Kawan-Kawan Katong

Beef Rendang for beginners

2012-01-28T00:04:00.001+08:00

Everyone has a list of things to do; I have a list of things to cook. For a long time, beef rendang was on that list. Rendang is actually a classic Indonesian dish, but as my last post indicates, nonyas and babas learnt quite a lot from Indonesia - and it goes well beyond using sarongs. At last I got started - and I have not stopped since.

I've played around with a few rendang recipes - including by Wendy Hutton (Singapore Food), James Oseland (Cradle of Flavour) and of course one by the doyen of nonya cooking, Mrs Lee Chin Koon (of Mrs Lee's Recipes fame). The basic ingredients are of course the same, but there are differences in the mixture of spices - my own combination is given below. But what was interesting is the new technique which I learnt for the first time whilst making rendang.

It is quite common practice for some coconut sauce based dishes, to fry the rempah (or spice mix), and then add thick coconut milk. The coconut milk is then cooked until it begins to "crack", in other words the oil begins to separate out of the milk. The food is then cooked in the rempah and coconut milk, for a nice smooth gravy. But for rendang, the food is cooked first in the coconut milk and only at the end, does the residual coconut milk "crack" and the beef "fries" in the oily gravy, and that's how you get that beautiful, rich reddish-brown colour of the rendang gravy. I find it so interesting to see how the dish transforms along the way, from what looks like an ordinary beef curry in a rather pale bath of soup, to these chunks of meat covered in a very thick, smooth, oh so yummy gravy.

It is not for nothing that beef rendang can be found in all good nonya restaurants. The tender beef, well flavoured with all these lovely spices goes down a treat with white rice and vegetables.

So here's the recipe for the rendang:

Ingredients:

1 kg shin beef (or other stewing beef)
1 medium size onion (or 5-6 shallots)
500 ml coconut milk (about 250ml packet of thick coconut milk/cream, dilute with 250ml water)
1 stick cinnamon (approx 5 cm or so)
2-3 cloves (optional)
30-40g kerisik (this is essentially grated coconut which has been dry-fried/toasted- gorgeous if you are prepared to put in this extra work, but I buy mine in a packet)
1 tablespoon sugar
pinch of salt

For the rempah (all ingredients should be pounded/processed together)

4 slices galangal (also called lengkwas)
4 slices ginger
3-4 cloves garlic
14-18 dried red chillies, soaked
1 tbsp tumeric powder
2 stalks of lemongrass (white portion only, chopped fine) - note: I've swapped this with lime leaves before, when I couldn't get hold of any lemongrass

Garnishing: lime leaves, cut into thin strips

Cooking method:
1. Fry the rempah in a little bit of oil, together with the onion, cinnamon and cloves. Add in the kerisik and fry till fragrant.
2. Add the meat, and cook till the meat has changed colour. Add in the coconut milk, sugar and salt. Bring to the boil, then simmer till the meat is tender (depending on the meat - I do it for about two hours). Add a little more water if need be.
3. When meat is nice and tender, reduce the liquid and cook on low heat until the coconut oil "cracks" as described above.

Serve garnished with the lime leaves.

Unsurprisingly, this dish is nicer the next day.

The Art of the Sarong Kebaya

2012-01-14T18:49:00.001+08:00

I finally managed some time last December to take in the Sarong Kebaya exhibition at the Peranakan Museum in Singapore, which had recently been "refreshed" with new exhibits.

Many of us, when we think about the sarong kebaya, tend to focus on the beautifully embroidered, colourful kebaya tops, complemented by the sarong below. In fact, this is a rather "modern" interpretation of the sarong kebaya.

The sarong kebaya exhibition reminds us that the sarong kebaya has changed considerably since its early days. The first series of exhibits displayed were of these early "kebayas". The typical kebaya then was composed of a long jacket reaching well past the knees, and the sarong was typically dark blue or dark red - this was because they were dyed with natural dyes, and these were the only two colours available.

Subsequently, white became the colour of choice for kebaya tops- beautifully trimmed with exquisite lace. The batik prints on the sarongs became more elaborate, with use of different motiffs and patterns. Because the sarong kebaya was also used by the Dutch women in Indonesia, they even had Christian motiffs like a cross, an anchor and a heart to represent faith, hope and charity. Some batik designers even took inspiration from fairy tales - the sarong on the right shows the magic mirror scene from the "Sleeping Beauty"!

Eventually, the sarong kebaya evolved to include the more colourful embroidered kebaya tops, made of cotton rubbia or swiss voile (I must admit that I personally would find it strange wearing one with a prawn design - see left - or featuring flamenco dancers). Of course, these would be for special occasions. Many older nonyas would have grown up wearing simple cottong kebaya tops and sarongs - I recall my grandmother always wearing more muted kebayas with simple patterns and designs on them.

The sarong kebaya exhibition ends on 8 Apr 2012, for those who are interested to see these beautiful, delicate garments. For those who've not been to the Peranakan Museum before, I highly recommend it for those who want to know more about the wonderful world of Babas and Nonyas (you can read all my previous posts on the museum here).

As for me, I look forward to the next time I don my sarong kebaya,with a new appreciation of its past, evolution and its beauty :-)

Hidden Gem of Singapore - Bukit Brown Cemetery

2011-12-30T23:24:00.005+08:00

Hidden Peacock, a photo by Taking5 on Flickr.

In my last post, I told the story of a nameless ancestor who may or may not be buried in Bukit Brown cemetery and promised an update on my visit to BB cemetery itself.

Anyway, Bukit Brown cemetery is a Chinese cemetery in Singapore, which was in active use from 1922 to 1973. "Bukit" means "hill" in Malay, and "Brown" is after an earlier owner of the land, George Henry Brown, a ship-owner who arrived in Singapore in the 1840s. A name reflecting indeed the melting pot of cultures, peoples, that Singapore was then.

The cemetery is the burial place for many pioneers of the Singapore Chinese community. Others have written about the cemetery (see this nice post by oceanskies), and of the controversy surrounding it - this quiet peaceful place has to make way for an expressway in the near future. So, I will not go into it here but instead reflect on my own visit.

It was indeed a place of contrasts. Some graves were well kept, some even with fresh paint ensuring that the names and words on the gravestones remained legible. Others were overgrown - the gravestones falling over and the grass growing halfway up the stones.

