tok panjang at the soul kitchen

sometimes, a cliché, clichéd it may be (heh heh), best captures the spirit of things. as the old adage goes, "the more you know, the more you realise how much you don't know." i'm constantly finding myself agreeing with this statement; it amazes me sometimes how insulated i am from things not within my comfort zone.

food is one major case-in-point. living in (granted, pseudo-)cosmopolitan singapore, reputed to be a melting pot of different cultures, i'm nevertheless stumped when it comes to knowledge of non-singaporean-chinese diets. gross generalisations aside (north indian spicy-creamy versus south indian *chot-watery, or malay food equals fried, spicy, and fried again etc.), i simply have very little knowledge of the fine details of the different cuisines available here, partly attributable to my mum's less-than-adventurous taste-buds.

my (ongoing) education in food really started in university, with a bit more moolah to burn, and where i "re-discovered" j; together, we'd gallivant the hills of restaurants, searching out good food, going to places that the old me would never have thought of entering. since then, i've discovered some really great places for food, and am able to qualify my likes for certain foods other than the prosaic "nice" and "interesting".

that said, there are some places that j simply refuses to go to; garibaldi (though j's more lenient with the sister-bistros) comes to mind, together with **the soul kitchen, with the seabass-not-cod fiasco. seeing that these places have been consistently getting good reviews, i've been waiting for a chance to try out their food.

one such opportunity came recently, with the singapore history museum organising a "peranakan tok panjang", or a long table feast, in conjunction with the singapore food festival. held at the soul kitchen, it also allowed me to finally try out a representative peranakan food repertoire, prior understanding being limited to bengawan solo kuehs and a single sample of ayam buah keluak at a friend's birthday party.

the event was held in the second storey private dining room of the soul kitchen, above the main restaurant space. d and i sat near one end on the long table, together with an adorable teochew couple and two friends who graduated from the university of canberra.



the menu for the night was, in order served:

sambal buah keluak with minced pork
babi assam (pork in tamarind sauce)
sambal belimbling with prawns
hati babi bungkus (pork liver balls)
nonya chap chye
garam assam fish fillet
curry kapitan (curry chicken penang style)
her peow soup
sambal udang (sambal prawns)
itek sioh (braised duck)
durian pengat (warm durian paste)
kueh bengkah

out of the twelve dishes, i greatly enjoyed the first four, as well as the soup, and the last dish. the rest were rather delicious too; nothing too mediocre about them.

the sambal buah keluak with minced pork (pictured) was served unusually, for buah keluak is usually served still in shell. this was one dish that went really well with rice; the latter acting as a canvas for the grainy, nutty, spicy-chot paste. furthermore, it was the kind of spicy-chot that does not singe you immediately, but builds up gradually, thus allowing the flavours to come through before the tongue goes slightly numb; somewhat akin to dried chilies.

the babi assam (fatty pork with a tamarind sauce) was another sumptious dish, the slight hint of sourness undercutting the fattiness of the 三层肉.

like the kuah beluak, the sambal belimbing with prawns was served in a small pot. belimbing is the name of a small, sourish fruit; the result was a sourish-sweet, creamy paste, studded with shrimp and (if my memory serves me correctly) thin onion strands. again, this went really well with the rice.

the hati babi bungkus, or pork liver balls, was my favourite dish that night. firm and chewy, the texture was clearly due to the presence of actual liver and pork, and not (as i feared) a pounded, or even worse, machine-mixed meat paste a-la-commercial-[insert meat name]balls. flavour too was good: nicely savoury, balanced with the side of pickled vegetables.

the her peow soup was something i did not expect to really find interesting, although i do like fish maw and cabbage soup in general. this version, though, besides the sweetness from the cabbage and the lightly-infused fish maw taste, had an undertone of pig's intestines, providing a base which somehow anchored the soup really well, and which really shone through the more one drinks the soup. the pieces of intestine in the soup were also not rubbery or hard from overcooking.

the lash dish, kueh bengkah, was simply, a revelation. after the richness of the previous dishes (taste-wise as well as visually), the familiar-looking yellow kueh looked rather sad, and kind of naked, especially when next to the other dessert dish, the durian pengat (warm durian paste with pieces of assorted fruit/vegetables - think sweet potato rather than watermelon). however, since i don't eat durian (and a taste of the pengat reinforced that), i tried a bite of the kueh bengkah. and another bite. and another piece. i probably would have finished the whole tray of the kueh bengkah if not for the fact that i just finished a ten-course meal, and am simply too stuffed to eat any more. the kueh was simply divine: the browned "skin" more crunchy than usual, serving as a counterpoint for the more sticky body of the kueh. the taste was also more sublime than the usual ones found in confectioneries, not so in-the-face, and certainly less "artificial".

the dishes i didn't quite care for were the sambal udang (sambal prawns) and the itek sioh (braised duck). perhaps i was already too full at that point, and really required a stroke of genius to raise my marginal utility (like the kueh bengkah), but i thought the prawns, swimming in a sea of red sambal, were a tad hard texture-wise. the sambal, though scary-looking, lacked a punch that was in the earlier dishes; perhaps i just don't care for sweetish sambal. the duck made no impression on me other than the fact that it tasted like duck, though the disclaimer made earlier probably contributed to my indifference.

all in all, it was a highly satisfying meal, although one full of guilt as well, what with all the fat and all. still, it was well worth the price, as well as the sacrificed dessert at pierside with j, hk, g, yq later in the evening.




* chot - a term j, d and i came up with after a meal at chat masala, meaning chili-hot, rather than temperature-hot (note: chotness does not necessarily equate to spiciness, and vice-versa).

** another one bites the dust; sigh...