A taste of home

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For the brothers who've left, hope this helps a little.

Singaporean cuisine is making inroads all over the world in places ranging from Perth in Australia to Dordrecht in the Netherlands
January 17, 2013
Fancy some kaya toast in New York, or sambal scallops in Copenhagen? Or perhaps you would prefer prata in Perth, accompanied by some piping hot teh tarik?
Singapore food is making inroads into every corner of the globe, spearheaded by home-grown restaurateurs who are dishing out authentic fare, confident in its quality and taste. Among them is Mr Lawrence Reutens, 41, chef and owner of Masak in New York, which opened in September last year.
Asked if Masak's menu has been tweaked to accommodate a Western palate, the Singaporean declares that such a move would be "condescending".
He notes: "So many of our Western diners have been to Singapore or South-east Asia and even if they haven't, they are extremely knowledgeable and have amazing palates."
Over in Copenhagen, Peranakan restaurant Nam Nam has been making waves. It is opened by a Danish-Singaporean couple, Mr Michael Larsen, 60, and his Singaporean wife Tin Pang-Larsen, 61, in collaboration with Danish celebrity chef Claus Meyer.
Meyer is the co-owner of Noma, crowned the world's best restaurant in the San Pellegrino World's Best Restaurant list for the past three years. The couple used to own another Peranakan restaurant, Nams Kuisine, which was located outside Copenhagen. Mr Larsen is a long-time convert to the virtues of Peranakan food. He can still remember the day, decades ago, when his then-future wife first took him home for dinner. He recalls: "Tin's mother cooked prawn sambal for me, and it was fantastic. I was completely blown away."

Shiok! Singapore Kitchen is run by Mr Dennis Lim and his mother Rosalind. The eatery is known for its chicken rice and laksa.
California, January 17, 2013
DENNIS LIM, 44
Shiok! Singapore Kitchen,
1137 Chestnut Street, Menlo Park,
California, United States,
tel: (1-650)- 838-9448
A restaurant brought Singaporean Dennis Lim and his family to the United States.
It all started with his sister, Maggie, who married an American and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Her American friends loved the former marketing professional's Peranakan cooking and suggested she opened a restaurant.
So she started Shiok! 12 years ago.
Mr Lim says of its name: "It's like we say this food is shiok, that food is shiok. So people will know we are a Singaporean restaurant."
Along the way, her parents moved over from Singapore to help run the place.
So did Mr Lim, a former IT professional, who was living in Australia and Micronesia with his Micronesian wife. The couple met at university in New Zealand and have four daughters, aged between 18 months and 10 years old.
Shiok! is known for its laksa, char kway teow and chicken rice - all recipes from Mr Lim's Peranakan grandmother. Zi char favourites such as chilli crab and cereal prawns are also on the menu.
Items such as char kway teow, nasi lemak and laksa cost US$7.95 for lunch.
It was recently voted the top Singaporean restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area by Singapore Connect, a group of Singaporeans living there.

Mr Lim's mother, Rosalind, is the head chef and she oversees a team of Micronesian cooks, who are all close family friends.
He says: "We taught the Micronesians how to cook and supervised them closely. You will be surprised how well they handle the wok."
His mother, who is 65, returns to Singapore a few times a year to buy ingredients, such as candlenuts, gula melaka and coffee powder (to serve Singapore kopitiam style coffee).
They also grow some of their ingredients, such as kaffir lime, laksa and curry leaves.
Most of their customers are residents nearby, from Asians to Caucasians, who are familiar with Singapore fare.
The food also draws Singaporeans living in other parts of the US who are in town for business.
Mr Lim says: "I think what binds Singaporeans is food. They are always very happy to eat Singaporean food."
Business is "steady", he says, and he enjoys the flexibility of being his own boss. Although he has been away for more than a decade, he still considers Singapore home.
He says: "At the back of our minds, we still think we want to go home to Singapore."