Some graves were decorated with beautiful peranakan tiles, reflecting the culture and tradition of the times, or with charming little scenes carved on the stones. One was guarded by a pair of Sikh guards, assisted by their own little guard dogs. Others were simple solitary stones.

Some plots were large (although we were unable to find the huge plot which was apparently 10 3-room HDB flats in size, surely a difficult grave to overlook?). One near the entrance, for example, had a large area demarcated in front for mourners to gather, with two stone benches on each side for the weary to rest a while. In one corner, we saw what must have been the paupers' graves - a series of small gravestones clustered tightly together.

We did not go out of our way to look for "famous" graves. But there were little direction signs indicating where these graves are and when we came across them, we did take the opportunity to look at them. So we saw the grave of Tan Seah Imm (Seah Imm Street fame), Tan Ean Kiam (Ean Kiam Place, in Katong!), the grave of Lee Kuan Yew's grandfather, the grave of a descendent of Confucius,and so on. But there are many other graves, of less famous people, but each one a part of the Singapore story. This useful and educational site captures their stories.

Needless to say, I was unable to find the grave of my ancestor during my visit to BB. I had asked my aunts and father if they had any clues which would help me find the grave. But, "we walked a long way in" and "there was this big round circle" are not useful tips (see adjoining photo; many graves are demarcated by "big round circles"). They did tell me that the descendents' names were written in English on the graves, so we would have been able to identify the correct grave once we found it (if we found it, that is).

I did have a prime suspect as to the name of my ancestor. We managed to locate the relevant sector but alas, the sector itself was somewhat large and overgrown. It was not feasible to search it for a single grave. Instead, we spent our time just absorbing the peace and tranquility of the cemetery. It was a morning well spent.

How do I feel about the prospect of a road going through the cemetery, destroying my great-great-grandfather's grave? Well, I did not know of the grave in the first place so it is hard for me to feel very much about it. I do feel sorry that this serene place has to make way for further development, but hope that some part of it can be conserved in some way. Also, whilst the cemetery is not in active use (as in welcoming new inhabitants, that is), it is quite clear that many still come here to pay their respects to their ancestors.

If you are planning a visit to Bukit Brown cemetery, the API website provides interesting links, including a useful map (which for some reason I discovered only after my visit).

For more photos, do check out my Flickr set.

My Mysterious Ancestor

2011-12-27T21:23:00.004+08:00

It all started when I mentioned casually at dinner one evening, that I wanted to go visit Bukit Brown (BB) cemetery. My father remarked, that in his childhood he remembered visiting the grave of his grandfather's father, every year at Cheng Beng (the day the Chinese visit the graves of their ancestors to remember them), in a "cemetery off Lornie Road". Since BB is off Lornie Road, he thought this could be the same cemetery.

I thought that the first person to come down from China was my father's grandfather! Where did this mysterious ancestor come from?!!! And could I be sure that my father's recollections were correct? What was the name of this gentleman anyway? My father only recalled the surname, which of course is not a big feat of memory since it is our family name anyway. And so the investigations began. My father checked with his sisters, all of whom remembered visiting the said cemetery but none of whom could remember the full name of the said ancestor. They checked with their aunt (my grandaunt), who being one generation before them might actually know a little more detail. Unfortunately, they drew a blank - he had died before she was born, she said. But, after thinking about it, she vaguely recalled that one of his names was "Huat" - or something like it.

So there I had two clues - the name "Huat" (or something like it), and a possible date of death, likely somewhere in the 1920s since that was when BB was opened and that was around when grandaunt was born.(Of course, that was before I found out that there were graves in other parts of Singapore which were exhumed and the bodies re-located to BB.) Anyway, I found the BB Burial Register on-line, courtesy of the National Archives, and trawled through the first two documents before scrolling down and finding the index of names further down. Ah, well, at least it still saved me quite a lot of work. Fortunately, my family surname is relatively uncommon, so the number of entries was not overly daunting. And it was quite easy to knock out the females and those who died too young. However, I could not find a "Huat", but found something which looked like "Huan" (the careful cursive script of the day was not always easy to read). Alas, the full name still did not ring any bells with my grandaunt.

She did, however, reveal more about our family history. My father's grandfather (my great-grandfather), came down to Penang at the age of 15 years old, to seek his fortune. I have written elsewhere about how he met and married his second wife, my greatgrandmother - who just happened to be his boss' daughter. So obviously, he had done reasonably well, well enough to bring down his family members - his first wife, father and brother, here to Singapore. My grandaunt says that this was the time of the Boxer Rebellion, so considering my grandfather died in 1969 at the age of around 80+ years, it seems that he himself came down just before or during the Boxer Rebellion (around 1900-01) and brought the rest of his family over soon after. His first wife together with her family, and his brother, settled in Johore where they ran a rubber estate and of course my relatives are still living there.

So, sadly, I am not any nearer finding the name of my mysterious ancestor. But at least now I know a little more about my family than I did one month ago.

Watch out for my next post on BB Cemetery!

Traditional Christmas Goodies

2011-12-24T13:06:00.002+08:00

I've not put anything up for some time ... it really has been a busy time for me and I do wish I had more time to maintain this blog.

Anyway, the last week has been a veritable whirlwind of baking my Christmas goodies - my "staples" of pineapple tarts and shortbread, and my first batch ever of mince pies! Three "traditional" Christmas delicacies, one from England, one for the Eurasian community, and one distinctly my family's own.

I really don't know why people express surprise when I tell them I make pineapple tarts for Christmas. I tell them that this is a Eurasian tradition. I also tell them (and am met with some polite scepticism) that there is reasonably strong grounds to suspect that the Eurasians came up with the golden treat in the first place, as mentioned in my earlier post.

Since then, a kind reader gave me some useful information - that the pineapple plant we all know and love came from the same place that the rubber tree did - South America. The popular story appears to be that Columbus discovered it in 1493 and brought it back with him to Europe. From there, it is likely that the European explorers /colonisers/missionaries brought it with them to South East Asia. (One suspects the Portuguese, but my informant figured the French). Whoever it was, the fruit came via Europe, the cooking techniques are more western than oriental, the very traditional Eurasian practice of eating this at Christmas together with the sugee cake... ... whatever it is, I have enough jam left over to make a fresh batch for Chinese New Year, thus satisfying both traditions :-)

The shortbread, however, is no Eurasian tradition but my family's own favourite recipe. I wrote about it in a previous post too, so I won't go into it any further here.

