Carrot Cake and Kristang

     Yesterday, I went to the Eurasian Heritage Center by bus. In a little more than an hour, I crossed about half the island, travelling towards the airport. When I alighted, I was ready for lunch, so headed a block or two farther, to the nearest Hawker Center.

Modernised Hawker Center at Dunman Road.

     It's located in a section of well-preserved shophouses, about three blocks from the sea. I've begun my photographic catalogue of hawker stalls.  The last hawker on my circuit intrigued me.

Can you just make out the chef with his bright red hair?

My instincts were good; I had never had carrot cake in either its black or white form before. He kindly offered to cook me a $3 plate of half each.  What is carrot cake? Chai tow quay pieces of steamed rice flour and radish, stir fried. The dark form is seasoned with sweet dark soy sauce. The light form is cooked with eggs.

Dark and Light Carrot Cake.

Delicious. The 35 year old chef sat down with me and explained that the dish is Teochew in origin, and that the Chinese prefer the light version. The dark is preferred by Thai people, it's too sweet for Chinese taste. The chef had wok skills!

Two giant woks.

    Refreshed, I walked back to the Eurasian Heritage Center.  A graphic explained that Eurasian refers to people who are a mixture of first Portuguese, Dutch, British and other European peoples, with Burmese, Ceylonese, Indian, Malay, Chinese or Indonesian peoples.  

     The first Eurasian came to Singapore with Raffles from Malacca. One Tomas Ferrao spoke Kristang as his mother tongue. I love Creole languages and Portuguese, and Kristang is creolized Portugeuse, but has vocabulary from Hokkien, Dutch, English, Hakka, Koncani and Malaysian. 

     In racially segregated colonial Singapore, Eurasians were not accepted as European, nor as Asian. 

     I was drawn to the brief section on Eurasian food in Singapore.        

Contemporary Singaporeans attribute their cosmopolitan, adventuresome tastes in food to these early creations.  

Devil Curry, Portuguese.

Feng curry, Portuguese. 

Beef Semore, Dutch.

Look Out Umami Burger

Umami 50

    Umami 50 is a prata filled with chicken sausage, chicken floss, mozzarella, egg, and Kewpie mayonnaise.  Springleaf Prata Place's creation was featured at the Ultimate Hawker Festival in 2015, the 50th Anniversary of Singapore's nationhood, and it was a big hit with me at the Singapore Garden Show.

     I watched it being made by a  Chicken floss was a new concept for me. Turns out, its rou song (肉鬆), shredded dried meat.  It can be made with pork, beef or fish. It's like very finely shredded or pulled meat, but dried. Indeed it cranks umami up a tick or two.

Michelin Meet Shiok!

Bib Gourmand Awards to Hawker Stalls in Friday's paper.

     Remember when San Francisco's beloved Slanted Door didn't earn a Michelin Star? The media reaction then pales in comparison to Singapore's take on Michelin's first Singapore rankings.
     You can examine the full results, priced from cheapest on up, here.
     Friday, Saturday and Sunday papers were filled with news and analysis. The best summary of these was Straits Times Food Editor Tan Hsueh Yun's essay, which began "Michelin is counting on your outrage." Reasons for outrage?

• Four restaurants at the Resorts World Sentosa, host of the ceremonies, got stars.
• A sushi restaurant open only a few months, got two stars.
• Fine dining places and a hawker stall both got one star.
• International celebrity chefs were chosen over both young and old Singaporean masters; there were no Singaporeans on the roster of inspectors.

She hopes that the buzz created by the awards will inspire both hawker and classically trained chefs, publicists and the front of the house to do better. 

     Another winning essay appeared in The Business Times.  Stefanie Yuen Theo penned a spoof, "A Failed bid to keep cult eateries from Michelin." She imagines a secretive meeting of government, banking, listed company, media, and legal executives who fear that Michelin awards could ruin life as they know it. They have plotted to plant misinformation among the inspectors. 

     I could almost believe that such a meeting took place.  The magic of Hawker Stall food goes beyond low prices.  You have to understand that complex dishes are prepared a la minute by a chef and perhaps another family member, just for you.  That is a level of service unheard of in American fast food. You must also realise that forming a queue for something extraordinary seems second nature to Singaporeans.  No matter your wealth or social rank, you will stand in line for a bowl of comfort.  

     Payback is a dish that can be served hot. On Saturday, the Straits Times announced the first Singapore Food Masters contest.  Sponsored by Knife Brand Cooking oil, the Lam Soon Group, SFM 2016 is a people's choice affair, putting the specialities of 124 hawker stalls and restaurants up for votes. 

     Meanwhile, the Accompanying Spouse is doing very little cooking, no need when $2 to $6 Singaporean dollars buys dinner!

     

1,2,3 Star Announcements in Saturday and Sunday's Paper

First Breakfast, then Java

   

   

Char Kway Teoh at Resident's Lounge Breakfast. Good not great.