 

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Big Apple

At Masak in East Village in New York City, Mr Lawrence Reutens serves up dishes with Singaporean flavour such as grilled baby octopus with sambal peach glaze.
New York, January 17, 2013
LAWRENCE REUTENS, 41
Masak,
432 East 13th Street,
New York,
tel: +1-212-260-6740,
masaknyc.com
But for a twist of fate, Masak, a restaurant in New York City, might have ended up another victim of superstorm Sandy, which devastated parts of the North-east United States in late October.
The restaurant, located in New York's East Village, narrowly escaped flood damage, says chef-owner Lawrence Reutens, 41.
"The fire department was making rescues, going down the street in a boat only a block away during the worst of it, so we were extremely lucky," he says.
Masak did not escape unscathed though. A truck-load of perishable food had to be tossed due to the loss of power.
"It was heartbreaking," adds Mr Reutens.
But there was an upside. He took advantage of the "cleansing" experience of emptying the fridge, to add new items to the menu such as coconut laksa.
Initially open only for dinner six days a week, Masak now also serves weekend brunch, with items such as Rendang Burger and kaya toast. An average meal there costs US$35 to US$40 (S$43 to S$49).
The restaurant, which has a staff of 15, has been favourably reviewed by media outlets such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
But Mr Reutens says: "The first six months were definitely a struggle. We're a small restaurant with a very specific focus, so appealing to a wide audience has definitely been a challenge."
The Singaporean used to work in the financial sector here, but quit to join his banker wife Sylvia, in her mid-30s, when she was posted to New York in 2004. The couple have a four-year-old son.
With time to kill while waiting for a work visa, Mr Reutens, who grew up fascinated by what his grandmothers and mother did in the kitchen, decided to go to cooking school at the Institute of Culinary Education.
He recalls: "Cooking was a serious hobby, but I had never considered it as a serious career option.
"Being in Singapore, you're always taught to go to work in that suit and earn the big bucks, and being a chef is definitely not about that."
Eight years on, and armed with work experience at restaurants such as the award-winning Aquavit in New York, his passion for cooking led him to start the restaurant.
At Masak, which means "to cook" in Malay, Asian customers gravitate towards the fish curry and oxtail noodles, while Caucasian customers tend to order the chicken and pork dishes.
Mr Reutens says many of the dishes have their origins in his Eurasian roots. "Dishes such as Devil Curry and Feng, and also dishes that are not even Eurasian but which I associate with family, like Babi Assam, because they make it all the time," he says. "Also, the Devil Chicken I serve is based on the Devil Curry that my grandmother used to make."
He adds: "It's so cliched to hear 'cook for yourself' but it's so true. It's amazing to create a dish and realise how much of yourself is in it. It's also tremendously rewarding to see someone enjoy food that is very personal to me."
While getting hold of ingredients such as fresh pandan leaves, fresh coconut and popiah skins is difficult, he says he has only had to substitute an ingredient in a dish once - and that was on request.
He explains: "I substituted kale for kangkong, because a customer requested it when we used to do kangkong belacan. It was so good I made the change permanent.
"Kangkong is easily found but kale is delicious too."

 

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Dubai

As an expatriate housewife, Madam Zawahir Ali supplied kueh to Dubai hotels before opening her restaurant in 2002.
Dubai, January 17, 2013
ZAWAHIR ALI, 53
Singapore Deli Restaurant,
Al Shumookh Building,
Al Karama,
P.O. Box 49612,
Dubai, the United Arab Emirates,
tel: +971-439-66885
The former hotel front desk officer is no stranger to cooking in large quantities, having prepared meals for her 13 siblings while growing up in Singapore.
So when her husband, Mr Ahmad Fuad Abubakar, 58, a systems designer in a petroleum firm, was posted to work in Dubai in 1985, the expatriate housewife turned her passion for cooking into a job.
She started off supplying kueh on an ad-hoc basis to Dubai hotels and later opened the Singapore Deli Restaurant in 2002, to give the growing number of Singaporeans and other Asians working there a taste of home.
The mother of two daughters, aged 16 and 23, said: "Some Singaporeans say they feel at home here as they have local food."
Singapore Deli is known for its Malay and Indonesian dishes such as nasi lemak, lontong and ayam panggang, which cost between 28 and 30 dirhams (S$9.30 and S$10).
Singaporeans such as engineer Jumadi Husani, 39, love her lontong, rendang and ayam panggang.
Mr Jumadi, who has been working in Dubai for the last four years and visits Singapore Deli at least twice a month, says: "It's a place where we can meet other Singaporeans and enjoy authentic Singapore delicacies."
Madam Zawahir started off working the woks but she has since trained four Indonesian cooks to do the job. She said: "Anyone can cook but that doesn't mean you can manage a restaurant.
"You have to maintain quality all the time. Business is good and it's growing."

