does food cooked over a

charcoal fire taste better?

picture from national archives of singapore

a lot of people will attest to it: that certain food cooked over a charcoal fire definitely tastes better than if it was cooked in other ways. besides the satay seller, there are still a number of food-vendors that use charcoal to cook their food. think of the sungei road laksa, the clay-pot rice at geylang and clementi, the hokkien mee at the junction of telok kurau and changi roads, some bak kwa stalls and the stalls selling ikan bakar or ikan panggang. will the food taste the same if they switch to using gas or electric grills?

when i was a student, i used to think that charcoal was the local name for coal, the substance that is mined. coal is a readily combustile black or brownish black sedimentary rock found in the earth whereas charcoal is usually made from the stems of trees. this website gives a good and comprehensive account of how charcoal is made from the mangrove tree, specifically, the bakau minyak.

actually, any variety of natural wood can be used to create charcoal. hardwood charcoal is preferred for cooking.

if the charcoal is not fully dried - the one that is slightly brownish black in colour - it will release more smoke when burned.

nowadays, we do not use charcoal in our kitchens. some do use it once in a while, like when they are brewing some herbal concoction or when cooking dumplings during the dragon boat festival or baking love letters for the lunar new year.

i think most of our charcoal comes from indonesia. the picture above (3rd) shows one of the rare shops in singapore that sells charcoal only. each time, we needed to buy lots of charcoal for a bbq in the camp, we would go to this shop on serangoon road.

if you buy your charcoal from the supermarkets or shops for your bbq, it can come in two forms - lump charcoal and charcoal briquettes. from the serangoon road's shop, you get lump charcoal but those that come in sealed packets are usually charcoal briquettes.

short trip (1) - kuching

kuching, the capital city of sarawak, has always been an hour flight from singapore. however, with the advent of budget airlines, it now seems nearer, more affordable and convenient to visit this place in east malaysia, which is just a hop away. to make sure that you will have a pleasant and an enjoyable visit, it is best to do some homework to find out more about the place before embarking on the trip.

we should not assume that things and systems will be the same. in kuching, for example, you can hardly flag down a taxi on the street. it is not that there are no taxis in kuching; there are, but they are usually stationed outside the main hotels and the airport. the bus service is also not as frequent and the network is not as well connected as ours.

if you are planning a weekend trip, i would suggest you do the kuching heritage walk around the waterfront, take a 50-sen sampan ride across the sarawak river to kampong boyan and enjoy some of the local delicacies.



in a previous posting, i have mentioned some of the food unique to kuching. i realise that you also need to tell readers where to find the food. so, in this post, i am going to introduce some of these makan places. after my last visit, someone asked if i had eaten seafood at topspot. i told him i had been to the spot but i went there only to see the food.

topspot is located on the sixth level of a car-park complex next to the standard chartered bank and two blocks away from the 5-star hilton hotel. this place is popular with both locals and tourists. when you are there, you should try the midin with belachan or garlic, bamboo clams, black pepper crabs and the giant prawns.

another place listed in the official travel brochure as a top place to go for local cuisine is the lao ya keng hawker centre. it is located on carpenter street, just opposite the huang thian siang temple, a teochew temple dating back to the 19th century. the food centre can get quite crowded from lunch time onwards.

if you want to try the sarawak laksa, kway chap and pork porridge, you have to be there in the morning. other recommended dishes are kolo mee, yong tau foo and the satay. the sarawak variety of laksa is different from ours.

when you are in kuching, you have to try the local teh-c peng special. it is quite distinctive. there are three distinct layers - the layer of tea floating on top, in the middle is the layer of evaporated milk and at the base, a layer of gula melaka. the drink is available from the drinks stall at the same (lau ya keng) hawker centre.

