Master – The Changing Face Of The Singaporean Hawker

Marina Bay Sands stands tall in the humid heat haze of Singapore. It is one of the great temples of mammon, dripping in designer, extravagance and steel. It is a retail theme park complete with venetian gondolas, an ice skating rink, rows of ATM’s, celebrity chef outlets, organic botox pushers and art installation window displays. You will find most shops have at least five shop assistants per counter. They look bored out of their air conditioned minds, clutching Louis Vuitton, and a middle distance stare. Price per piece so exorbitant, one sale would surely cover staff wages for a fortnight.

Marina Bay Sands is typical of most department stores. Designed to confuse and dazzle into parting with your hard earned. The only way in and out to my destination is via the inner boardwalks of opulence. I want to see the much talked about hawker food court. It’s not your regular Singaporean haunt. It’s way too shiny, up market to really be a traditional hawker centre. It’s neat, expensive and compared to the prices and decor of its older less glamorous brothers – the traditional hawker stall – out of reach to most locals.

Hawker food centres were the places where people would congregate, families share meals and business deals crunched. From what I can gather, Singaporian’s eat out…a lot! Belly’s full, they interact. Hawker stalls are equivalent in social importance as any community meeting place. It is their church, their local pub. One of the more colourful centres for sustenance is the Singaporean icon, Maxwell Road Food Centre. Here you will always find something to eat, the later the better, the stories unfold. It used to be dirty, loud and I loved it! But times are changing, a new generation is taking over and you can’t deny their fun. Now stalls are merited letters in accordance to the new standards imposed and although a friendly reminder is often needed to stop any unpleasantness, Singapore street hawkers have never poisoned this cast iron belly. It is the ones following HACCP or revised stricter controls that upset my equilibrium and stomach, too busy filling out forms and forgetting they left out the chicken. So, with this in mind, I needed to check out Singaporean food heritage’s new up market competition. Traditional costumes in a very modern setting gives this food centre a quaint Singapore feel, proud of its traditions but really this is big business with plastic tables and chairs.  You won’t find guys in singlets and shorts serving you Tiger in iced mugs and dark soy carrot cake, oyster omelette or hot sweet goreng pisang

Hawker Icon – Maxwell Rd

Icy Tiger heat soother

– but you will find the many stars of old Singapore hawker tradition. The only missing ingredient in this experience of Singaporean food is the heat, humidity and the smell, which is what you want to compliment the dish. All sensory seems to be visual and you easily get sucked into the circus. Steaming bamboo towers promising tiny bites of dim sum to dip into your chilli, an old guy looks out of place, a sad longing to be sitting reading the paper, chatting between orders to loyal customers, chillin’ between busy periods. But this is the modern world and as he stirs a pot of the heady medicinal pepperiness of bak kut teh looking out at the lunch marauders with their Prada and Gucci shopping bags, trying to look interested, he doesn’t fool me. This clientelle stopping for a quick bite, is the closest they would normally get to experience this cuisine. There are so many stalls, making one’s decision even harder but that is like any food court in the world. It’s a religious experience as you visit each one like the stations of the cross, or art exhibit – stopping to read, look at the image and move to the next. Malayan Nyonya (one of my passions) cookery get’s a look in also, and it should. Though being more entrenched in the traditions of the Malay peninsula, Singapore has a huge Malay core  – the result of Chinese men marrying Malay locals and pining for their mother’s cooking. There’s the sensational Chicken Rice that is different everywhere you go (it’s the condiments and soup that make all the difference), the wonderful Nasi Lemak and it’s pandan subtlety, coconut rice, ikan bilis and crunchy chicken wing. You’ll also find some of the famed Makansutra legends here –  humble hawker beginnings now franchised all over the world.