 

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Perth

Mr Gopi Seenivasagam moved to Perth 20 years ago and worked as a chef there before striking out on his own.
Perth, January 17, 2013
GOPI SEENIVASAGAM, 50
Gopi Curry Leaf,
Shop 4, Rostrata Shopping Centre,
corner of Rostrata and Glenmoy Avenue,
Willetton WA, 6155, Australia,
tel: +61-08-9259-4000
Tucked away in a corner of a suburban shopping mall in Perth is a little slice of Singapore.
The four-year-old, 24-seater Gopi Curry Leaf serves familiar Indian dishes such as murtabak, dhal and roti prata.
"I open at 7.30am, as customers like to come for breakfast, just like in a kopitiam, and the prata is made fresh on the spot," says chef-owner Gopi Seenivasagam, 50. He is married to Shila Devi, 43, who helps to run the restaurant. They have four children aged five to 13.
Those living here will probably baulk at the prices, but they are considered reasonable for Australia. An egg prata costs A$4.50 (S$5.70), two pieces of plain prata goes for A$6, and both murtabak and nasi lemak cost A$6.50 a serving.
Mr Seenivasagam, who moved to Perth 20 years ago, was trained as a chef at the Holiday Inn Park View in Singapore. He worked as a chef at an Indian restaurant in the Australian city before eventually striking out on his own.
He explains: "I worked for other people for many years, so it was time to open my own business, as I had all the skills and experience already."
Ask if it is difficult to get customers, he says the location of the restaurant has been essential to business. There are high schools and primary schools nearby, while universities such as Curtin and Murdoch are 20 minutes away by car.
Many of the customers at Gopi Curry Leaf are Singaporean and Malaysian students looking for a taste of home.
Their favourite dishes? Prata, of course, as well as fish and chicken curry.
But Mr Seenivasagam has no shortage of Australian customers too. "They like butter chicken and lamb korma, because those are mild. They are getting used to prata, because a lot of them go on holiday and are familiar with it."
He adds that it is not difficult to find ingredients for his dishes: "Perth is very multicultural and has everything. Canningvale Market has a lot of Asian vendors, and there are a lot of Asian stores around too."

 

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Netherlands

Mr Robert Khee left Singapore for the Netherlands as a teenager in 1967 to work for his father's friend
Dordrecht, The Netherlands, January 17, 2013
ROBERT KHEE, 60
Toko Singapura,
Rivierenplein 16,
3313 HD Dordrecht, The Netherlands,
tel: +31-786-162-597
The primary school drop-out left Singapore as a teenager in 1967 to work for his father's friend, who had opened a Chinese restaurant in the Netherlands.
Mr Robert Khee said in Hokkien: "I was lazy and I didn't want to study so I went to work. I was not afraid of going overseas, even though I spoke no Dutch then."
He started off washing plates and slowly worked his way up the food chain to waiter, then chef.
Along the way, his friends introduced him to a fellow Singaporean, Madam Ang Gek Tin. The couple dated long distance before she moved over to marry him.
Fifteen years ago, he struck out on his own and bought over a Malaysian restaurant, Langkawi Baru, in the city of Dordrecht in Western Netherlands.
He offered Singaporean and Indonesian dishes such as beef rendang, satay and ayam panggang.
Two years ago, he sold that shop because his wife, now 60, was not in the best of health. The couple have a son and a daughter, both in their 30s and in banking. They all live in the Netherlands.
But bored by retirement, he started Toko Singapura in June selling pretty much the same fare - all recipes from his Peranakan grandmother. Prices range from 3.80 euros (S$6.10) for a bowl of Soto Ayam to 12.50 euros for a plate of sambal prawns. "No one is selling such food here so I thought I would try," he said. "Business is not bad."
Toko means shop in Malay and usually refers to Asian food stores in the Netherlands. Singapura indicates Mr Khee's Singapore roots.
He says he has no problems getting spices for his dishes, though he has to make his food less spicy to cater to the Dutch tastebuds. The Dutch, he says, loves his sambal kangkong, ayam panggang and satay.
There are also three Singaporean families living nearby, who would request familiar favourites such as chicken rice and laksa.
His wife helps him with the cooking at the cafe. Mr Khee, who has been living in the Netherlands for 45 years and loves living in a country with four seasons, still retains his Singapore citizenship.
He flies back to see his 87-year-old mother regularly.
He says: "I consider myself half-Singaporean and half-Dutch."

