The concept of taking our local soulful street favourites into a hotel’s open kitchen buffet eatery is not even a topic mentioned in passing anymore, even when folks talk about food, while, well, over makan, in a hotel’s open kitchen buffet café. The Straits Kitchen at the Grand Hyatt been there, did that and so did the glassed kitchens at the Ellenborough Market Café in the Swissotel Merchant Court. The folks at the Line buffet in Shangri La hotel, has one of the more stunning food temple set up for such eat-like-Armageddon mastication devotees. You can see the warmed up chefs shuffling about shoveling woks of pepper crayfish and chilli crabs just so you can practice, on home soil, a sub culture of our national pastime- stacking the platter to stuff a tummy way bigger than they imagine it to be. Wasteful. Actually, the best of such open kitchen eateries with no unnecessary frills with the most reasonable charges and specialized senior cooks and where you pay only for what you eat, is well, the hawker center. Heck, they even let you tapau and doggie bag whatever you want.

Rare: Tapas-style Hainanese Curry Rice with crispy pork chop

So when the food soldiers at It’s all about Taste, the local makan café in the recently opened Ibis Hotel at Bencoolen Street asked if I can contribute my two cents worth of opinions to their menu and operations, I initially smiled and turned away. “How could I come up with something to beat a food court or a hawker center for local makan here?” I mused to myself. And in the course of the exploratory discourse, they mentioned “tapas, hawker food.” Then, all my cynical notions about why there should not be another wannabe eatery touting complex local grub done by some fast fading executive chef, quickly disintergrated. In its wake, I pictured a platter, with a collection of die hard local favourites served in small bite sized portions, plated quaintly and prettily. “Yes, that’s what we’re planning to do.”, clarified the hotel’s GM, Mr Puneet Dhawan, as if reading my thoughts.

“And customers can choose whatever from the menu” I asked,
“Yes” he assured.
“Expensive or not?” I asked the next local style piercing question.
“Very affordable, based on our homework research” he confidently revealed.

And next, I was assisting them in crafting a die hard truly Singapore menu, so local that some items are not even commonly found in such eateries- like Hainanese curry rice with bread crumbed pork chops and kangkong cuttlefish. We finally worked on a top 20 local faves menu. For S$15++, they let you have a choice of any three items, served in larger than tapas portions and plated on three fancy side plates. You can choose the four or five dish sets if you like but they can fill up two diners.

How authentic, good or not? I thought I’ll leave you the answer in some of Chef Casey’ recipe and not Mr Puneet’s opinion. Better still, go down and devour this experience for yourself, because the presentation is very “lecheh”.

Chicken Rice for 4-5

Put 1 bundle of pandan leaves, 2 whole garlic and 2 ginger slices to 5 litres of boiling water and bring to boil for about 5 minutes. Then add 1 large fresh whole chicken. Cover and blanch for 45 minutes over medium fire. To prepare the rice, wash 1kg of rice and bring to boil with 1.2litres of chicken stock and add another bundle of pandan leaves, 1 stalk of sliced lemongrass and 3 ginger slices and let boil and add in 1 tsp salt and 2 tsp sugar. Fry 2 diced whole garlic and 5 diced whole shallot until golden brown, combine all rice preparation ingredients and steam for 1 hour. Garnish with cucumber, chilli sauce, black soya sauce and ginger. Serve chopped chicken over steaming rice and devour.

Hokkien Prawn Mee

Heat up 2 tbsp oil (lard, if desired) and add chopped garlic and crack an egg in. Add 20g yellow Hokkien mee, 20g thick beehoon, 10g thin beehoon and fry quickly for 5 seconds, follow by adding prawns, squid rings, pork belly, fish cake, beansprout, ku chye, 50g prawn stock and cook over medium to high heat. Season with fish sauce, sugar and white pepper powder. Simmer until sauce thickens. Enjoyed best with generous amounts of Sambal Chilli and calamansi lime.

Chilli Crab

Heat up 1 tbsp oil in a saucepan and add 5g garlic paste, 3g lemongrass paste, 3g ginger paste and fry till fragrant. Then gradually add 1 tbsp tomato ketchup, 2 tbsp chilli sauce, 100ml prawn stock and 5g sambal chilli. Season with salt and sugar and add in 2 crab claws and simmer and stir fry for a few minutes. Add 1 egg and allow sauce to thicken. Garnish with curry leave, red chilli padi and sprinkle some sesame seeds. Crispy Mantou buns is optional.