     Always a wide choice in the breakfast buffet: mee, kway teoh, sometimes dim sum, as well as fruit, eggs, breakfast meat, toast and pastries. Best of all: a tossed green salad to keep me honest. The above bowl of dry Char Kway Teoh illustrates the basics of the classic Hawker dish: wide noodles soaking up dark gravy with some vegetables.  Not a four star example, but a place to start.

     Fortified for the day, I'm off to the Malay Heritage Center with a stop at the Lavender MRT for 10ses:

My first Curry Puff in Singapore, with lime juice refresher.

    Then off to the Malay Heritage Center, which I've described here.  The Javanese Community in Singapore was being featured in a temporary exhibit. Of special interest to me was the section on food. Two dishes were of special interest:

 

   
    Nasi Tumpeng takes its place in my work-in-progress,  "Landscape and Cuisine in Singapore" for next July's Oxford Society conference.  It reminds me of the Japanese washoku tradition with its reverence for mountains.  The Singaporean version adds rice cake and noodles to Soto soup.  Can't wait to try some!
   

Disentangling the Noodles of Singapore

     As culinary historian Ken Albala predicted before my departure, noodles play star roles in Singapore food.  I'm a noodle novice, and not familiar with dialects other than Mandarin, so I've worked out a taxonomy of the Merlion city's noodles. Dr. Leslie Tay's The End of Char Kway Teow and Other Hawker Mysteries is my trusty guide.

     The Chinese who immigrated to Singapore came from the coastal regions of southern China and a rice rather than wheat based agriculture. Rice noodles are used in many of the Hainan, Teochew and Hokkien dishes found in the famous Hawker Centers. These noodles range from thin, vermicelli like bee hoon to thicker kway teow. Kway teow are actually wide strips of rice cake.

     Nowadays in Singapore, wheat based egg noodles are also used in thin, mee kia, and thick, mee poh or me pok, width.

Wet Noodles with Broth.

     Another noodle choices is dry or in broth.  These were our dinner choices for dinner in a Clementi Mall restaurant.

Dry Noodles with Pork Sauce.

 

     

Noodles for breakfast with Kaya Toast and chive omelette.

   














     A fellow diner informed me that the breakfast noodles are mee, the best for soaking up the flavor of the sauce.  These indeed were well infused.  (Kaya toast is the fusion of British toast with coconut jam reminiscent of apple butter.  I'm already addicted, but must ration it.)

     Next up: sorting out the specialties of the Teochew, Hokkien and Malay Hawker Center chefs and their customers' preferences.  Here's a teaser:

Noodles frying, gravy, wooden cover added for c. 10 seconds.

180 Degrees with the Junzi Crew

     You've probably heard me rave about the Junzi Crew.  This talented group of recent Yale graduates are making waves in the food world. From their restaurant in New Haven which features the Northern Chinese filled pancakes called Bing, they are expanding to other East Coast college towns and cities. I met them last fall at Molly O'Neill's LongHouse Chopstick Nation weekend.  

     Just before our departure for Singapore, the Junzi crew treated us to a late lunch at the InSitu restaurant at SFMoma; Corey Lee's brand new baby.  

Part of the Junzi Crew backed by food art.

     There is nothing quite like good company in great location and food whose concept and delivery are a match to the company.  Corey Lee and his team deliver.  The restaurant becomes part of the museum, with Lee as curator. The food is the signature dishes of Lee's choice of culinary artisans. Here are just a few:

Wylie Dufresne's Shrimp Grits

Aduriz' Interpretation of Vanity

Alice Waters' Meyer Lemon Ice Cream and Sherbert

     Flash forward a week later and half way around the world, and you will find us eating our first home cooked meal in Singapore. The Spouse's colleague, a Kentuckian married to a Beijinger, is a talented cook and treated us to ---guess what--- BING!

 

The dough; must be adjusted to Singapore humidity.

Note the rolling pin; Leland Wong approved.

Vegetarian and meat fillings.

I love the onion bing!

Bib Gourmand and Singapore Hawker Centers

   

My favorite Rojack wasn't among the lauded.

     As karma would have it, the first Michelin Bib Gourmand awards coincided with my arrival in Singapore. 17 of the chosen were to Hawker Center vendors.
     For many, the news was unwelcome. Why? Hawker stalls are a radically different species from the food courts which dot American, and increasingly, Singaporean malls. Hawker stalls often feature only one specialty, cooked a la minute by a single chef, perhaps with the help of family. Each day's servings are limited by ingredients on hand, and when they are gone, the stall closes. That is why hungry customers queue, and great stalls have the longest queues.
     Some hawkers anticipated that the line for their specialty would increase, leaving the chef pressured and some customers dis-satisfied.  Customers feared the longer wait, or possibly a price increase.
     The Singapore Straits Times gave the announcement lots of space and commentary.  Some thought the selections superficial. Other Singaporeans were relieved that their favorite vendor had not been chosen, so there would be no increase in waiting line, or heaven forbid, sell out before normal closing time.
     Famous Crispy Curry Puffs at the Amoy Street Food Centre is calling to me but will have to wait until we get our MRT cards on Monday! There are more than one hundred Hawker Centres.  I have so many questions about them. Will I be able to visit them all?