Singapore - Scratching Beneath The Surface

I'm a great believer in local knowledge, and I doubt that I would've ended up in the Tiong Bahru (中峇鲁) neighbourhood if local entrepreneur and blogger Eunice hadn't suggested meeting up there. Although only a short cab ride from Singapore's CBD, Tiong Bahru has a very different feel from the mix of skyscrapers and regenerated shophouses found downtown. That's due in part to some enlightened town planning in the 1930s that saw elements of art deco incorporated into the architecture of Singapore's first public housing project.

Anyway, enough of the architecture and history lesson; this is, after all, a food blog! The reason for visiting Tiong Bahru was to check out Sin Hoi Sai (新海山). In local parlance, this is a zi char joint (煮炒), one step up from a hawker centre but still quite casual. To use an Italian analogy, think trattoria rather than full-blown ristorante.

The food at Sin Hoi Sai is a bit like Singapore itself: a fusion of traditional and modern influences. Dishes like cereal prawns (麦片虾) where deep-fried prawns are tossed in an amazing salty-sweet-spicy mix of oatmeal, butter, curry leaves and chilli. This is a true Singapore original, with the key ingredient being a breakfast cereal called Nestum (thanks to Goz for the knowledge). Sadly, I don't think Nestum is sold in the UK, which probably rules out ever seeing cereal prawns on these shores. This is a shame, as they're SO damn good.

Another Singapore classic is deep-fried prawn paste chicken (har cheong gai 虾酱鸡). Sod Colonel Sanders and his mix of herbs and spices, these have nothing on the pungent prawn paste (har cheong 虾酱) in which the chicken is marinated in before it's deep-fried. Moreish doesn't even begin to describe the super savoury-umami attack on the senses unleashed by this dish.

Although Singapore's ethnic Chinese have gone down their own culinary path, there are still plenty of southern Chinese classics such as steamed egg (水蒸蛋) to be found on the menus of zi char joints like Sin Hoi Sai. We ordered a deluxe version that was made with bits of century egg and salted duck egg. It was good, with the savoury egg custard being properly silky, smooth and wobbly, but I couldn't help but feel the salted duck egg element was a bit muted.

While zi char, in general, is seen as a good value casual dining option, that doesn't mean you can't treat yourself. And as Sin Hoi Sai's calling card is its seafood, we went for steamed fish with coriander as the centrepiece of dinner. I can't remember what the fish was, but it was perfectly cooked. With some greens, rice, drinks, freebie dessert and, most importantly, great company, it was a cracking meal. So thanks again to Eunice for suggesting Sin Hoi Sai!

Sin Hoi Sai Seafood Restaurant, Block 55 Tiong Bahru Road #01-59, Singapore 160055
(Tel: +65-6223-0810) Nearest MRT: Tiong Bahru, Outram Park

Another locals' joint I visited was the modestly named Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice & Fish Porridge stall that's located in the Mei Ling Market & Food Centre in Queenstown. While I have no doubt that their fish porridge (congee/juk 粥) is excellent, I was here for the Hainanese chicken rice (海南雞飯).

As we were a large group, we ordered a whole chicken, which came on two separate plates, with the rice served in separate bowls. The chicken was nicely done to perfection, juicy and tender (although to some heathen western tastes, it may seem undercooked). And the rice (cooked with chicken stock) was so tasty that I ordered an extra bowl. This chicken rice was really good, and I can understand why people travel miles to this corner of town for it.

To bulk out our meal we also ordered some fried dumplings (guo tie 锅贴) from a neighbouring stall serving Shanghai-style dim sum. These were bloody tasty, with their crispy exterior and juicy pork filling.

All in all, it was a fabulous lunch! And for that I am thankful to my long suffering Singaporean colleagues for taking me there, as I wouldn't have otherwise known about the food centre at Mei Ling Market. So much so, I feel really guilty that I had, occasionally, got hacked off with them for not always taking me to places serving local food.

Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice & Fish Porridge
Mei Ling Market & Food Centre, 159 Mei Chin Rd, Singapore 140159
Nearest MRT: Queenstown

For more Singapore tips, albeit from a couple of years ago, please check out my posts on the restaurant scene and the cheap eats scene.

Gourmet Garden - Malaysian Chinese in Zone 3

Although the likes of Rasa Sayang and Kiasu have opened up in recent years, you'd think there'd be more Malaysian eateries in London. Especially given the number of Malaysian Chinese that work in the catering industry. However, most tend to either follow the Cantonese restaurant formula or the Pan-Asian canteen model.

That's why I was intrigued when I came across Gourmet Garden (膳園) in Hendon. On the outside, it looks like a suburban Chinese restaurant but among the everyday Anglo-Chinese offerings, its menu features a wide selection of dishes from Malaysia and Singapore. Most of these are Malaysian Chinese with the odd Malay dish.

The Big Dish
馬來棧焗蟹 Fried crab with sambal belachan (seasonal price apx £20)

Visitors to Malaysia and Singapore will be familiar with the likes of chilli crab and black pepper crab. However, I've never seen crab prepared this way before despite belachan, a pungent fermented shrimp paste, being a common ingredient in Straits cuisine.

