Singaporean food is not always maanghang,” says Hung Kwang Tan of Nasi Lemak, the new Asian restaurant at 165 Thompson’s Square in Quezon City, along Tomas Morato corner Roces Avenue. “Eighty percent of Singaporeans are Chinese, so their food is characterized by what the Chinese people eat, which is carefully prepared, delicious and not spicy, with the exception of about 10 to 15 percent have the influence of the Malays, Indians, Indonesians, and Thai. ”
Born in Penang , “a food haven,” Tan says, he was brought up on good food. While studying in the UK , he worked during the summer holidays in an Italian restaurant, where he learned all he could in the kitchen from the Italian owner. He loves to travel and has visited 31 countries. Back in Singapore, he met Cora Lelina, a Filipina who had worked for 20 years in Singapore for a European paper distribution tycoon. Last year, they decided to bring “authentic Singaporean cuisine” to the Philippines . And so, Nasi Lemak opened its doors and welcomed its first customers on September 15, 2007.
Tan had originally thought of calling the restaurant “Singapore, Singapore, ” but after several passes with the DTI, they finally got an approval for the name “Nasi Lemak,” which is the name of a dish commonly sold in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. It literally means “rice in cream,” alluding to the cooking process whereby the rice is soaked in coconut cream and steamed with pandan leaves, which gives it its distinctive fragrance. Nasi Lemak is served with kuning, a type of scad fish with a yellow stripe on its body. The local variety is called salay salay. “Without the fish, it is not authentic,” Tan says. “The fish is marinated slightly with turmeric for half an hour to an hour. It is then deep-fried until it is crispy. It is served with cucumber, fried or sliced hard-boiled egg, and fried chicken wings on the side.” Traditionally a breakfast dish, it is now served and eaten anytime of the day.
Another typical breakfast dish is the bak kut teh, literally, “pork bone tea,” a light Chinese herbal soup, which is cooked by simmering meaty pork ribs in a broth of herbs and spices until it is tender and the soup is rich with the pork rib taste. “Some have it for breakfast while others have it during lunch or enjoy it with their dinner,” Tan says. “At Brandeemer, a restaurant in Singapore famous for its bak kut teh, customers are knownto wait in queue for as long as half an hour just to get in.”
“We don’t invent our dishes,” Tan remarks. “We bring dishes from Singapore and duplicate it here.” One such dish is laksa, said to be Singapore’s national dish. “We sourced our recipe from one of the original Singapore Katong Laksa man, Terry Leong, who has been selling Singapore laksa for over 20 years,” Tan reveals. “Laksa is a spicy coconut based soup,” Tan explains. The spicy flavor comes from a light blend of coriander, turmeric, and chili. The creamy noodle soup is topped with prawns or shredded chicken, bean sprouts, and basil leaves. It is not sour, unlike what we might be more familiar with, which is the Penang version, made with clearfish-based sour broth.
At Nasi Lemak, the popular Hainanese chicken is served with a dip made of soy sauce and caramelized sugar. “It is not your usual ginger sauce,” Tan says, although if that is what you prefer, they have that, too. The soy sauce dip, which is not too salty and just a bit sweetish, enhances the natural subtle flavor of the juicy and tender boiled chicken. “Too much flavor is unnatural,” Tan remarks.
A favorite Peranakan (part Chinese, part Malay) starter dish is kueh pai ti, which looks like a sushi or a spring roll cut in half. The crispy shell is packed with thin strips of turnips, carrots, and lettuce, and topped with a prawn. Dab a dollop of sweet chili sauce on top, pop the whole thing in your mouth, and delight in the interplay of flavors and textures — the crunchy kueh pai ti shell, the refreshing lettuce, turnips and carrots, and the firm prawn flesh.
The stir-fried kangkong with blachan looked very much like our own kangkong with bagoong and tasted almost like it except for the blachan which, unlike our typical bagoong, did not have an overpowering salty taste. Blachan is a pungent, dark-brown dried shrimp paste used in very small amounts as flavoring, added while sauteing the onions and garlic. The kangkong dish went very well with the Malaysian sambal fish. The deep-fried alumahan (dried striped mackerel) was stuffed with sambal blachan, which is a bit hotter, and garnished with sweet soy sauce, to balance the flavor. The stuffing, which contained buah keras, a kind of nut similar to the macadamia nut, used as a thickening agent, also kept the fish flesh moist and flavorful. “This is my mother’s recipe,” Tan says, “and I have been eating this dish since I was five years old.” To complete the meal, there was the nasi goreng, listed in the menu as Malay fried rice, which outsells the Chinese fried rice,” Tan observes.
“We cook the dishes as you order,” Tan says, “except for those dishes that take hours to cook, like the honey glazed pork spare ribs, which are baked in the oven for four hours, until the meat practically falls off the bones.” Another dish, the curry chicken, is allowed to simmer for half an hour. Tan says the secret lies in the cooking technique called “tumis,” which is a Malay term that refers to “the act of frying a spice paste until it is properly caramelized.” This is how the perfect curry is made.
A dish from the famous Ju-Heng Restaurant in Ju Chiat Road in Singapore is Japanese tofu with prawns. “It’s a weight watcher’s delight,” Tan says, and goes on to share the recipe. “You start with good chicken stock. Cut the Japanese tofu, which comes in the form of a sausage, into wheels, 1 cm. thick. Dip in beaten egg seasoned with white pepper and touch of soy sauce. Deep-fry in high heat. Put aside. Saute garlic and onion until transparent. Thicken chicken stock with potato or corn starch. Season with salt and pepper. Drop egg in stock and stir, not too fast. Put back fried Japanese tofu and prawns. Add a drop of sesame oil, a touch of oyster sauce and hoisin sauce, and a tinge of sao sing wine.” Although the dish may look soupy, it is not a soup. The delicate flavor of tofu complements the subtle flavor of the prawns and the creamy texture of the scrambled egg drop.
Your foray into Singaporean cuisine would not be complete without the famous Singapore chili crab, like those served at the Jumbo seafood restaurant in Singapore, or the black peppered crab, a popular variation. This time, the hot and spicy flavors kick in. So, a sweet dessert is the perfect foil. Tan recommends onde onde, which looks very much like our pichi pichi, but is not the same, Tan insists. It is served, still hot, so let it cool for about three minutes, Tan advises. Take a ball, made from boiled glutinous rice and tapioca flour and rolled in grated coconut, but don’t bite. Let it rest on your tongue, then slowly squeeze it inside your mouth and savor the sweet nectar as it oozes out from its palm sugar filling. Now, your food adventure into authentic Singaporean cuisine is complete.
In the galaxy of eateries along Tomas Morato, Quezon City ’s celebrated restaurant row, Nasi Lemak emerges, like a rising star.
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For reservations and inquiries, call Nasi Lemak at 376-6108.