“Friends can be brothers, but brothers cannot be friends”, was what a popular roti prata master once told me on my Makansutra television show when I probed about his heritage. He had some disagreements with his brother-partner over a decade ago in their Jalan Kayu eatery and decided to move on and set up his own humble little coffeshop stall in the north east area of Singapore. Of course the word “disagreements” was uttered in a calm tone to belie the complexity of the situation. He offered his side of the story and I decided not to sensationalise it, because I was there for the makan and not to air their soiled social linens. I have seen many similar situations where family businesses get split down the middle and ripped at the sides due to “business disagreements”. Often, when blood lines get mixed with bottom lines, a natural dividing line forms.

So when the main morning paper recently aired the perceived family “disagreements” between the brothers that ran the iconic Sanur Indonesian restaurants that led to its closure, I sighed with a “ here we go again”. Sure, the writer employed the usual responsible both-sides-of-the-story reporting technique, but truth is, we will never know the real story. But I had to throw my spanner into this work, not because there could be something delicious and juicy brewing in the family, but because Sanur is such an icon in Singapore and I had to know if that makan legacy will wither. While it led to the current exit of that Sanur restaurant name in Singapore, it also led to the birth of yet another Indonesia eatery in its wake.

Pepes comes with more contemporary interior and sans the musky jaded smell and look of the former Sanur.

Pepes restaurant arose in that chaos of opportunity and now occupies that very same spot that Sanur used to be. “It was business, Sanur could not meet the conditions and deadline in renewing its lease a few months ago, so I decided to create Pepes.”, explain Ms Hau Yin Sau, the chirpy and soft spoken wife of Tom Hau, one half of the brothers team that ran Sanur. “We had to keep busy and make a living and Tom, at 55, was not old enough to retire fully.”, and Yin Sau also revealed that she also runs the Ochacha tea bar in Paragon, a detox tea bar concept she first started two decades ago in Kuala Lumpur. So she made a deliberate attempt to shift away from that old jaded, musky look and feel of the old Sanur and jazzed up Pepes with a funkier look and chirpier music, and, a brand new menu. Even the old super popular Tauhu Telor ($12.50) was new- it came cubed. How they made it is a science, and how I still enjoyed after all these years, is a joy. The soft fluffy crispiness of the eggs was all still there and the tofu chunks inside was well sweetened and spiced up by the special kicap manis sauce. The crunchy shreds of cucumber was a fitting finishing touch. The other dish that regulars and even new customers instinctively must have, is the Cumi Bakar ($14.95), succulently soft grilled squid in a spiced and sweetened Javanese style sauce. One new and very simple, yet addictive vegetarian dish was the Sambal Terong ($9.95), a normal looking sambal eggplant that came with a special touch- a chunk of whisker thin and crispy lotus root chips on the side. Pity the sambal was a bit oilier than I liked. But what they created in place of the famous crispy fried Gurame fish was the Ikan Goreng Sambal ($28.90) - deboned fried ikan kurau nuggets tossed in a polite sambal and served over the whole fish. So far, you will need a plate of nasi to complete the above sensations and you can wash it down with their clear and beefy and Soup Buntut ($7.80). The soup reminded me of the famous version (albeit less oilier) in Hotel Borobudur in Jakarta, but the oxtail (buntut) could be softer, for maximum effect. I tore into their new signature prawn Pepes($13.95), a typical Indonesian method of cooking meat and spice paste wrapped in banana leaves, much like our otah, but more complicated. It tasted better than it looked and any expert on Indonesian chow would know that they toned the chilli spice quotient down to Orchard Road levels to appeal to a wider crowd, without losing its heritage. It was easy to eat and like.

The people behind it introduced the Tauhu Telor here,
now, it comes cubed.

Their usual dessert offerings like Es Avocad with mocha and Es Chendol, came with a healthier twist- less sugar. Nice, but I had been conditioned to sin properly with these famously sweet desserts and I struggled a bit somewhat with it.