in kuching, every coffee shop seems to offer kolo mee, laksa and tomato mee/kueh tiaw. if you stay near the waterfront, you should have no problem accessing the two makan places i have mentioned. if your stay is at harbour view hotel (rm$175/night), which i did on my last visit, there is a popular makan shop called the green hill corner on the row as the hotel. the beef noodle/kway teow is usually sold out by noon.

another popular makan place is the song kheng hai food court located in the padungan area, a mere 15 minutes walk from the main bazaar area. most people go there for the local snacks and drinks including the teh c peng special.

if, like some sarawakians and even singaporeans, you want to 'tar pau' the kolo mee, try getting it from this stall along jalan palm. the stall is located in 'sister coffee shop'. they have had so many requests for 'take-away' that they know exactly how to pack the food for you.

bringing other food back? how about sarawak pepper and the kek lapis? you can get sarawak pepper and kek (kueh) lapis from the many souvenir shops along the main bazaar. there are also some shops on the other side of the river which sell this local delight.

one local told me that the only 'souvenir' worth buying at the touristy stretch of main bazaar is the pepper.

another thing you can do, if you are there on a weekend, is to visit the very popular sunday market at jalan sartok. although it is called 'the sunday market', a better time to visit the market is on saturday evening. this market is about 25 minutes' walk from the harbour view hotel.

huat kway (prosperity cake)

i bought this huat kway (prosperity cake) for $1.40. in those kampong days, most chinese hokkiens made their own huat kway at home. these days, they are manufactured in flatted factories, like those at woodlands link block 15 and gourmet east kitchen at bedok north st 5. sales of these cakes is very good, especially on the 1st and 15th days of the lunar calendar and during the chinese festivals.

i used to watch my mother make bigger ones to be offered to the gods - the more important the god, the bigger the kway. she would use the round, bamboo tray, lined with grease paper (or bread paper) to steam the huat kway. she would hand-beat the flour mixed with dissolved brown sugar - which she called 'black sugar'.



the huat kway would be only considered a success when the top cracked open. so, when she was in the process of making and steaming the cake, we could not mention anything related to the splitting of the cake, otherwise we would be blamed if it turned out rounded. she would use a burning joss-stick to estimate the steaming time. however, she would still stick a chopstick into the cake to check if it was properly cooked. if the dough still stuck to the chopstick, then she would prolong the steaming time by a few minutes.



today, i experimented with making my own huat kway. the ingredients were few and simple. i used self-raising flour, brown sugar and water. instead of using firewood to heat the kwali filled with water and topped with a cover, i used the three-tier electric steamer. as i did not have any bamboo trays, i used whatever holders i could find. i lined the side with grease paper.

beginning of fishhead curry








i have mentioned in an earlier posting that my moving around all over the island has lead me to uncover 'new' things. in fact, since my retirement i have made a lot of 'discoveries'. for example, i have learnt a lot about the flora and fauna that i come across during my nature walks, so much so that i have been approached to co-author a book on common trees in singapore. i have also come to realise that in spite of our short history, we are rich in heritage.

of course, you do not have to be a retiree to learn new things but somehow when your mind is not pre-occupied with work, you are able to see things in a refreshing new light.

last week while exploring the race course road area and after talking to some of my old friends, i have found out something about the beginning of the fishhead curry dish.

muthu's curry restaurant is synonymous with this very popular indian dish. in fact, muthu's has won accolades for having the best fishhead curry award. i used to think that the first owner of muthu's must have been the pioneer of this dish. that was before one of my friends told me that when the shop first opened shop along one of the lanes off race course road, it sold the traditional south indian dishes. he used to pay between $1.20 and $1.50 for his lunch which consisted of rice, vegetables and a portion of either fish or chicken.

according to another friend, the pioneer of fishhead curry was the owner of gomez curry, which preceded muthu's curry, apollo banana leaf and our makan place. however, there was something else surprising that he told me. the chef who cooked this dish at its restaurant at selegie house was a hainanese man. he used to eat there when gomez curry, which started at sophia road, opened up a branch. i did a check on the internet and it proved that my friend was correct.

