Four Peranakan Cuisine Dishes

Buah Keluak

Chap Chye

Pork Trotters in Salted Vegetable

Singgang

Daniel Feiler and I had lunch at Folklore, Chef Damien DaSilva's new restaurant serving a mix of Peranakan and Eurasian cuisine. Damien is a chef who won't compromise on quality of ingredients and the traditional way of cooking these rare heritage dishes. All the four dishes came out well, and it's probably the best Peranakan food in Singapore currently.

Clockwise from top left corner:

1. Nonya Chap Chye. Despite a lowly name which in Chinese just means mixed vegetables, its a distinctive dish, made tasty by the pork belly, prawns, black fungus and tiger lily buds.

2. A twist on the traditional Duck in Salted Vegetable Soup, using Pork Trotters instead. And made even more delicious by a dash of Armagnac brandy, and lime juice.

3. Looking like Caviar, a paste made from the contents of the Buah Keluak a fruit with a slightly bitter, rich, black-colored flesh. An icon of Peranakan cuisine.

4. The Eurasian style Singgang. A rare dish that I finally get to taste. Deboned Wolf-Herring in a mild curry-like paste.

Needless to say, I took home the unfinished Buah Keluak and Singgang. For my breakfast tomorrow to be eaten with freshly toasted white bread.