Frying belachan with chilli, minced garlic, shallot paste and sugar makes sambal belachan, the basis of the gravy in this dish. And what a gravy, already fiery and shrimpy, it was further enhanced by a generous helping of dried shrimps (har mai 蝦米); an ideal accompaniment to the perfectly cooked sweet fresh crab.

Gourmet Garden's boss explained that as well as being their signature dish; this style of crab is quite unique to her restaurant as it is their very own creation. Served as an intermediate course, it was the highlight of the evening. Looking back, I should've asked whether they had any deep fried Chinese buns (mantou 曼頭) to dip into the rich gravy.

Teochew ngoh hiang

Kweh pi tee

The Starters
潮州五香 Teochew ngoh hiang (£4.30)
香脆金杯 Kweh pi tee (£4.30/4pcs)
阿榨 Achar - Malaysian pickled mixed vegetables (£3.80)

My favourite starter was the ngoh hiang, minced pork & prawns wrapped in beancurd skin then deep-fried. This was served sliced and was liberally laced with five-spice powder (五香粉) from which the dish's name is derived. Kweh pi tee are dainty crispy pastry cups filled with vegetables and topped with a prawn and these were OK. I wasn't that impressed by the achar but I'm not really a pickled vegetable kind of guy.

The Mains
海南雞 Hainanese chicken w/house chilli sauce (£5.80/qtr)
干咖哩牛 Rendang beef (£6.90)
椒絲腐乳通菜 Fried kangkong w/fresh chilli & fermented beancurd sauce (£6.50)
叻沙 Singapore laksa (£6.00)

I fear that my impressions of the Hainanese chicken were spoiled by the recent memories of eating this dish in Singapore. This dish demands that the bird be just cooked and whilst it wasn't overcooked, it just didn't seem as juicy and moist as the version at Boon Tong Kee.

The spice level of the rendang beef hadn't been dumbed down and it had a reassuring kick. Unfortunately, the meat wasn't as tender as it could be but this is a common problem with 'slow-cooked' dishes in restaurants. The kangkong (morning glory) was perfectly adequate but with hindsight, I would've preferred it stir-fried with belachan rather than fresh chilli & fermented beancurd.

There was plenty of chicken, fried tofu, prawns, fish balls, and rice vermicelli in the Singapore laksa. So it was quite ironic that this generosity slightly spoiled the dish as the noodle-soup balance was all wrong. With so much 'stuff', there just wasn't enough spicy coconut soup to go round. That said, I thought it had the right level of heat and I shouldn't really complain about big portions.

The Bill
With two bottles of wine, rice and a pot of tea, the bill racked up to £116.30 including 10% service charge between three. This may seem expensive but we probably over-ordered and did have two bottles of Chablis (£20.50 each). If you strip out the booze, the food costs apx £24/head, which is damn good value.

What The Others Thought
Joining me for dinner was Kake and Bellaphon. The latter has been dubbed in certain circles as a misguided self-important contrarian rebel. Personally, I think 'narcissistic iconoclast' sums him up better. I'm also not sure why he's been singled out, as some of us work bloody hard to be contrary (but not misguided or self-important) and for Bellaphon to earn that reputation without really trying, sticks in the craw. For this meal though, it was his expertise in his native Malaysian cuisine that I was seeking out rather than his perceived character flaws.

There was much consensus around the table but there were a couple of points of disagreement. Being more of a spice-fiend, Bellaphon thought the laksa was a bit tame and he needed some extra chilli sauce. Whilst Kake is a big fan of fermented bean curd and was quite happy with how the kangkong was prepared.

About The Restaurant
Gourmet Garden sits aside six lanes of traffic on the A41 and is accessed from Hendon Central station via a piss-streaked underpass. However, don't let that put you off visiting this fine restaurant, as it's only 25 minutes by tube from Euston.

The boss, who like the chef is from Kuala Lumpur, has run Gourmet Garden for the last eight years and her pride and passion in the food they serve is clear for all to see. I was impressed with how she dealt with the multicultural clientele in English, Cantonese and Mandarin. Overall, service was a cut above with that personal touch, which is characteristic of quality local restaurants.

The Verdict
The suburbs have been a happy hunting ground for me lately and I really enjoyed Gourmet Garden. The fried crab with sambal belachan was simply amazing and whilst the other dishes didn't quite hit the same heights, there's a lot to like about this restaurant. If you're a fan of Malaysian Chinese food then it's well worth checking out.



Gourmet Garden, 59 Watford Way, Hendon, London
 NW4 3AX (Tel: 020-8202-9639)
Nearest Tube: Hendon Central

For more on Malaysian food, I highly recommend that you go to 3 Hungry Tummies, Test with Skewer and House of Annie for their 'Muhibbah Malaysian Monday' feature. Each month, they take it in turns to round-up the best of Malaysian on their respective blogs.

Singapore Part 1 - The Restaurants

I was fortunate enough to be in Singapore recently and I'm looking forward to share with you some of my foodie experiences. In this post, I'll be running the rule over restaurants serving up famous local dishes such as Hainanese chicken rice and chilli crab. For those of you who love food from Singapore's hawker centres, I'll be turning my attention to cheap eats in the next post.