fish head curry was first concocted in a small restaurant in tank road about 30 years ago (in 2002). the brainchild of an indian man, gomez, the head of the fish was used to suit the local taste. fish head was not particularly an indian delicacy. understanding it to be a favourite with the chinese, gomez tried this dish to please his chinese customers. since then, the dish has become a hit in singapore and across the causeway. (extracted from singapore infopedia)

across the causeway, in johor bahru, there is a restaurant - kim loong restaurant on jalan wong ah fook - that is popular for its fishhead curry. each time i walk past the shop, it is crowded with customers.

i just hope that another country will not try and claim this dish as one of their traditional dishes.

foochow food in kuching

it was not difficult to persuade my regular walking kaki to join me on a makan trip to kuching, the capital of sarawak. (however, i have not been successful in getting him to visit melbourne with me.) the purpose of our 4-day trip was to savour some local dishes like kolo mee, sarawak laksa and midin. when one of my walking kakis from the balestier group heard that i was going for kolo mee, she cautioned me about the amount of msg they add to the dish.

my friend's wife was especially interested in foochow food. we could have opted for a 3-day stay but the return fare was cheaper on the 4th day. it was rm$120 on monday but rm$30 on the next day. that is the advantage of being retired: your plan can be so flexible.

my friend's wife is a foochow. i think she came from sitiawan in perak, west malaysia. she was keen on visiting kuching because she had heard that the foochow was the predominant chinese dialect group in sarawak. this is true, especially in bintulu and sibu. my relative was telling us that if you were a non-chinese working in bintulu, you could be forgiven for thinking that all chinese names began with 'wong'.

the first foochow dish we tried in kuching was the chow chai beehoon. normally, the beehoon used for this dish is the thicker type (chor beehoon) but this particular stall uses the variety that we are more familiar with. i did not taste the soup but my friends like it. the chow chai (preserved vegetable) gives it a sweet and sour taste.




for lunch, we were taken to another coffeeshop in the bdc area. we ordered three types of foochow food - kampua mee, ginger chicken and foochow hamburgers. each hamburger costs rm$0.70. the crispy hamburger was stuffed with minced meat. unlike the kampua mee, you will not find this dish at every foochow stall. as my friend observed rightly, every coffee-shop in kuching seems to have a stall selling foochow food.



the kampua mee - a foochow speciality - is quite similar to the hakka's (or teochew's?) kolo mee. the ingredients used in kampua mee include lard, msg, spring onion and fried shallots. according to another friend, who hails from sibu, the best kampua mee can be found in sibu, not kuching.



while my friends had the msg-laden kampua mee, i went for the ginger wine chicken. in singapore, this dish is called the hong zhao ji (red wine chicken). i like the kuching version because the soup was not so bloody (in colour) and the ginger, not the wine, was the dominant taste.

i think kuchingnites do not like their balls to be too big. one foochow dish - which is popular in s'pore - does not seem to be available in kuching. i am referring to the over-sized foochow fishballs. my friend from sibu told me i would be able to get it from some stalls in sibu; not every stall sells this dish.

we were so well treated and feasted by my in-laws in kuching that the three of us spent slightly over rm$150 during our stay in kuching.

footnote: in singapore, my travelling companions (to kuching) usually go to roxy square basement ii for foochow food.

suck harder! and it will come out

this trip to kuching, i ate something which i have not had for about 50 years. i ate siput sedut at a seafood restaurant in kuching. in singapore, we call these snails chut-chut. the last time i ate these river or mangrove snails was under the wayang stage at lorong sinaran when i was about 12 years old. those days, these snails must have been quite cheap. i remember we had to use the bent end of a safety pin to dig out the flesh.

in kuching, they call these snails 'the midnight kiss'. when my host started making smooching noises while sucking at the meat, i realise that the name was quite appropriate. initially, i had some problem getting at the flesh. my friend chided me for my lack of experience in kissing. she said the right way was to suck at the tail end before working on the front. i was able to eat more after receiving that instruction.