So that leaves me with my mince pies. Now, these are indeed traditional English Christmas treats. And, as a child I also recall my mother buying mincemeat to make these gorgeous apple pies - apple lining the bottom of the pastry base, with the mince layering the top, followed by strips of criss-crossing pastry on top. Ah, those were indeed absolutely delicious childhood memories.

This time round, however, I decided to go with Nigella Lawson's Frangipane Mince Pies which come with a little layer of mince at the bottom of the tart and then covered with the eggy/buttery/almond-y topping and baked till beautiful and golden on top. Ah, the divine Ms Lawson indeed deserves her Domestic Goddess status as these beautiful little pies really were quite delectable. Alas, could only sample one piece (baker's privilege) as the rest are destined for my extended family's Christmas Eve dinner tonight, where I hope they will disappear like the hot cakes they are.

But I still have half a bottle of mincemeat left, so maybe there is a mincemeat and apple pie in my not too distant future...

Rising international awareness of Peranakan Food!

2011-12-24T12:00:00.000+08:00

It's a big thing to get your little restaurant featured in the Wall Street Journal (or more accurately one of the WSJ blogs). It's a really big thing when yours is just a small little restaurant in a little red dot of an island, featuring a cuisine that is associated with only a minority of the people on said little red dot. So here's the blog link.

Candlenut Kitchen can be found at 25 Neil Road, in the Duxton area. I've been there before - the food is indeed tasty and flavourful. Don't think I tried the sous-vide beef buah keluak though (even the name of this dish is truly a fusion of three languages!). Reason enough for another visit? :-)

My Grandmother's Convent School Days

2011-08-08T19:33:00.000+08:00

I'll be going for my Sec 4 class reunion on Saturday. It's been years since we saw each other - in those pre-email/internet days, it has been a little more difficult to keep in touch. But this post is inspired by a far more senior group of Sec 4 girls - in fact from my grandmother's Sec 4 class from the 1930s. In fact, besides my grandmother, my grandaunt and one of my teachers were all in this same class.

The photo has not stood well the test of time. But it shows a happy and cohesive little group of schoolgirls, presumably in the grounds of the Victoria Street Convent (see my earlier post about my grandfather's convent boyhood; little would this young convent boy know that his future wife would pass through the same gates, many years later).

You can see from the photo that the convent uniform used to be a little different - definitely those large collars had mercifully left the scene by the time it was my turn to don the uniform (but my convent is in Katong).
For many of these girls, their education would end after completing secondary school. But already, this was a privilege - for theirs was an era where many girls remained uneducated. They would proceed to become wives and mothers; some would take up jobs. Their lives would not be easy - within a few years they would be facing the trials of the Japanese occupation, followed by the trials of the pre-Independence years. But the friendships and ties nurtured in these years would endure. This year, the survivors of this class turn 90. Those who can, still meet up regularly as they have been doing all these years.

So my wish for my classmates is that we too remain happy and healthy, well into our golden years.

P.S. Happy Birthday, grandma.

A Different Sky, A Different Era

2011-07-16T21:51:00.002+08:00

I have just finished reading Meira Chand's "A Different Sky". A tale of Singapore in the tumultuous years prior to Independence, the story starts in the mid 1920s, takes us through the Japanese Occupation to the early years of self-government. Told through the stories of three main protagonists - a Chinese girl of good family, a Eurasian boy and a young Indian businessman - we read how each person is shaped by the events they live through even as each, in their way contributes to the Singapore story.

In the same way, the book tells the story not only of Singapore during these critical years, but of the larger events in the world beyond. Indeed, what I like best about this book was the way it portrayed how the nationalistic movement of the pre-Colonial period, and the growing threat of communism, influenced politics and society here in Singapore.

Of the three protagonists, I found Raj, the pragmatic but warm hearted Indian capitalist, rather endearing. His self-serving actions (including collaborating with the Japanese during the war) contrast with his many acts of kindness to those around him. The other two were less interesting and I felt that they were created to fit a certain "mould" - Howard, the Eurasian civil servant, who grew up with a chip on his shoulder; Mei Lan, the war heroine who became a lawyer fighting and protecting abused women. But a number of the minor characters, I felt, played an important role in livening up the tale. Rose, Howard's mother, a widow making a living for herself and two young children. Mei Lan's second grandmother, tyranising her slave girls, smoking her opium and dabbing on her Schiaparelli perfume. Raj's brother-in-law Krishna, freedom fighter and rabble rouser. Their stories, too, formed part of the rich tapestry of "A Different Sky".

But overall, the story was indeed that of Pre-Independence Singapore. A tale of life under the British, and then under the Japanese. A tale of political awakening, of a nation beginning to arise. A tale of individuals and families passing through tragedy and terror, to live again and love again.

In the broad sweep of history, 50 years ago is not a long time at all. Yet for many of us, it is indeed a totally different era - a time and place totally outside our experience of life in Singapore today. This book gives us an insight into these days gone by, and leave us the wiser for it.

My Favourite Kasut Manek Photos

2011-07-09T00:30:00.006+08:00

Kasut Manek, a gallery on Flickr.

Well, I did promise that I had a few new posts in the pipeline. And so I do, except of course that this particular one may not be particularly exciting to anyone as it is really an excuse to update on the status of my Kasut Manek project, of which nothing has been heard for months.

But first, let me share a number of lovely kasut manek photos which I've found on Flickr. These are a mixture of old shoes, new shoes, and shoes in progress. More information can be found in the gallery itself (and more updated photos, as and when I find them).

Now back to my own personal kasut manek. Indeed, it has been slow going. I am now at the widest part of the shoe, so the rows progress slowly. But there has indeed been some discernable movement (after all these months there had better be!) as the little pink beads move further down the canvas, light pink shading down to medium and then to dark metallic pink.

For those who have requested for my pattern, I ask you for your patience. I don't really have a scanner and will need to photograph the existing pattern, clean it up etc etc. Am rather busy (as the slow progress on my shoes also indicates) and will need to find time to do this as well.

Growing up in Katong

2011-07-02T17:40:00.002+08:00

I was surfing on the Perankan Association website and was immensely pleased to find a rather charming article by Cynthia Wee-Hoefer on Katong in the 1950s and 60s!

