Regional food with a modern spin

If you think you can only find authentic Thai Panang curry or Vietnamese Cha Ca Thang Long (grilled fish) in the bowels of Golden Mile or the seedier side of Joo Chiat, you're in luck. South-east Asian food is taking the hipster route with more eateries sprouting up that offer real flavours but with a modern twist and in cool digs.

Fu Qian Li is the chef owner of one such restaurant - her casual eatery Nung Len is inspired by the hipster wave that has hit Thailand in recent years. The 27-year-old serves traditional tom yum noodles alongside sliders, playing on Thai flavours such as spicy basil or green curry.

It's not about just tossing tom yum pesto on pasta and plating it up - there's more attention paid to the building blocks of the cuisine. She explains: "In Thailand, no matter how people try to follow trends, they always make sure they retain their own culture, like making green curry sauce instead of gravy. In Singapore, nobody would dare make char kway teow with modern techniques because no one would eat it."

Such edgy, casual restaurants are extremely popular in Australia too, adds chef-owner of Fat Saigon Boy, Cang Lai, who runs two Vietnamese eateries in Sydney and Melbourne. South-east Asian food there spans the gamut of dining options: "You can get it from a hole-in-the-wall bakery to fine dining," says the Vietnamese-Australian.

Diners here are more conservative, however, and some don't quite get chef Lai's Australian interpretation of Vietnamese cuisine. The familiar pho remains a bestseller - the most popular of which is a version with smoked and roasted duck - but patrons are gradually coming round. "Initially, I swallowed my pride and adjusted to local tastebuds, but it's now returning to what I want it to be," he says.

Cha Thai's Leah Sirijindapan is equally daring, and her kitchen uses a variety of gadgets that wouldn't be out of place in a modern European restaurant - like a sugar detector (to perfect the balance between sweetness and acidity), and a sous vide machine. "Other South-east Asian restaurants here are mostly run by housewives - it's good comfort food, but I want to throw more techniques into the mix," she says.

But that doesn't mean she allows herself any shortcuts; her food is prepared from scratch using labour-intensive preparations which are key to regional cooking: "Asian food is very complicated and requires a lot of work. Western food looks good, but taste-wise, it can't compare."

Even the team behind Hood Cafe & Bar has jumped on board. The indie live music venue at Bugis+ is known for its thumping rock beats and thin-crust pizzas, but they are taking a different tact with their latest expansion, the one-week-old 555 Villa Thai.

Located in the vicinity of Changi Prison, the 37,000 sq ft space is inspired by beer gardens in Thailand, so patrons can look forward to mookata and fusion bar grub while enjoying acoustic music. The menu is designed by partner Kelvin Giam, the founder of Thai eatery Tom Yum Kungfu.

The S$500,000 investment comprises four different sections - an indoor open karaoke bar, an outdoor mookata area, an al fresco hangout facing the stage, and an upcoming chill-out spot on astroturf. "We aim to draw different crowds - from families to yuppies to indie types - with these different spaces," says Hood's co-owner Nigel Wan.

He also hopes the concept will revamp the image of Thai culture in Singapore: "The wave of Thai discotheques in Singapore has given Thai music venues a bad reputation - we hope to remove the sleaze while keeping the fun."

Others like the Tonkin chain of restaurants are hoping to move beyond the hipster wave. They drew queues with their hip noodle bar concept at Orchard Central, and owner Jenny Mac has now started serving authentic Northern Vietnamese dishes (which resemble zi char) at her new Anson outlet, opened since December last year.

The dream is to open a Northern Vietnamese fine-dining restaurant some day. "Many places here are serving Southern Vietnamese cuisine," explains Ms Mac, who has been in Singapore for over 20 years. "I hope to introduce the cleaner flavours of Northern Vietnam to Singaporeans."

WINNING FORMULA

555 Villa Thai

30 Cosford Road

Tel: 6214-4138

Open 5pm-1am (Sun to Thu), 5pm-2am (Fri-Sat)

THERE's a winning formula to running a live music venue in Singapore - find an outdoor lot near town, tune it equal parts grunge and chic, and serve popular bites such as pizzas, wings and truffle fries, and add drinks - just look to Timbre or Wala Wala.

But Hood Bar & Cafe is breaking the mould with its fresh concept, 555 Villa Thai, a joint venture with Thai eatery Tom Yum Kungfu. It's even further East than Changi Prison, it's got a Haw Par Villa meets Sticker Lady sort of vibe, and it's serving Thai street food such as mookata alongside fusion bar grub.

There's even a 3D graffiti installation which serves as a photo-op, and an amphibious boat which doubles as both ornament and barbecue station. The craziness actually works - it plays into the zany, retro-chic feel of the space, which is inspired by Thai beer gardens.

The partners also happen to be trained designers, and kept costs low (S$500,000 for the 37,000 sq ft space) by conceptualising and executing most of the decor themselves. That includes the pop-art graphics on the bright magenta walls, and the narrow, snaking tables which are hand-pasted with mosaic tiles.

This large space also allows them to turn the lot into an events venue, says co-owner Joseph Zhang: "We're planning to have weekend flea markets and creative workshops for families."