another person who was eating with us commented that cleaning and preparing the snails for the dining table entails a lot of work. it is so tedious that she seldom wants to cook this dish. i remember in those bygone days the chut-chut was not cooked this way. after cleaning and knocking off the tail end, the chut-chut was simply dumped into a pot of boiling water.

i remember the hawker who sold these snails also sold clams, vinegar crabs and some big mangrove snails which were as long as 8cm.

kung pao chicken

before i came over to australia on march 1, i tried my hand at cooking kung pao chicken twice at home in singapore. i first enjoyed kungpao chicken at this food stall in an industrial canteen at quality road, somewhere in jurong. it is called seng's kitchen and it is the only stall (in that canteen) that stays open in the night because its regular customers come from all over singapore.

i found out that this dish is quite easy to prepare. the ingredients, other than the chicken, include dried chilli, ginger, garlic, black sauce, light sauce, oyster sauce, sugar and corn starch. one other essential ingredient, which i do not add to it, is vinegar. i was told that it is the vinegar that gives it its subtle taste. i do not like vinegar and cashew nuts, which some people also add to the dish.

for the chicken, i use breast meat or the boneless part of the chicken. you can cut it into cubes but i prefer to cut it into strips. i use pepper, sesame oil and hua tiao wine to marinate the chicken.

the dried chilli has to be de-seeded and cut into about 3cm long. the ginger - which cost $26 a kilo in melbourne - is cut into strips. the garlic is chopped until it is quite fine.

for the sauce, i use one spoonful of black sauce, one spoonful of light sauce and one spoonful of oyster sauce. i also add two spoonfuls of water before adding the corn starch. you have to stir the mixture till the corn starch dissolves in the sauce.

first, fry the chicken pieces until they are almost cooked. remove from pan. fried the garlic, ginger and dried chilli until fragrant. then throw in the chicken. finally, pour in the sauce.

you can substitute the chicken with other meat. i have also tried cooking kung pao pork.

beetroot and apple juice

of late, i have taken to drinking beetroot and apple juice. to make the juice, i use two medium sized beetroot and 5 apples. you may also add two small carrots to the other two fruits to make it the abc juice... a for apple, b for beetroot and c for carrot.




first, i will wash the beetroot and the apples. for the beetroot, i use the peeler to remove the skin. after removing the skin, i will cut the beetroot into small pieces. in the case of the apples, i will first cut it into four parts, remove the core and further slice it into smaller pieces to fit into the juicer.




the maroon colour of the beetroot appears to over-ride all the other colours - the green colour of the apple and the orange of the carrot. the colour even overpowers the colour of your liquid and solid waste.

drinking beetroot juice is believed to be a simple way to maintain a healthy cardiovascular system. it can drastically reduce high blood pressure. what's more, its nutritious juice is renowned for being a great liver cleanser. it is often advisable to use just a small amount of this "powerful tonic" mixed with other vegetable or fruit juices so as not to push the body into detoxifying too quickly.

beetroot is also believed to regenerate the cells of the immune system, build and purify the blood and improve the circulation. it is ideal for alkalizing the system through its rich sources of caroteniods, flavanoids, betacyanin, folate, silica, vitamins and other essential minerals for the human body.

the fruit juice should be consumed fresh and neat, without adding any ice cubes to it. the 2 beetroot and 5 apples are sufficient to provide two small glasses of juice.

kuthu prata - southern indian carrot cake?

this morning, i drove victor samuel to sethi's place, parked my car outside sethi's house and took bus service 166 at 9.05 a.m. - so as to enjoy the senior citizen's concession - to tekka. victor had been insistent on us trying this dish called kuthu prata. i asked him if the word should be 'putu', he said 'no'. 'kuthu' is a tamil word, not the malay word for 'hair mite'.