Just my kind of thing, and a very nice article to link to from this blog.

But there is also a link from this article to this blog. Cynthia mentions that she used to live in an obscure little lane off East Coast Road ‘after the Joo Chiat traffic lights, the small lane on the right, opposite the Shell station.’ Well, am pleased to say that I have in fact written an earlier short post about the very same street! She describes it also much better than I did, with her description of

"...neat rows of raised terrace houses with curlicue frescoed fronts, patterned mosaic steps and a narrow veranda. The houses were pretty and deep to accommodate three bedrooms, a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen covered by a zinc roof. There was a toilet (originally of the bucket system but modernised years later), a bathroom, and an airy basement that worked as an additional storage space, sleeping quarter and hide-and-seek playground."

For more on Cynthia's story, do read her article on Growing up in Katong.

Good home cooking - Little Nonya Express

2011-06-25T13:32:00.002+08:00

I've been awfully lazy about updating this blog, but worry not! A few entries are in the offing. What inspires me to write this post, however, is a rather tasty lunch last Sunday. Little Nonya Express is a new eatery on Jalan Kembangan, at the end of a small little strip of shops in the midst of residential housing.

Helmed by veteran chef Baba Jolly Wee, it is a new little restaurant specialising of course in nonya cuisine. Baba Jolly used to lend his expertise to Spices Cafe in Concorde Hotel (the former Meridian Hotel on Orchard Road). But he has now moved far closer to Katong. Besides supervising the kitchen, we saw from the posters on the front wall that Chef Jolly also gives cooking lessons.

The food is truly nonya comfort food. The tender, juicy beef rendang came with a fragrant rendang gravy. The chap chye too was cooked in a flavourful stock (with haebee lending a dash of umami to the dish). The sambal sotong was less tasty than the other two but the sotong itself was cooked just right.

We finished off the meal with durian chendol. Here, a slightly jarring note was struck. The ice shavings were a little large. One had to crunch the ice a little between ones teeth. But all in all, a lovely meal and I recommend it highly.

Pie tee and love letter makers, and assorted cooking equipment

2011-05-01T22:48:00.002+08:00

What a fun time we had shopping in Malacca! Our first stop (as always) was at the antique jewellery shop where we bought a couple of pieces. But I'm saving the pictures for a future post so I'm not putting them here.

I also managed to get myself a pair of dancing shoes, custom made, at Ah Lan's on Heeren Street. We visited Ah Lan's last year and then it was just a simple shop which sold shoes. Now it has expanded its range to include some clothes as well. This time, I decided to get a pair of dancing shoes made. I am not exactly a ballroom dancer but I do need a nice pair of evening shoes and these fit the bill nicely. Ordered on Friday, picked them up on Sunday. Of course, we trawled the kasut manek shops to see what was current. But since we make our own (or in my case, in the process of doing so) we did not buy any.

But the find of this trip had to be the cooking equipment shops in Kampong Jawa. Now, the thing about nonya cooking is that it can require some special equipment. For example, to make chendol you need a tray perforated with holes so that you can push the gel through to form the jelly "worms". Pie tee, on the other hand, requires a pie tee mould which is dipped into the batter and then into the hot oil. Some of the kueh-kueh also have their own moulds (bangkit, bangkus etc). Not all of this is easily found in Singapore and so we thought we would take the opportunity to get this equipment in Malacca.

First stop: the concierge desk at our hotel. That's when we found out that we were probably not the only ones looking for such things. They directed us quickly to Kampong Jawa and got us a taxi to take us there. We wandered around and found a few shops with all the stuff we were looking for - and more! Chendol trays, pie tee moulds, also love letter makers and jelly and apom moulds (featured in the photo on the left).

I must say that this was the first time I've ever seen some of these unusual pieces of cooking equipment, such as the love letter maker (see photo on the left) which are essentially tongs with a pair of disks at the end which have the pattern engraved on them. I can't believe the amount of effort it takes - to pour the batter over the disks, holding them shut above a charcoal fire, opening up the disk and removing and rolling the love letters up into a roll. It would not have been the job of just one person, but of a number of people dividing the work between them. I can't see myself doing it, except that I once said that about pineapple tarts and now I turn up the nose at anything not home made!

Anyway, for the record, I didn't buy all these pieces. My friend did as she felt that some of these may not be available in future and it would be better to get them when she can. I just got the pie tee maker and the chendol tray. So maybe, there will be a future post on how I made use of them....

Malacca Food

2011-04-16T18:22:00.002+08:00

Singaporeans like going to Malacca, for two reasons: Eating and shopping! I have to admit I am no exception. Yes, it is a charming, historical town. And yes, I should probably make more of an effort to visit a few of its many museums. But, as I always say, always leave something for next time.

When I was last in Malacca one year ago, I must admit that I did not come back raving about the food. Maybe we didn't go to the right places (although highly recommended, I thought they were over-rated). This time round, I thought that the food was much better.

We went off for lunch directly after we finished checking in to our hotel, at the Calanthe Art Cafe. I did visit this place last year but only tried their coffee. The place has charm and it is a pleasant place to be in the heat of the afternoon. Its walls are covered with murals and creative art displays. Two old televisions bring us back to yesterday. One has been converted into an aquarium! The cafe proudly proclaims that it sells 13 States Coffee, the blends based on the specialty of each Malaysian state. It also sells laksa, which of course we had to sample given that it was advertised as one of Malaysia's best 50 laksas! I've realised that the Malaccans don't use the thick bee hoon noodles, just yellow noodles or bee hoon. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the lemak gravy and the different toppings of egg, cucumber, fishcake and others.

We went for dinner subsequently at Capitol Satay in Bukit Cina. I enjoyed the food, and the fun of cooking the items in the thick peanut sauce. Especially memorable was the huge shrimp we ate, which we had to ask specially for. For the record, it was pretty good, even though ratherdifficult to shell and thereafter to eat given the size. It was a memorable meal, but I think one visit to Capitol is enough, the queue is just too much.

The other truly enjoyable meal was our dinner at the Equatorial Hotel nonya restaurant, Seri Nyonya. Now people recommend other restaurants in Malacca, but thus far Seri Nyonya is myfavourite. The cooking is more refined and less oily, and there is a better variety of dishes to choose from. We had the butterfly fish for starters (thin, crisply deep-fried fish slices with a dressing of lime, shallots, chilli) followed by ayam buah keluak, sweet potato leaves fried with sambal belacan, and yummy sambal prawns with assam sauce.