Likewise, the menu is designed to draw different crowds. The mookata (from S$55 for two) makes a great family dinner - it also uses a customised pot that separates the lard drippings from the soup so it's healthier, and comes with bases such as tom yum and black chicken.

There are also dishes such as salt-baked tilapia (S$19) with Thai herbs from their own garden. Hipsters won't be left out with fancy bites such as kang kong fritters served with a spicy coconut dip (S$13), with more options such as wagyu sliders and Thai-inspired Iberico pork steaks on the way. All items and sauces are made from scratch, and seafood is fresh from on-site tanks. Unlike Hood, the live bands here play solely acoustic sets, with a mix of English, Mandarin and Thai music, so there's more chilling and less headbanging. If you'd rather sing yourself, the indoor area boasts an open karaoke bar and darts stations.

By Tan Teck Heng

EDGY VIETNAMESE CUISINE

Fat Saigon Boy

14 Ann Siang Road

Tel: 6221-6784

www.fatsaigonboy.com.sg

Open Mon to Sat, 11am-2.30pm, 6pm-10pm

WITH his stout build and straight-shooting comments, Fat Saigon Boy's Cang Lai brings Momofuku's David Chang to mind. And like chef Chang and his ramen, the Vietnamese-Australian is better known for his duck pho, though the menu offers even more inventive spins on his native dishes. "I'm a fan of Momofuku - it's casual, playful, and they don't make things complicated," says the 39-year-old, who adopts a similar approach.

Chef Lai spent 20 years in European kitchens and a fine-dining Japanese restaurant, but returned to his ethnic roots five years ago due to prevailing trends. "The love of Vietnamese food in Australia is so huge, because it's fresh, healthy, and not fatty," says the owner of Vietnamese takeout kiosk VPR and noodle bar Me Pho in Melbourne and Sydney respectively.

He chose Singapore for his first overseas venture because "it's half a Western society, half Asian". He didn't bargain for our obsession with pho and little else, however, and he's keen to introduce bigger, bolder flavour combinations to locals.

Observes chef Lai: "Authentic dishes - that's the first thing Singaporeans want when it comes to South-east Asian food. That's not me - some dishes have a Vietnamese touch to it, but I'm using different flavours."

That includes Japanese pickled ginger, which he explains: "I'm toasting some salted sesame seeds with it, and putting it into my Vietnamese meatballs."

Other offerings include mains such as rice served with barbecue pork ribs and chilli nut sauce (S$15++); there's also tapas such as softshell crab sliders on fried mantou with green chilli chutney, and da lat ribs with harissa (S$10++). To go with it, there's Vietnamese sangria; flavours include mango lemongrass or apple yuzu (S$10++ per glass). Those are surefire yuppie magnets, and the space is undeniably cool: it's bright and cheery, sporting orange and yellow accents, with an airy verandah out back.

However, chef Lai stops short of calling his eatery a hipster joint: "Hipster food is something that goes way out there, putting really weird ingredients together or something fad-driven like slapping a doughnut on a milkshake. That's not my style - I'm just interpreting a cuisine my way; I'm thinking more long term."

By Tan Teck Heng

FUSION STYLE

Nung Len

33 Mackenzie Road

Tel: 6238-0184

www.facebook.com/nunglensg

Open Mon to Sat, 10.30am - 10.30pm

YOU might think there's only one way of serving foie gras, but Fu Qian Li - who runs casual Thai eatery Nung Len - would beg to differ. The 27-year-old has no issue marrying French methods and Thai flavours to come up with dishes such as foie gras with tamarind and coconut which represent her own cooking style.

After all, she previously studied at Le Cordon Bleu in London - doing both culinary and pastry - and is personally such a big fan of Thai food that she travels to Bangkok every other month just to cafe-hop.

"I just really like their food scene and how they can have a very modern-looking cafe that serves both traditional Thai and some Western food, so I decided to bring it into Singapore," says chef Fu, a Singaporean who now runs Nung Len with a Thai business partner.

Her cafe houses a life-sized tuktuk (auto-rickshaw) - clearly meant for Instagrammers, and sits facing Mackenzie Road so that the sound of passing cars and loud, upbeat Thai music make you feel almost like you're in the middle of Bangkok.

The current menu still features mostly traditional Thai dishes such as a Kway Tiew Tom Yum Boran (traditional tom yum noodles, S$14), and Khapow Moo Sab (Thai holy basil minced pork rice, S$12), alongside simple fusion items such as a trio of homemade burgers (S$18) - spicy holy basil, green curry and panang curry. But chef Fu has been toying with more novel ideas which she hopes to introduce down the road, such as the foie gras, a duck confit with Thai sauce, and a Thai-style big breakfast for a potential brunch menu. She reasons: "Singapore has a lot of authentic Thai already, and it all just tastes the same. I want to come up with something unique to Nung Len. I believe it's doable, just a matter of trying it out."

In the meantime, the modern influences are mostly still subtle ones, such as using grilled chicken for her green curry rice, and making everything from scratch instead of buying instant products.