 

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Copenhagen

The menu at Nam Nam includes dishes such as chilli mussels and black pepper crayfish.
Copenhagen, January 17, 2013
MICHAEL LARSEN, 60, AND TIN PANG-LARSEN, 61
Nam Nam,
Vesterbrogade 9,
Copenhagen Denmark,
tel: +45-4191-9898,
www.restaurantnamnam.dk (only in Danish)
Back in 1991, Danish-Singaporean couple Michael Larsen and Tin Pang-Larsen started a Peranakan restaurant in Copenhagen called Nams Kuisine.
They ended up doing a lot more talking than cooking, recalls Ms Pang-Larsen, 61. The couple have been based in the Danish capital since 1973.
"That was a very hard time, because we had to educate people and tell them what we're cooking and what we put in the food. People didn't know what Peranakan culture was," she says.

While the restaurant closed in 2005, the couple have started a new venture -with the backing of their old friend, Danish celebrity chef Claus Meyer. He is the co-owner of Noma, named the world's best restaurant in Restaurant magazine's annual list of the World's 50 Best Restaurants, for three years running.
The 90-seater Nam Nam, which opened in May this year and serves Peranakan food, has found an appreciative audience among Danes and Asians. Its popularity has been partially helped by the influx of Thai and Viet restaurants in the city.
The average price of a meal at Nam Nam is 300 to 400 kroner (S$65 to S$87). Among the hot favourites on the menu are chilli mussels, and a version of chilli crab which has "a bit more zest than the Singapore version", says Mr Larsen.
But the need to educate has not quite gone away, says Ms Pang-Larsen: "It is still not very familiar to people, so there are stories in the menu that tell people about Peranakan culture."
The cooking staff includes a Venezuelan head chef, a Malaysian and a Bangladeshi, who have all undergone cooking classes with the couple, who have two adult children.
Mr Larsen, who admits that the couple's attention to detail sometimes drives people "crazy", says: "We try to impart to them the soul of the food. I think we are getting it to what we want it to be."
His wife adds that basic ingredients such as fresh turmeric, lemongrass and even belacan are easily found in the Danish capital. But ingredients such as gula melaka must still be imported from Singapore and Malaysia.
Ms Pang-Larsen says: "In the beginning, I did the achar and the popiah, but we have been doing cooking classes with the cooks for six months. The cooks are very young and have lots of energy, so we don't need to be there ourselves."

Source of all the above posts - The Straits Times.

 

[QXD]

I used to swear by Gopi's prata being even better then in SG and despite their prices, I could never resist the smell of their prata wafting in the air.

But...they started to shrink their pratas...I thought...n'eh mind...

And then their teh became diluted, milk in the teh was so little it tasted sour...I still said...n'eh mind

Then...they raised prices, n'eh mind...

Finally...when they watered down their curry so much it tasted like curry powder in warm salt water...

I gave up on them.

Perhaps they were better off catering to the whites who would not have the same expectations as a Singaporean.

That was about 2 years ago now. It's not my intention to diss a fellow overseas Singaporean (albeit an ex-Singaporean), but when they have to resort to so many cut corners in so short a time span, it's really disappointing. Hopefully someone who knows him will read this, I was a pretty prominent regular then, 1 murturbak, 2 kosong and 1 egg + 2 teh tarik was my standard breakfast fare every Saturday after sending my kids to Chung Hwa in Parkwood back then.


Thankfully, shortly after, rumours had it that another Ah Neh shop opened in Spencer's Village next to the dim sum shop...I dropped by one day and ordered a simple kosong just to try them out.

Once those curry dipped pratas landed on my taste buds, I was in love again.

Perth

Mr Gopi Seenivasagam moved to Perth 20 years ago and worked as a chef there before striking out on his own.
Perth, January 17, 2013
GOPI SEENIVASAGAM, 50
Gopi Curry Leaf,
Shop 4, Rostrata Shopping Centre,
corner of Rostrata and Glenmoy Avenue,
Willetton WA, 6155, Australia,
tel: +61-08-9259-4000
Tucked away in a corner of a suburban shopping mall in Perth is a little slice of Singapore.
The four-year-old, 24-seater Gopi Curry Leaf serves familiar Indian dishes such as murtabak, dhal and roti prata.
"I open at 7.30am, as customers like to come for breakfast, just like in a kopitiam, and the prata is made fresh on the spot," says chef-owner Gopi Seenivasagam, 50. He is married to Shila Devi, 43, who helps to run the restaurant. They have four children aged five to 13.
Those living here will probably baulk at the prices, but they are considered reasonable for Australia. An egg prata costs A$4.50 (S$5.70), two pieces of plain prata goes for A$6, and both murtabak and nasi lemak cost A$6.50 a serving.

 

[eatshitndie]

shiok in menlo park is ok, but nothing to die for. weekend hours are not friendly to those who would like to patronize it. it's not a good sign if weekend traffic is near non-existent.