Hello Makan Kakis!
The Hainanese community is renowned for its role in Singapore’s food history. Many immigrants found a niche in the service sector as restaurant cooks and domestic help in wealthy European and Peranakan households, eventually setting up their own restaurants in the post-War years. One such Hainanese-owned restaurant was a surprise for me though, because it’s renowned for Peranakan cuisine.
- READ: the full story at CNA Lifestyle.
- WATCH: Denise &Chef Melvyn’s visit to Guan Hoe Soon on Mediacorp GOLD905’s FB Page.
- LISTEN:
Chef Melvyn Lee and I made a delicious discovery of Guan Hoe Soon’s Hainanese heritage. Founded in 1953 by Yap Chee Quee and allegedly the oldest of its kind in Singapore, the restaurant is still family owned and run by the third generation – granddaughter Jenny Yap, and her husband (head chef) Raymond Ou Yong.
Before we got down to eating, Chef Melvyn and I visited Chef Raymond in the Guan Hoe Soon kitchen to help prepare our Ayam Buah Keluak. He put us to work, scooping out the contents of keluak nuts with the handle of a spoon. The poisonous nut is also infamously laborious to prepare and requires an experienced touch to rid it of toxins. The traditional process of treating the nuts is to bury them in volcanic soil for three days.
Once we had harvested enough “black gold”, we mixed in fish and pork that had been minced in-house, then stuffed the paste back into clean buah keluak shells. Cooked together with chicken pieces and a specially blended rempah (spice paste) the iconic Peranakan dish was a study in complexity. The buah keluak lent a deep, pungent earthiness to the gravy, its mysterious flavours fully absorbed by savoury, tender chicken pieces. Combined with lush smears of the buah keluak stuffing on white rice, my 5 senses were sent into overdrive. I especially liked that the gravy was lighter and tangier than I was used to. Tamarind and lemongrass gave it a refreshing zing to balance the bittersweet, almost muddy taste of the buah keluak.
Chef Melvyn and I swiftly powered through a feast of other dishes including udang nanas pedas, Nyonya chap chye, otak-otak and, my favourite, bakwan kepiting. Named for its ingredients – bakwan means meatball in Chinese and kepiting means crab in Malay – the hand-shaped spheres of minced pork and crab meat were served in a piping hot broth. The crab was sweet and fresh, whilst a generous fat to meat ratio gave the bakwan a luscious texture. Slivers of shitake mushroom, carrot and bamboo shoots added bite to the tender meatballs.
Chef Melvyn was partial to the chap chye because he remembers meals at Guan Hoe Soon with his grandfather. The braised vegetable stew of cabbage, beancurd skin, shitake and wood ear mushrooms with lots of tau cheo (salted, fermented soya bean paste) contained the most potent ingredient of all: Nostalgia. “My grandpa always ordered the chap chye. That’s his favourite. Being a kid last time, tasting it, and now being a grown man, it tastes the same. So this is a very powerful thing with food, that you can bring somebody back in time,” he said.
The cendol (chen dool on GuanHoe Soon’s menu) was outstanding. Bright green squiggles of pandan-perfumed cendol (rice flour jellies) and plump red beans were laced with thick coconut cream, then topped with a globe of crushed ice. Top quality gula melaka that had been boiled for eight hours was the crowning touch. Deep caramel sweetness mingled with hints of salt from the coconut cream for a decadent end to our meal.
- TASTE:
Guan Hoe Soon
Address: 200 Joo Chiat Road #01-01 S(427471)
Open for lunch daily: 11am – 3pm; for dinner Mon – Fri 5.30pm – 9pm, Weekends 5 – 9pm.
Makan Kakis on Gold 905 