So these are my three food recommendations for those aiming to take a trip to Malacca.

Food Bites Old and New

2011-03-26T17:31:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since I featured any Katong eateries on this blog. Partly because I lost my old Sony Ericsson K500i with its really excellent camera phone (nothing has been the same since) and partly because the food scene in Katong tends to shift so fast; all very well when new restaurants come in but then the old ones depart and my blog becomes out-of-date :-( Anyway, thought I'd restart this again, with one old favourite and one newcomer on the scene.

The time-tested favourite is Glory Catering, on East Coast Road (near the junction with Joo Chiat Road). It's a small shop, distinguished by all the kueh kueh in front, and the jars of pineapple tarts and other goodies in the crowded entranceway. Glory prides itself on its pineapple tarts, which are indeed pretty good (for bought rather than homemade tarts that is), and there are a number of newspaper reviews on the walls of the restaurant which serve as an endorsement of their prowess.

The cooking is pretty good - the tasty, lemak chicken curries (chicken rendang, masak merah are my favourites), sambal squid and sambal goreng. It's amazing how fast the turnover is - food is served quickly (but don't expect beautiful presentation) and people eat and leave in a jiffy. I also enjoy their soft drinks -- they serve Bundaberg ginger ale, root beer and others.

The new kid on the block is Makan Peranakan, also on East Coast Road (Telok Kurau Road junction). Situated in "Food R Us", the corner coffee shop of the Peranakan Hotel, it is a little stall which sells selected peranakan dishes - old favourites like mee siam, laksa, and kueh pie tee and more unusual dishes like nasi kunyit, nasi ulam. My favourites are the mee siam (savoury, with decent sized prawns) and the pie tee (tasty filling in a nice crisp pie tee shell). It's a pretty new outlet and if you fancy the mee siam, go early because it runs out fast. The nasi kunyit (glutinous rice, coloured with golden tumeric) is served with a really tasty chicken curry, prawns and some omelette. The most unusual dish here - the nasi ulam, full of herbs and (strangely) little bits of fish, is pretty tasty but tends to get a little dry.

In general, however, the zhi cha at Food R Us is pretty solid. Good, tasty fare and friendly staff (who remember our preferences) make it the place we go to again and again (that and being right on our doorstep). So if you happen to be around the East Coast Road area and looking for a bite to eat in the evening, give this a try.

Auspicious Chinese New Year wear

2011-02-27T17:04:00.003+08:00

I was wandering around Chinatown at the end of last year together with a friend of mine. There are a few small little stalls in the Chinatown Complex on Smith street, selling sarong kebaya. One was so crowded that it made browsing the shelves a little difficult (we are talking about something the size of a hawker stall here) but another a little further down with a smaller selection, was easier to see and access. To my great delight, they had a series of nice kebaya tops in dark pink rubbia cotton for very reasonable prices. Whilst I don't think that the quality of the embroidery work was as good as that on my existing kebaya, it was still pretty decent. So I ended up getting my outfit for Chinese New Year in this little Chinatown stall. What was a little sad was that the complex was quite quiet, with all the tourists milling around the streets just outside.

One thing led to another. I obviously am no where near completion on my first beaded slipper and I didn't think my existing pair went that well with my new kebaya top. So I made my way to Katong Shopping Centre and there in another basement shop I found a pair of rather nice (and surprisingly comfortable) shoes and in another shop a few doors down picked up the kerosang. Again, I must admit that even my pathetic amateur work is probably going to result in much finer beadwork (smaller beads)than that on this pair of kasut manek but I figured no one is going to be looking at my feet that closely.

So please note - there's no need to go all the way to Malacca to get one's nonya outfits - we have locally quite a few shops able to supply all our needs. And that easily, I was able to venture forth on the first day of CNY in full nonya regalia :-) And of course in the most auspicious of colours to boot.

Glam up the Gammon

2011-01-29T18:04:00.003+08:00

Christmas ham is a traditional Eurasian staple. My grandmother would buy hers from a little shop at the corner of Tembeling and East Coast Road. My mother remembers the ham coming in a sack, all packed in saw dust. It would be boiled for hours to cook it and to remove some of the salt used to preserve the meat. The first pieces would be eaten Christmas Eve, after midnight mass, together with achar, mulligatawny soup and a crisp French loaf.

Today, we just go to Cold Storage and after removing the plastic wrapper, the ham is good to carve and eat. But of course the challenge of eating all this ham remains.

So, the resourceful Eurasian housewife came up with a way to present it afresh to family members tired of eating the same thing day in day out. And that's how gammon curry came about. It's not my family tradition but I found this yummy recipe in Wendy Hutton's Eurasian food cookbook, "Food of Love". The whole cookbook can be downloaded so I feel quite comfortable reproducing the recipe here (for the record I bought the hard copy of the book).

I have to highlight that this is not the lemak coconut based curry but a sour, spicy curry cooked with cumin, fenugreek and mustard seeds and sweetened by the addition of prunes. Must admit that I didn't actually have *that* much leftover ham so I had to buy some cured pork belly to supplement the pieces of ham. But the whole thing tasted great, especially eaten with rice and a cool green pea and mint salad. The last is definitely not traditional but it goes very well.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon toasted cumin seeds, pounded till fine
7-8 dried chillies (soaked to soften, pounded finely) - note that the original recipe calls for 8-10 chillis but I think that's a little hot
2 tablespoons oliveoil
approx 100ml red wine vinegar
500g gammon ham or cured pork belly
1/4tsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 tsp brown mustard seeds
16 fresh curry leaves (more if it is frozen or dried)
1/2 cup pitted prunes
green olives
sugar totaste

Directions
1. Combine the pounded cumin and chilli to form smooth paste and fry in oil till fragrant. Transfer to a bowl, add the vinegar and use the mixture to marinate the meat for about 2 hours.
2. Heat oil and fry the fenugreek, mustard seeds and curry leaves quickly for about 1 minute. Add the meat (reserve marinade) and stir-fry till brown. Add the marinade and water to just cover meat. Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for about 30-40 minutes.
3. Add the prunes and olives and simmer for another 10 minutes. Add sugar to taste.

