Where to find some vanishing foods like putu piring, kueh bong
kong, botok botok ikan, appom and suan pan zi.
Singapore, May 16
2012
Kueh bong kong
(Peranakan)
Author Sharon
Wee’s favourite snack would be kueh bong kong, a Peranakan
concoction of rice flour, coconut milk and gula melaka wrapped and
steamed in a banana leaf.
If she doesn’t
make it herself, she finds a suitable alternative at Glory on East
Coast Road, one of the rare places that still makes the
snack.
The soft,
smooth and sweet dessert is made from an over-50-year old recipe
created by the late mother of one of Glory Catering’s co-owners,
Chin Choon Siang.
Glory now
outsources production so it can be made fresh every morning, but
the recipe and ingredients suppliers have not changed over the
years, and they still insist on using fresh coconut milk (as
opposed to the commercially processed version) in their
recipe.
Glory Catering, 139 East Coast Road: www.glorycatering.com.sg
Botok-botok ikan
(Indonesian)
Malay Heritage cookbook
author Rita Zahara’s late mother made a mean botok-botok but it’s
hard to find a good version these days, although she gets hers from
Rumah Makan Minang in Kandahar Street.
This spicy dish
comprises fish (tenggiri/Spanish mackerel) marinated in chilli
padi, lime leaves, lemon grass, tamarind and other ingredients,
wrapped with a banana leaf and boiled before serving.
According to
stallowner Zulbaidah Binte Marlian, 54, botok-botok ($6 a portion)
can be kept for a few days if refrigerated. In fact, the longer it
is kept, she says, the tastier it becomes.
Botok-botok
ikan was brought to Singapore in the 1940s, by Madam Zulbaidah’s
mother, who taught her the recipe. It can also be found in some
parts of Geylang.
Rumah Makan Minang, 18 Kandahar Street. www.minang.sg
Putu piring
(Malay)
Devagi Sanmugam
loves putu piring – the Malay version of the more common kueh
tutu.
While the
latter is usually made from glutinous rice flour and a variety of
fillings like peanuts or grated coconut, putu piring comprises rice
flour and gula melaka, and is much harder to find in
Singapore.
Hashim Jumaat,
61, makes a living by selling this delicacy ($2 for five) at his
stall on Haig Road.
It was a recipe passed down
in the family since the 1950s, and Hashim himself has been at it
for 18 years.
The recipe and
ingredients have survived the decades, but have been tweaked
somewhat to accommodate more modern cooking forms, from charcoal to
electric.
Haig Road
Hawker Centre, Block 14, #01-08. Tel: 9688-3067
Appom (South
Indian)
Indian
food has a bad reputation for being oily – blame the likes of roti
prata, papadum and vadai.
But chef Damian
d’Silva swears by Muthu Letchmi’s traditional South Indian appom
($1) which she says is cooked with no oil at all.
The batter is a
recipe that came from a long line of ancestors in India, and it
allows the appom to still be crispy just by cooking it with
steam.
The dish is
made using a simple batter of rice flour and old coconut water,
mixed 10 to 12 hours earlier to allow fermentation to take place.
Coconut milk is then added just before the appom is
fried.
Letchmi’s stall
in Ghim Moh Food Centre has been there for 15 years, of which she
spent five perfecting the slightly sourish taste of the appom by
comparing it with the memory of her childhood
breakfasts.
Heaven’s Indian
Curry, unit #01-15, Ghim Moh Food Centre. Open 6am to 1.45pm
daily
Jantung pisang kerabu
(Peranakan)
Literally
translated, Jantung pisang kerabu means “banana heart salad”, a
direct description of what this traditional Peranakan salad is
about.
It is made with
banana “heart” (the white tender part of the flower), lime juice,
sambal belachan, green mango and steamed prawns, among other
ingredients.
Chef d’Silva
recommends the version ($12) at PeraMakan in Keppel Club. The
recipe is from executive chef Kathryn Ho, who learnt to make the
salad from a family recipe passed down over the years.
PeraMakan,
Keppel Club Level 3, or 171 East Coast Road. www.peramakan.com
Devil's curry
(Eurasian)
This distinctively Eurasian dish evolved from “curry debal”, where
debal means leftovers in Kristang.
It was a dish
commonly cooked on Boxing Day, using all the leftovers from
Christmas dinners. Eventually, it became accepted as devil’s curry,
or curry devil, because of how spicy it is.
There are
already only a handful of Eurasian restaurants in Singapore, but of
these few, a decent version of devil’s curry ($18) can be found at
Quentin’s, located in the Eurasian Community House
itself.
The dish is
made from a recipe that came from the ancestors of owner Quentin
Pereira, 40, who admits that many variations to the recipes do
exist. There are five must-haves, however – ginger, mustard seeds,
onions, chilli and vinegar.
Quentin’s, 139
Ceylon Road, Eurasian Community House. www.quentins.com.sg.
Suan pan zi
(Hakka)
Abacus, or
better known as suan pan zi, is a traditionally Hakka dish made of
yam discs, carrots, mushrooms and shrimp.
Hard to find in
Singapore, it is even more surprising that one of the best-tasting
ones can be found in Bukit Merah, made by a Hokkien
family.
Poh Cheu, a
stall named after the father of current owner Esther Ang, 42, is
famous mainly for its handmade multi-flavoured ang ku
kueh.
But its abacus
($2 to $7) is rather popular as well, seeing that it gets sold out
by afternoon, despite being made fresh every morning.
It was Ang’s
mother who developed the recipe over two decades ago, after
watching how other people made it and making her own
improvements.
According to
Ang, her mother loved the dish very much, but thought she could do
a better job of making it with pure yam instead of the
commonly-used blend of yam and flour.
Poh Cheu, Blk
127, Bukit Merah Lane 1. Tel: 6276-2287 www.sbestfood.com/pohcheu.htm
Putu Piring, SHIOK! Sedap! Yummy yummy ....
! 
