Good home cooking - Little Nonya Express

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 good meal and friendly service.

Pie tee and love letter makers, and assorted cooking equipment

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

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

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

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.