Dim Sum Fun

Bak kut teh – Pork Tea & Rice

I needed a lift (and I wanted the old guy to not be so bored) so went for the Bak Kut Teh – pork bone soup (or tea) and rice and at $9.50 was expensive (the same dish in Changi Village, half the price and twice as tasty – though this was excellent it just lacked atmosphere) I read a piece in the Strait Times that had a quote from the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan. He stated that “there is a real possibility that Singapore may one day lose its rich hawker heritage if the next generation of Singaporean hawkers do not replace our current veterans”. He went on to say  they were having trouble finding people who would continue the hawker food traditions.  I understand the next generation want the shiny brights of chain restaurants as well, but an evolution has occurred,  though far less romantic than watching the old bumboats from the riverbank or the charcoal pits which housed The Satay Club, just south of the Padang, a bustling, hot, noisy, cheap night of hawker memories, I’m glad it exists. “It’s easy to build (new hawker) centres,” he said. “But the key challenge is to find enough Singaporeans who’d be willing to enter this profession, which is a difficult, challenging one.” Dr Balakrishnan added that the other key challenge was to persuade veteran hawkers to pass on their trade knowledge and know-how to, by teaching interested younger hawkers. Suggestions from participants included according star hawkers the same accolades and status given to top chefs – as they do in Japan, lauded and admired. This might be all well and good, but ultimately real hawker traditions will ultimately manifest themselves out of the city’s clutches and return to heartland that value a shared,  inexpensive pleasure of local flavours and homestyle cooking.

word and images Abbie Foxton

Eat Me Art – Rothko

Mark Rothko photograph by Henry Elkan 1953

http://www.markrothko.org/about-mark-rothko/today’s inspiration No. 61 Rust And Blue 1953

purple carrot, beetroot and red cabbage – images by Abbie Foxton

 

Haute Headhunters

The D’yak Kuching Sarawak

By abbiefoxton

abbiefoxton.com

 

Indie is a cool umbrella to sit under, especially in the zapping heat haze of Borneo. Edgy and different, never becoming part of day to day vernacular. A truly Indie food experience is getting few and far between in our homogenised world. There has been uprisings of singular originality, but anything really popular gets sucked in, bought up and sold out. Food trends come and go, all that’s left of the macaroon, whoopie and cupcake kitsch of the last few years are merely the crumbs on our chins and a generation of children nagging to lick the coloured icing – buyers regret spurted from many a hungry mouth. Guerilla food vans lurk in lanes teasing via social media to try their pulled armadillo in brioche. The  ‘food van’ concept is tres cool and have experienced some exceptional signature dishes over the years. In my travels, a truly original food experience is craved, and here in food mad Malaysia those cravings are met. When I say ‘food experience’ I don’t mean endangered species or macho rites of passage, one just needs a break from the processed world that we are sadly duplicating – that repeated name brand ad nauseam of alpha cities.

Kuching in Sarawak Malaysia is definitely not an alpha city by any means. The hawker stalls are still a vibrant part of daily life. Ramly burgers, charcoal cooked satay, steamed buns from roadside stalls are still easy to find.  Overheard conversations about food in English are just as regular in Bahasa, as my rudimentary ear picks up on key words and I see the passion on their faces. It is a capital that bustles with business, and tourism, and besides real local food centres and hawkers, I wanted to see what the more upmarket Kuching had to offer.  One place I found would have any Michelin starry enthusiast swoon. The restaurant and its cuisine so unique, the host boasts that there are ‘no other on the planet’, and I believe him – this food seems from another galaxy, flavour combinations of the extreme kind. Being a river city, seafood is paramount – done simply, cooked light. Local river fish Tilapia Lempis, gently steamed with wild ginger flower and tumeric leaf is typical Dayak style, earthy and subtly sweet. Sweet potato leaves stirfried with coconut, garlic, chillies and belacan all texture, crunch and zing. Bamboo shoots  thinly sliced with homemade chilli, simple & perfect. Their philosophy  is local and seasonal,  often running out of a dish, but who cares when your in Kuching. They will always have something else for you to share. It is the side dishes and vegetables that can wig out your taste buds and sometimes you really don’t want to find out what’s in it. Durian & Anchovy, two of the most pungent ingredients on the planet battle with chilli and sends your head spinning,  tongue salivating  – it is so wrong, but so right and attacks all the senses. The best part of this restaurant is the owner and his family story. The tradition, love and respect he has in sharing this and the food he grew up with and although you will find this hospitality in many restaurants in Kuching and it’s environs, it’s the balance of modernity and tradition that sits so well in this part of the jungle.