it is actually a normal prata, with some vegetables and an egg thrown in. the circular prata is cut into bits and after some frying with the added ingredients, the result is kuthu prata. it looks and tastes a bit like the chinese white carrot cake. all three of us finished our respective plateful of kuthu prata.

we were also introduced to a new blend of tea - at least to me and sethi - today. it is the punjabi masala tea. the tea comes with a mixture of spices such as cardamon, cloves, cinamon and fennel seeds. according to the owner of the place - gholia's village - if you want more 'power' in your tea, add star anise. i think it was powerful enough for us.

gholia's village is at the junction of chander road and kerbau road, very near to the northern indian hindu temple which i blogged about not long ago.

the verdict for both kuthu prata and punjabi masala tea: no need to die to try and you won't regret it.

making the dough and the pizza

so, you have made the pizza paste, what do you do with it? actually, it can be used as a pasta for spaghetti. but, when i cook spaghetti, i rather get the pasta that comes in a bottle....from the supermarket.

okay, i will now go on to write about making the dough and then the pizza. most people use plain flour but i prefer to use bread flour for the dough. nowadays, i use the instant dry yeast - the granules that come in a small packet. in the past, i would buy a block from cold storage supermarket and cut it to the right size.

while most people leave the smooth, shiny and elastic dough to rise for about two hours - until it is double its original size - i let mine rise for about eight hours or more. i leave it in a glass bowl and cover the top with a layer of clear polyethylene. this acts as a seal and prevents it from coming into contact with the outside air.

my one lot will give me between 24 and 30 pizzas, depending on the thickness of the crust. if i make the crust thinner, then i get more.

the first layer on the crust is finely chopped garlic soaked in olive oil. next comes the paste and then the rest of the ingredients which include cut big onion slices, pepperoni, ham, bacon, sausage, button mushroom and olive. the toppings will be mozarella cheese followed by grated pamesan cheese.

cooking my own pizza paste

most people when they make their own pizzas choose to use commercially produced pizza paste. i prefer to cook my own paste. when the price of tomatoes is low, like now - it is $1.00 per kilogram - it is time for me to make pizza paste. whenever my daughters saw me preparing the paste, they would know that it would be pizza eating time soon.


in the past, i would buy about 4 kilograms of tomatoes; this time around, i bought only 2 kilos. i will leave the tomotoes to ripen fully before i start cooking them.


first, i will boil a pot or container of water to blanch the tomotoes. this is to facilitate the removal of the skin. when the skin of the tomatoes in the boiling water starts to wrinkle or crack, i will fish it out and dump it into a basin of tap water.

after removing the skin - which is quite an easy task - i will cut the tomato into four parts.

next, i will chop some cloves of garlic and some onions. i do not cut them too fine. i cut about 10 cloves of garlic and 2 onions. i fry the chopped onions, first, in olive oil, and then the garlic bits. this will be followed by the tomatoes. the rest of the ingredients that are added are basil leaves, bay leaves and a small can of tomato puree. other ingredients added later but not shown here include salt, sugar and a dash of black pepper.

when it starts to boil, i will turn down the flame to let it simmer for about an hour. at first, the paste will be quite watery but at the end of the one hour of simmering, it will become quite dry.

the moringa tree - the drumstick tree

when it comes to eating and people mention drumsticks, they are usually referring to the thighs of the chicken but when my sri lankan friend mentions drumsticks, he usually looks at a particular tree. today, as we were walking towards casuarina curry restaurant, we walked past two of these trees. i decided to take some pictures and to find out more about the drumstick tree.

it seems the moringa tree is a very useful tree and nearly all parts of it can be eaten. the leaves, the pods and the roots are eaten; the flowers are loved by bees; and the seeds (from the mature pods) are powdered and used to purify water.

