ALL THINGS BIG AND SMALL 2.0

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 Pe...

One of the joys of living in Singapore is the wide variety of food that is readily available because of our multiracial society. It is not at all extraordinary for one to have Roti Prata for breakfast [Indian pancake eaten by dipping into a curry of lentils, vegetables and potatoes]; Nasi Padang for lunch [Malay rice with an array of many small side-dishes of meat, fish, vegetables], Chinese Claypot Chicken for dinner [ chicken, Chinese sausages, salted fish, and mushrooms cooked together in a claypot]; and Frog congee [porridge] as a late night supper. But one of the rarer cuisines of Singapore is Peranakan cuisine Peranakan is the Malay word for " descendants". Peranakan Chinese are the descendants of Chinese immigrants to the Malay Peninsula and Singapore, who came without their wives, but eventually married the local Malay women, and partially adopted their customs, cuisine and dressing. The Peranakan , also known as Baba [male] Nonya [female] or Straits Chinese deve...