The NUS Baba House

2011-01-08T18:27:00.004+08:00

Front Door
Originally uploaded by Taking5

First post of 2011!

I visited the Neil Road, NUS Baba House last month, together with my Dad's three sisters (aka Tua Kor, Ji Kor and Sar Kor - as you can see we use the typical family naming conventions).

The NUS Baba House came about through a donation by the youngest daughter of Baba Tun Tan Cheng Lock, who wanted to preserve a little Baba/Nonya culture in modern Singapore. The house has been carefully restored to what a typical Peranakan house would be like in the 1920s. This photo featured is of the "pintu pagar", the front entrance door. This particular door is so beautiful - the carvings are so detailed and the gold and silver paint only serve to bring out their beauty.

Sadly, no photos are allowed inside, so there are not many more photos to feature. And, in addition to my earlier post on Peranakan houses, I've found this very detailed description online of the typical Peranakan house, so I'm not going to go into that either. I will just give a quick account of the visit and how we experienced the Baba House.

The four of us were part of a small group touring the House together with a guide. The group included a small family group of three people - one Baba and two Nonyas (one obviously the little old matriarch of the family) currently residing in Australia but originally from Malaysia. They were on holiday in Singapore and wanted to take a look at the Baba House. The rest of the group were "ang mohs". The guide said that one of the nice things about taking groups around, is that the Peranakans in the group often chime in with their own stories and experiences. (Of course, I can imagine the downsides too).

We started off in the reception room in the front of the house, where we heard a little on the restoration work done on the house. Our guide explained that the colour of the house (a bright blue) was similar to the original colour, detected when layers of paint were stripped off. Whilst the colour might appear a little bright, it would fade over time to a more muted colour.

Walking into the next room, we looked at the photographs of the former residents of the house. We were told that the founder of the family first came to Singapore some time in the late 1800s. The house however was purchased by one of his son's wives. So it was only the third generation of the family which stayed in the house. Upstairs, we visited the main bedroom where the old lady would have stayed. Her marriage bed was against one wall, a smaller day bed against another. There were a number of cupboards, where I assume she would have kept her sarongs and kebaya, plus a special cabinet for her handkerchiefs.

Whilst we walked through the house, my aunts reminesced about our family home, which was in the city centre (Choon Guan Street, just behind International Plaza) and as such sadly has been torn down and (I think) a tall condo block has taken its place. We looked at the carvings on the screen dividing the entrance reception room from the rest of the house and they started talking about how, as little children, they had to clean the carvings using a tissue on the end of a chopstick. We walked through the courtyard, and they talked about the well which used to be in the centre of their courtyard. They looked at the bedroom, and started talking about their grandmother's (my greatgrandmother's) bed which is of course now in the Peranakan museum.

They were not alone. We looked at photos of a Peranakan wedding, including the heavily decked out bride. The litttle old Nonya in our group chipped in to say that the 10 layers of clothing were so heavy, that most nonyas of her generation had stopped wearing most of them.

In some ways, we are indeed in a transition period when many older nonyas and babas are still around and can still relate stories of how they lived, and how their parents lived, so many years ago. But this generation will not be around forever, so we have only this short time to listen to and record their stories.

The Baba House is only open by appointment, so do check the website for further details if you are interested.

Grandaunt's Pineapple Tarts

2010-12-18T16:42:00.002+08:00

Early last year, I was blogging about my attempts at making pineapple tarts. This year, I wanted to do another batch of tarts and decided that it was a good opportunity to go back to the good old days when the family was roped in to share out the tedious work. And so I got my cousin involved with the jam and tart-making.

This year, I had also managed to lay hands on my Grand Aunt's recipe, courtesy of her daughter. The basic ingredients were similar to those in my recipe posted up last year with one small, but critical difference - the inclusion of 3 teaspoons of lard every 250g of butter. And, she used egg yolks only instead of eggs, reserving the whites to glaze the tarts and to mix with the pineapple jam to get that nice, smooth surface.

I decided to stick to my tangy jam recipe (since I rather liked the inclusion of the pineapple juice rather than sugar to sweeten the jam). I also had problems finding zero-transfat shortening (I was not going to use lard) so we omitted that for the first batch of tarts. Anyway, we started off with the jam-making process. My dear mother was only too happy to show how dextrous she was with her knife, as she expertly removed the pineapple skin and eyes, chopped it up and readied it for the blender. We then blended the pineapple with the juice and stood over the stove for simply ages, stirring and waiting for it to reduce down, change colour from pale yellow to that wonderful orangey brown. At least we could chat a bit. Making jam alone is indeed lonely work.

The next day, I popped over to my cousin's to make the pastry (she has a better oven). Here, we had the benefit of getting assistance from her young nephews, our bakers' apprentices. I was amazed by the conscientious attitude displayed, especially by the older of the two. His task was to cut out the pineapple tarts using the cutter and the mould. It's not an easy task as the pastry mould must be pressed down just so in order to leave an imprint on the dough. The tart must also be carefully peeled away from the mould without breaking the dough. No small feat for our young apprentice to master. We completed a batch of some 100+ tarts, from our 500g of flour.

I subsequently made a second batch of tarts to finish off the jam. This time round, I got the Crisco from Phoon Huat. I also bought a plastic pineapple tart cutter/mould for our keen young apprentice chef, which he could use when his aunty makes tarts. I thought the top of the plastic cutter was less sharp than the metallic one, and so he could cut the pastry happily without inadvertently injuring himself.

So is it better with shortening, or without? My verdict: Go with the shortening - it really gives it a much better, more crumbly texture. Which makes the ingredients for the pastry as follows:

250g flour; 125g butter; 1-2 tsp of veg shortening; pinch of salt to taste; 1/2 tablespoon of sugar, 1.5 egg-yolks, water.

Rest of recipe and the process remains the same as in the earlier recipe.

A Problem of Conversion

2010-12-11T00:03:00.002+08:00

In baking, the Europeans use weight measurements; the Americans use volume measurements. The Europeans also use metric, except for the Brits who stick by their pounds and ounces (as do the Americans). Most of the time, cook books sold in Singapore use metric weight measurements. So most of the time, my little weighing scale does the job for me. And, for older recipes in old cookbooks (which are in pounds and ounces), I have my mother's old measuring cup.