from what i have gathered, the drumstick leaves are much nutritious and beneficial to our health than the pods or, for that matter, any other vegetable. it is a great source of vitamin a and when raw, vitamin c. they are also a good source of b vitamins and among plants, they are about the best source of minerals. the calcium content is very high for a plant and the content of iron is also very substantial. they are excellent as a source of protein. moreover, the fat and carbohydrates content is low.

the drumstick leaves taste bitter when eaten raw. so, it is either stir fried with other ingredients or cooked with water to remove the bitter taste. two drumstick leaves recipes i found on the internet are here and here.

the green pods are called the drumsticks. when they turn brown, as on the above tree, they look even more like drumsticks. according to my indian friends, they prefer to cook them when they are (immature) green, when they taste like asparagus.

the drumsticks are usually cooked together with other vegetables or as dalcha, when they are cooked in curry with other vegetables and bits of meat. drumsticks are available at mustafa samsuddin supermarket, sheng siong supermarket and grocery stalls at serangoon road.

at sheng siong supermarket, the drumsticks are sold at $6.00 a kilo. for $3.00, you should be able to get 6 drumsticks. i did not come across the leaves but understand that the leaves are usually more readily available compared to the pods.

buying direct from factory outlets

in tuesday's straits times, there was a feature report about food factories at woodlands drawing more customers during these hard times because of the lower prices. actually, those who live or work in woodlands and those who know about these bargains have been patronising these food factories at woodlands terrace, woodlands link and woodlands loop since 2005. most have started sourcing for bargains at the woodlands loop factory outlets even before that.

i have been buying ice-cream from foodedge gourmet located at woodlands terrace. they even have a mailing list and will keep you informed of special offers, which are usually available towards the end of each month.

fassler is the place to go to if you want to buy salmon and other imported fish. the cold room is so cold that they provide jackets for their customers.

we have been buying fishballs from housen seafood enterprise at level 1 block 15 even earlier, before 2005. then the plain fishballs were priced at 10 cents each and the fishballs with bits of vegetables and other meat were going for 20 cents each. they also sell uncooked fishballs and a variety of fish cakes. over the years, they have added other items like fried chicken wings, fried wanton and ngoh hiang. the fishballs and fish cakes are on sale after 4.00 p.m. they are not open on sundays.

if you want to buy breakfast snacks like carrot cake (the whole piece type), soon kueh and other kuehs, you have to go to block 15 in the later part of the evening, say between 7.00 p.m. and 8.00 p.m. to get them.

another outlet that we often go to buy foodstuff is j&c food industrial on level 3 of the same building (block 15). i go there to buy cakes, cream puffs and sometimes, pineapple tarts. i like their chocolate, butter and banana cakes. they used to charge 35 cents a piece. today, it is $4.00 for a box of ten pieces.

also on level 3 is janur food industry where i went once with my former colleague to buy halal satay. there are at least two outlets selling pork satay on the other levels. both the halal and non-halal satays are priced at about 25 cents a stick.

i usually go to fragrance just before the lunar new year to buy 'bak kwa' and other tit-bits. my friend goes to cecilia minced and dried pork food trading on level 2 at block 15 to buy the same stuff - bak kwa.

there are a few other factories along the same stretch of road that welcome walk-in customers, like the two above. over at woodlands link, which is parallel to woodlands terrace, you can buy fresh pastries from polar. there is also one food factory at the end of this road where i sometimes go to buy otah and chinese-style nasi lemak.

another place which we go to to buy from the food factories is located at bedok north avenue 4. it is called the gourmet east kitchen. i think this place is popular with people who live in the eastern part of singapore. we go there to buy chee cheong fun, chwee kueh, yam cake and pumpkin cake. i have blogged about the chee cheong fun here. my friend, nah, gets his kueh pie tee shells from red lips at gourmet east kitchen.

yet another place we go to to get foodstuff at bargain prices is ben's food at fishery port. it is open on saturdays for two hours only. across the road from ben's is song fish dealer where we buy our frozen cod fish in cube sizes and other seafood products.