Sandra Leong, from snack-food chain Outdated Chang Kee, helps elevate the profile of Singaporean meals within the UK. Right here, she shares fond recollections and her recipe for conventional rice dish, nasi lemak.
See Sandra’s nasi lemak recipe.
Sandra Leong’s favorite dish
The exact origin of the curry puff is misplaced to historical past. However when Sandra Leong determined to introduce London to actual Singaporean meals, she felt this curried snack – presumably a Nineteenth-century try by Hainanese cooks to recreate a rooster pasty for his or her British colonial employers – had severe crossover potential.
She was proper. Working with Singaporean snack- meals chain, Outdated Chang Kee, Sandra opened its first London department in 2018 and people curry puffs flew out, alongside curries, nasi lemak and laksa. Native workplace employees cherished: “Singapore’s Cornish pasty.”
None of this was on the agenda when Sandra first arrived within the UK. A former journalist, she got here to London to do a grasp’s in political communications (“It’s fully wasted,” she laughs, “my poor dad and mom!”), however, after settling right here, she grew to become more and more pissed off on the lack of identifiably Singaporean meals.
“From an outsiders’ view, Singaporean-slash-Malaysian meals is kind of comparable,” says the 40-year-old, Outdated Chang Kee’s UK director, “however if you happen to’re Singaporean, there are distinct variations. We’re pleased with our delicacies. No-one had caught a flag down saying, ‘that is Singaporean meals’. That’s the way it began. Being homesick, not having the ability to discover meals I appreciated.
“Singapore is a melting pot of ethnicities, Chinese language, Malay, Indian, European, and nowhere is that extra seen than meals. House cooking would possibly lean to your personal ethnicity however, consuming out, typically at hawker centres (markets of specialist meals stalls), one in all our defining traits is we are likely to eat dishes from completely different cultures. Singaporeans embrace all the things, from Indian curries to rooster chop – fried rooster with chips and gravy – often made by Hainanese cooks who run what Singapore calls Western meals stalls.
Extra like this
“Sometimes – and this is the reason I battle with cereal – I’d eat a scorching breakfast out in Singapore. Perhaps Chinese language noodles, roti prata with curry or kaya toast with coconut-pandan jam. That’s served with actually runny boiled eggs damaged right into a saucer with soy sauce and white pepper that you simply then dip the toast into.
“Mid-morning, at work, you would possibly exit for a scorching snack, like a curry puff or a fish ball skewer. Then at lunch you collect your colleagues and go to a hawker market or meals court docket. ‘Financial system rice’, a selection of stir-fried meats, greens, curries and rice for a set worth, is a highly regarded lunch.
“Consuming out is affordable. Financial system rice could be S$5 {dollars}, so £2 or £3, however meals prices are going up and hawker tradition is in danger as a result of folks don’t need to pay extra. A number of hawkers, aunties and uncles as we name them, are older and the following technology don’t need to take over the companies. There’s been plenty of work carried out not too long ago to protect hawker tradition.
“Personally, I’d go dwelling for dinner. My mum labored as a stockbroker however, as soon as the markets closed, she’d come dwelling and cook dinner us a mix of meat, fish and vegetable dishes and a transparent soup. That ‘three dishes, one soup’ model of consuming displays our Chinese language heritage, however the dishes weren’t at all times Chinese language.
“Mum cherished to cook dinner on huge events like Chinese language New 12 months or Christmas, once we’d have 50 folks at our home. We’d have household and mates spherical as soon as every week, too. Mum and pop are huge mahjong gamers, so it will be meals and mahjong until midnight.
“I’m ethnically Chinese language however 1 / 4 Peranakan, which culturally is a mixture of Malay and Chinese language, and my mum’s most well-known dish is a very, actually scorching quintessentially Peranakan pork rib curry. It makes use of Southeast Asian spices with pork, fermented soy beans and tamarind, so the impact is concurrently candy, salty and spicy. That Singaporean basic, Hainanese rooster rice ( juicy poached rooster and rice cooked in rooster inventory and rooster fats with varied condiments), was one other of mum’s favourites, and nasi lemak was a giant celebratory dish.
“A number of international locations declare possession of nasi lemak (discover Sandra’s recipe overleaf) and there’s a pleasant rivalry between Singapore and Malaysia, however not like laksa – Singapore rice noodle laksa has a lighter, coconutty broth – the Malaysian and Singaporean variations of nasi lemak are broadly the identical. Aromatic rice cooked in coconut milk, and lemongrass is the star, with crunchy toppings and sambal. My mum at all times served it with fried rooster.”
Additionally see our fast & spicy nasi goreng recipe.