So, I thought I had it all covered. Until I looked at my grandaunt's recipe for pineapple tarts and found out it was in "katis". Katis? I have never cooked anything in katis (although vague memories emerged of visits to the wet market and my mother making her orders in katis). Going down the pages, I did find a metric-based recipe (I assume my aunt updated her mother's recipe more recently), but my curiosity was piqued and I decided I would find out more about the "kati".

So I tried Ellice Handy (the doyenne of Singaporean cookbook writers). Surely a book written in the 1960s (or so) would have kati conversion. And indeed she did. From katis to pounds and ounces. Well, that was indeed useful. So I would have to do a double conversion. According to Handy,

1 kati = 16 tahils (what is a tahil!)
1 tahil = 1 ounce
16 ounces = 1 pound
Therefore, 1 kati = 1 pound.

Reading another cookbook, I got 1 kati = 21 1/2 ounces (!!)

I decided to check on-line. Here I found that the "kati" or "catty" weight was used in China and Japan. And depending on which country it was, the conversion factors are different. For example:

1 kati (China) = 500g = 17.636 oz
1 kati (Japan) = 600g = 21.164 oz

Don't believe me? Fiddle with the conversion here.

Going through Wikipedia, I found some more intriguing references to the kati. First, I found out that the term "catty" is also used in Hongkong (which reinforces the Chinese linkage). According to the Hongkong weights and measures ordinance,

1 catty (kan) = 0.60478982 kg
1 tael (leung) = 1/16 catty
(i.e. my second cookbook appears to be more correct).

I was also delighted to come across, for the first time, a Singlish dictionary! I leave readers of this post to explore the dictionary on their own. But let me, for the record, reproduce here its definition of the kati:

kati /ke-ti, ˈkɛtɪ/ n. [Mal. & Jav. kātī, katī; > Eng. catty] hist. A unit of weight equal to 16 Tahils, that is, about 1⅓ lb. avoirdupois or 625 grammes (more accurately, 0.604790 kilogramme).

1894 N.B. Dennys A Descriptive Dictionary of British Malaya 177 Kati. – Frequently written “Catty,” a weight of 1⅓ pounds avoirdupois; the kati contains 16 taels, and 100 katis make a pikul, or picul, literally “a load.” The tael, the kati, and the pikul are native words, but the weights they express are Chinese. 1947 Richard Olaf Winstedt The Malays, ch. 6, 112 Soon after the founding of Malacca Chinese annals under 1416 record.. that, ‘tin.. is cast into small blocks weighing 1 kati 8 tahil or 1 kati 4 tahil official weight... They use these pieces of tin instead of money.’ [1955 R.J. Wilkinson A Malay–English Dictionary, vol. 1, 516 kati. .. «catty»; a measure of weight of sixteen tahil or about one and one-third lb. avoirdupois.] 1970 Metrication Act 1970 (No. 52 of 1970), s. 5(b). Conversion of imperial standard units to metric system units. The values expressed in terms of .. the local customary system of weights and measures, may be converted into the values expressed in terms of the International System of Units in accordance with Schedule C. .. Schedule C .. Conversion of Local Customary Units to Equivalent SI Units .. 1 kati = 0.604790 kilogramme approximately 1972 The Straits Times, 25 November, 15 col. 1 The gold bars, weighing 15 katis seven tahils.

Goodness. I am just glad that we have shifted to metric and so not have to worry about these complicated conversions.

Patience

2010-11-28T14:05:00.001+08:00

My cousin came by for dinner the other night. I proudly showed her my beadwork thus far. However, my cousin took one look and said "you're going to finish in 10 years' time"!

Sad to say, progress has indeed been slow. This careful, painstaking work is not for everyone. And, other projects and activities do get in the way. But I have been plugging at it slowly. In the past few weeks, I have reviewed the size of the shoe and decided to make it a little more generous than the pattern suggests, did a row of edging and filled in some of the beads between the edging and the existing work. Note: this was probably the most tedious part. So, this is where I'm at now:

Still got a long way to go, but that's ok. I take a look back at where I started and am proud of the progress made. And, I'll be that much prouder of my accomplishment when I finally finish them off.

See how far I've come: photos on Flickr.

Beading Resources On-Line

2010-10-10T21:44:00.001+08:00

I have received a number of queries on how to start beading, where to get courses, etc. I should repeat that I am really just a beginner too. Nonetheless, I have done some on-line searching, and found some useful links. I would also like to thank the various individuals who have left comments or emailed me and given tips, some of which I've included here.

So here are some beading resources which other beginners may find useful:

i) Mini-tutorial by Craft Passion. There are four parts to this tutorial in total, so here's the link to just the first one. This provides a good overview and introduction to how to make kasut manek.

ii) Article (from The Star Online) on Ms Khoo Lay Imm, from Penang. Ms Khoo is willing to teach people how to bead, and her email is provided in the article.

iii) "With Every Bead" - video featuring Mr Robert Sng of "Little Shophouse" in Bussorah Street, Singapore and giving some background on Peranakan beading.

Beads, patterns, thread and other bead-making apparatus can be purchased from Little Shophouse.

iv) Last but not least, Rumah Bebe website. Bebe Seet has been teaching Peranakan beadwork for a number of years and has written a definitive book on the subject: "Peranakan Beadwork: My Heritage" which I mentioned in an earlier post. Her shop also sells beadmaking stuff.

I do hope this is useful to all. I do apologise that there is not much on Malaysian-based shops or resources, if anyone would like to add on please do feel free to do so.

My Grandfather's Convent Boyhood

2010-09-18T22:46:00.003+08:00

My grandfather was sent away to boarding school when he was about 6 or 7 years old. Yes, all the way from Katong to the Victoria Street Convent (CHIJ Victoria Street). He did go home on the weekends, transported on an old rickshaw. I guess that was why he had to be a boarder - it would not be practical for him to go there and back every day.

My grandfather was not, of course, the only boy to go to the Convent for his early education. Another (rather more prominent) student was of course, Mr David Marshall, Singapore's first Chief Minister, who went to kindergarten there. In his oral history interview, he talks about the food, his attempts at learning French, life under the strict nuns and his experience as an altar server. Of this, he recounts the lasting impression it would make on him:

"...if it was my turn to say mass, some of the other boarders that went with me of course, went into the body of the chapel but I had to go into the vestry at the back of the altar. Now as soon as I got there, right in the middle or three- quarter way, sat an old nun. She was Madam St Argyl. I suppose it's a French name and she was also like a man. She was short and rather inclined to be strict. I believe she must have been there because she must have been in charge of the chapel. I go up to her and say, "Good Morning"....