Hainanese chicken rice

What is Singapore's national dish ? A strong contender is Hainanese chicken rice, so it was a bit of a no-brainer when I was asked what I wanted for dinner on my first night in Singapore. I left it to my colleagues to choose the venue, as I'm a great believer in tapping into local knowledge.

I had no idea where I was going to be taken when we left the office and the CBD behind us. Normally, I am intolerant of taxi drivers who don't know where they're going but strangely I took it as a good sign that he got lost. I had visions of being taken to some illicit backstreet chicken rice shebeen.

I was therefore a little disappointed that we ended up on the East Coast Road, about 10km from the CBD. Just how the cabbie got lost is beyond me, as this was a brightly lit main road. My disappointment soon faded when I was told that the East Coast is a great foodie area. As we left the taxi, I could see a row of eateries jostling for our attention. My colleagues then pointed out where we were going to eat and all was well with the world again.

Our destination was Boon Tong Kee, a mini-chain of Chinese home-style restaurants specialising in chicken. This place seemed strangely familiar and then it dawned on me that Su-Lin of Tamarind and Thyme had already sung the praises of this place. That's just bloody typical of Su-Lin, not content to be the first to blog about London's more interesting eateries; she also gets there first in Singapore too !

white-cut poached chicken

We went for their signature poached chicken aka 'white-cut' chicken, which was served separately from the rice that was cooked in chicken stock. The bird was juicy and moist and actually tasted of chicken; it went really well with the ginger paste and the special chilli sauce. One minor grumble was that the chicken soup wasn't served with this dish. That said the rice was that tasty, it probably didn't need the broth.

sotong sambal

Other dishes included sotong sambal (stir-fried chilli squid), deep fried tofu, and stir-fried gai-lan. These were all OK but you only really come here for the chicken. They also do a crispy fried chicken but we didn't try that. By the way, they also sell jars of the sauces such as ginger paste and chilli sauce (I am now a proud owner of both). Highly recommended but try to get a cabbie who knows his way round Singapore.

The other contender to be Singapore's national dish is chilli crab. Whilst Hainanese chicken rice is a dish that originated from China, chilli crab is an indigenous Singaporean creation. In common with Hong Kong, chefs from China that settled in Singapore utilised Western ingredients to create dishes long before the term 'fusion' ever came into use.

chilli crab

deep-fried mantou

The crab is served with rich gravy made with chilli sauce, garlic, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and good old tomato ketchup. Egg is swirled in at the last minute to make it even richer, this gravy demands to be mopped up with deep-fried mantou (Chinese buns). Mixing my food metaphors, this is the Asian equivalent of soul food.

My Singapore colleagues really know the meaning of hospitality and they took me to the No Signboard Seafood restaurant to sample this dish. This mini-chain has a number of outlets and we pitched up at the Esplanade branch but if possible, try and get to the Geylang branch, which is the most atmospheric.

Their chilli crab is renowned and the meat just eased out of the slightly pre-cracked claw. I loved it and couldn't get enough of the gravy, which I ended up spooning into the shell before eating it with the hai-gou (crab innards).

butter crab

In comparison, the butter crab was a bit boring but it would still better most crabs served in western restaurants. They also serve crab with ginger & spring onion as well as white pepper crab but strangely not the more renowned black pepper crab.

cereal prawns

I also liked the cereal prawns, which is another Singapore creation, big fat prawns deep-fried with cereal. I could pick out cornflakes but maybe they were Frosties, as they were quite sweet. Actually, such is the popularity of this dish, a special cereal meal has been developed to be used in cereal prawns (or so I've been told!).

steamed bamboo clams w/garlic

Many of the dishes here aren't exactly healthy so I was glad that we ordered steamed bamboo clams w/garlic. The just cooked sweet clam meat with garlic was a joy. Whilst crab is their signature dish, they also serve lobster, steamed fish, and a wide range of seafood. Another must visit.

Despite most of Singapore's population being ethnic Chinese, the Cantonese community is relatively small. However their influence on the local food scene is massive with many of the classier eateries being Cantonese.

One such example is Lei Garden, the Singapore outpost of a renowned Hong Kong restaurant group. This elegant restaurant is located in the Chijmes complex, a converted convent. Sometimes food in opulent surroundings can disappoint but the dim sum here didn't. In fact it was amongst the finest I've had in ages. Just look at how translucent the har gau wrappers are.

har gau (prawn dumplings)

black sesame balls

This exceptional quality ran through nearly all of the dim sum with the highlights being soupy Shanghai xiao long bao, silky smooth cheung fun, an amazing gingery cha siu bao filling and last but not least, wonderful black sesame balls. Oh and let's not forget the pork and century egg congee that was so tasty, we ordered an extra bowl. The dim sum menu is a bit on the short side but who cares when it's this good. If only London had a Cantonese restaurant of this quality.

PS: I've also been moonlighting and you can check out my guest post on The Grubworm by clicking here. Don't laugh but it's a recipe.