender Tianjin cabbage sprinkled with crisp dried scallops and lovingly smothered in a mashed Yam sauce. Brilliant marriage of flavours and textures.

There were not one, but Two desserts. Crepes wrapped around a mixture of Orh Nee (sweet mashed yam) and fresh banana, and a cold steamed rice cake set with fresh pineapples made the ending sweet and refreshing. We left with full stomachs and silly happy faces. Chef Kang also looked pleased that we ate every bite of food that he sent to our table:

CANTON WOK by Chef Kang
Blk 204 #01-112
Serangoon Central
Singapore 550204
Tel: 6286 2070

Braised Belly Pork with Yam

This is a perfect food for rainy days, such as yesterday, when it poured and poured from morning till late into the night. Pork Belly is braised with nam-yee, a red fermented beancurd, which gives it a rich, distinct either-you-hate-it-or-you-like-it taste. Other ingredients like dark soya sauce, garlic, Chinese wine would go into it too, but I can't say for sure because the version I had yesterday was from Tong Chiang Kitchen. The yam was perfect, being crumbly and powdery in the mouth, in a very nice way of course, and completely imbued with the complex flavours from the nam-yee.

Don't eat Mexican food here!

I wanted to break out of the Chinese/ Asian food mould and explore other cuisines. There's always Japanese food I suppose, but I was thinking of even more exotic foods, like Mexican food. Turns out that the El Patio Restaurant at expat hangout Holland Village is not really a Mexican restaurant, at least I don't think so, because most of the menu consists of items like burritos, enchiladas and the 999 ways of serving refried beans, chopped meat, sour cream and cheese on the same plate. The food was not bad, at least it was edible, but it never went above Average. Seriously I would not want to be a Mexican if Mexican food is as limited as El Patio's. I suppose we could have gone to Margarita's or Cafe Iguana for something better, ah well.

Another failed cuisine was the really miserable excuse of Arabic food served at Mazmazza Restaurant at Bussorah Street. The Foul Mesdames was foul (pun absolutely intended), the sauteed liver was tough and very stinky (not in any good way), and the couscous had no business being drier than the Sahara Desert. The Grilled Mullet which was supposed to be the house specialty, turned out to be Catfish which is not my favourite fish in the world, because I'm sorry, the flattened head is really off-putting, it was like somebody smashed the head in to kill it, Yucks. The only thing I remotely enjoyed was the mint tea, at least they did not use a Mint Tea-bag. I thought my last meal at Al-Hamra at Holland Village was dire, but last night I was proved wrong, Mazmazza was even more dire.

To be fair, should I expect to eat good "foreign" food in Singapore? Moderately good Thai / Korean / Indonesian/ Insert "neighbouring country" food is almost impossible to find in Singapore, so surely we cannot expect decent foods from countries even farther away. I don't know, but I will press on in my search for that something new, something different, maybe I will get lucky.

Edit-ed on 11 July 2004, to add:

Last night we had a really enjoyable dinner at Cafe Iguana, which does a much better job as a Mexican restaurant. The menu did not chenge my impression that the Mexican food here is more of the tortilla, salsa, burrito and fajita type(? Tex Mex) but at Cafe Iguana, even these dishes seemed to be done better, judging from the empty plates of diners, and I had some yummy quesadillas. We did try some "new" dishes like a prawn in a Diablo sauce, and mussels done with a fresh tasting white sauce.

But what I really liked about the place was the cheap frozen margaritas. All cocktails and most drinks are on extended Happy Hour prices, All Day -9pm and Midnight till closing, 24/7.

The entire place was packed. We did not book beforehand, and had to wait about 30 minutes for a table.
The service was quick and friendly.
Good food + cheap drinks + efficient service = Recipe for a popular restaurant. Why can't more restaurants follow this recipe?

The first part of our bill (for two people) read:
Margarita X 2 (lime)
Margarita X 1 (lime)
Margarita X 1 (Guava)
Margarita X 1 ( Strawberry)
Jar of Lime Margarita X 1 = ordered at 8.45pm. We figured we may as well order a jug since our meal had not started yet and we were probably going to be thirsty.

We were pretty well sloshed by the time we went home. Just managed change into nighties and slept the night away.