... The bishop used to come across Victoria street from the bishop's house in Victoria Street there, and then another server would come from outside also...

... The nuns sat right at the back .. and then all the other boarders in the convent, the first-class, the second-class and the section that was known as the "Orphans" were all present at the mass. and the orderly way that they used to go to communion when walking back to the seats and the posture adopted after receiving communion is one that I have carried through even up to today... ...with my hands together, walking slowly, sedately to my seat."

Unfortunately I do not have a photograph of my grandfather as a schoolboy (he describes himself as having long curly hair when he first went to school, which I would have liked to see!).

My grandfather stayed in the convent until he was old enough to start off in St Joseph's Institution. There, he spent a few more enjoyable years before starting off on his teaching career - which he would spend entirely in the La Salle schools. His children would all similarly pass through the Convent (Katong Convent for the girls) and SJI as did his grandchildren, for the most part.
Today, both the CHIJ Victoria Street Convent and SJI buildings are being used for other purposes (a commercial retail/food hub and art museum respectively) but the Schools themselves are still going and growing strong, in their newer, larger buildings in other parts of Singapore. The chapel my grandfather served in is no longer used for worship, but now remains as a national monument.

Cooking Fish Moolie

2010-09-03T00:17:00.002+08:00

Fish Moolie
Originally uploaded by Taking5

Fish Moolie is a classic Eurasian dish, one which probably made its way to Singapore via India. But the recipe for this mild fish curry is not easy to find. Most recipe books don't have it - but I found it in two - in our ancient copy of Ellice Handy's cookbook, one of the oldest local cookbooks around (probably now out of print) and another in Robin's Eurasian Recipes, a recent publication. Robin is the father of Quentin Pereira, the owner and chef behind Quentin's restaurant, and it is his curry moolie recipe on the menu of Quentin's.

My mother prefers Mrs Handy's recipe as it is the one which her mother used to cook. And, of course, that's the recipe we've had for the longest time. Our local daily domestic also learnt how to make the dish and today, I swear her version is the best ever. She has long retired, and so I have to cook it myself if I want to eat it. And actually, it is far easier than one would imagine.

Ingredients:

Fish - about 500-600g. Can use ikan kurau (threadfin), red fish. The photo above features sea bream.
2 stalks lemon grass or serai (white portion only),
1-1.5cm of galangal or lengkuas
4 candlenuts or buah keras
1 teaspoon tumeric powder
2 large onions
1.5cm ginger, cut into strips
250ml coconut milk
Vinegar, sugar, salt to taste; flour for thickening

Pound the lemongrass, galangal, candlenuts together (or blended together), mix in the tumeric powder.
Fry the ginger and onions till soft but not brown, add the pounded ingredients and fry till fragrant. Add 150ml of the coconut milk, diluted with 500ml water (or so) and pinch of salt. Gently poach fish in the coconut gravy (gravy should reach at least two-thirds up the fish). Cover the pan whilst poaching. When fish is almost cooked, turn it over, and add the remaining thick coconut milk plus vinegar and sugar to taste. Thicken with flour as required to reach desired consistency. Top off with deep fried onions/garlic/chillis as desired. Aside from the topping, this dish has no chilli, so it is not spicy at all.

Pattern Emerging

2010-08-21T19:00:00.004+08:00

It has been some time since my last update on the kasut manek beading project. Partly because there has not been much progress on the shoes. I must admit that I have been a little lazy, but the other reason was because I developed a few floaters in my eyes. Got the eyes checked and they are ok, but I wanted to rest my eyes a bit. Also, the floaters are a little bit irritating and I had to get used to them. Anyway, I have started up again, and will take it slow and easy.

At this stage of the project, I am happy to say that with each individual bead, the pattern of floating, pink clouds is really taking shape, as can be seen from the photo. I am now so familiar with the pattern that I don't really need the pattern sheet to refer to all the time - I just figure it out from the beads which were sewn on earlier.

In a sense it is easy to familiarise oneself with a regular, repetitive pattern. When I was in Malacca earlier this year, we visited a number of beading shops. What was interesting was that instead of referring to a pattern sheet, the pattern is tacked on to the canvas and the beads sewn on the pattern. One example, with a beautiful beaded peacock is shown in the photo on the right (alas the tail is not spread out though). I can see why sewing the beads on the paper makes it easier to finish the design, without mistakes.

The other thing to point out in this picture, is the neat little beaded edging on the shoe. My friend has taught me the technique, but I have not tried it out yet. Maybe after I've completed another row or two :-)

I'm glad to be back beading again!

p.s. Because it has been a while, here is the Flickr set which records my progress on the kasut manek project.

A Peranakan Garden

2010-08-08T16:18:00.000+08:00

I brought my mother to the Singapore Garden Festival 2010 a few weeks ago. After exploring the grandeur of the landscape gardens, and the whimsy of the fantasy gardens, we walked two storeys down to look at the orchids and visit the Community in Bloom. This is one of my favourite sections of the show - I love looking at the herbs, and looking at the ingenuity of the wall gardens and vertical gardens, the floral art and so on. This year, amongst the gardens developed by communities around Singapore, I spotted the "Peranakan Garden".

I thought it charming, with the old style frontage of a Peranakan house, the stools and table in the garden reminescent of the Peranakan tableware. My mother, however, was looking at the plants.

There were not enough, she felt, of the plants for the Peranakan kitchen. Nonyas use a fair amount of herbs in their cooking, and most of the time, they source the plants from their very own backyards. She was a little happier when I showed her the chilli plant, and the bunga telang creeper (or the butterfly pea flower - used as a natural food colouring to stain food blue), and some ginger flowers. But there were others, she felt which were missing. (I'm sure we must have missed quite a few) But when we went to the "Supermarket Garden" she found some "suitable" plants - for example, the banana tree and sugar cane plant, curry pulai and lemongrass. I remember munching on sugar cane during the mid-autumn festival, cut from my grandfather's garden, just as I remember the pots of mint at the back. My mother still maintains a few pots of herbs in the garden, but herbs are fragile things and may die quickly. Still, our pandan has been going strong for many years.

So I ask you, gentle reader. What herbs do you grow in your garden?