For example, since sauces are a big part of French cuisine, even the dressing she drizzles on top of her fried chicken wings is made in her kitchen. "I use fish sauce, palm sugar, oyster sauce, and heat it up - that's where simple French technique comes into play," she says.

By Rachel Loi

MADE FROM SCRATCH

Cha Thai

80 Telok Ayer Street

Tel: 6636-3696

www.chathaisg.com

Open Mon to Sat, 11am - 10pm

WHEN Leah Sirijindapan first started cooking at six years old, she already knew she wanted to be a chef when she grew up. Of course, it helped that her family's kitchen back in Thailand was well-equipped, and that she was able to attend a hospitality school to study the culinary arts.

Armed with years of personal experimentation in the kitchen plus six years of working in F&B back in her home country, the now 30-year-old is one of a new breed of young Thai chefs who have more technique and skill in their repertoire compared with the average home cook. "Chefs in Thailand get paid really little, because the food is cheap and people don't respect chefs there," explains chef Sirijindapan.

So she gathered up her aprons and moved to Singapore about four years ago to set up her own F&B business, starting with a small cafe named Loaves Me Cafe, and recently opened a casual eatery at Telok Ayer named Cha Thai. "I want people to know what real Thai food tastes like - that it's so much better than what you currently have in the market," says chef Sirijindapan.

She observes that the reason for this is that most Thai restaurants here are run by people without professional F&B backgrounds, so while they can easily whip up simple comfort food, they lack the technique to take their cuisine to the next level. On the other hand, she knows her way around the kitchen fairly well, and uses things such as a sous vide machine to cook her roast pork for eight hours so that it is juicy by the time it is served up on the customer's plate.

At Cha Thai, she specialises in the staples such as a pad thai with prawns (S$22) and tom yum seafood soup (S$28), as well as less common items such a lemongrass prawn salad (S$28) and curry crab (S$28) - all using locally-farmed seafood. According to chef Sirijindapan, every dish is made from scratch, and she uses modern gadgets such as a sugar detector to measure sweetness, acidity and saltiness so the food will taste the same no matter who is behind the wok.

She says: "When I first opened (Cha Thai) I was worried because I know my food is not cheap. But after customers tried it, they said my food was good, so they are happy to pay for quality."

By Rachel Loi

MIXING IT UP

Saigon Teppanyaki & Bar

95 East Coast Road

Tel: 6348-2816

www.facebook.com/saigonteppanyaki

Open Tues to Sun, 11.30am - 3.30pm, 5,30pm - 11.30pm

THEY say if you want something done right, do it yourself. And that's exactly what 48-year-old Andrew Chu was doing when he opened Saigon Teppanyaki & Bar - a fusion eatery which combines his favourite style of cooking with the flavours of his Vietnamese wife's cooking.

"I thought of creating my own style of teppanyaki because it was my favourite food in Taiwan," says the Taiwanese-born Singaporean. "It's such an interesting way of cooking because you get to watch the chef prepare your food right in front of you. It also lets you interact with him and tell him how you'd like your food cooked."

He and his 32-year-old wife Kelly Nguyen run this teppanyaki bar on East Coast Road, along with their four-year-old cafe next door named Saigon Sandwich. There, they serve more traditional Vietnamese fare such as various Banh Mi (baguette sandwiches), Bun (dried rice noodles) and, of course, pho (rice noodle soup). The recipes for both restaurants come from Ms Nguyen, who develops them based on her knowledge of simple home-cooked meals back in Vietnam, along with her own research, plus trial and error. She explains: "Japanese teppanyaki is boring to me because there's no sauce, just salt and pepper. But the Vietnamese like gravy, white onions, spring onions, so we mix that together on the grill, along with my own sauces and dips."

On the menu are dishes such as a peppery Vietnamese-style fried rice (S$11.90) with Chinese sausages, battered prawns and squid (S$15) served with lemongrass sauce, and Taiwanese-style sliced chicken (S$15) in a sweet sauce. Their next step is to open a family-style Vietnamese zi char restaurant in the unit upstairs once they have enough manpower, says Ms Nguyen.

By Rachel Loi

@RachelLoiBT

rachloi@sph.com.sg

OODLES OF NOODLES

Tonkin Authentic Vietnamese Cuisine

70 Anson Road, #01-03/04, Hub Synergy Point,

Tel: 6444-4406

www.tonkinrestaurant.com.sg

Open 11am-9pm, Mon to Sat; closed on Sun and PH

TONKIN started life serving authentic Vietnamese food in 2013, but it wasn't till they came up with a noodle bar concept that lines started forming. The outlet at Orchard Central is a hole-in-the-wall, but draws 10-minute queues despite the speedy service. Its appeal is probably due to the lighter Northern-style broth, fast serving times, and hip furnishings, including Oriental tiles, Vietnamese lamps, and a sleek mix of dark wood and metal accents.

While owner Jenny Mac is thankful her concept has caught on, what she really wants to serve is elevated Northern Vietnamese cuisine. "The dream is to open a fine-dining restaurant," says the F&B veteran, who's gone from dishwashing and line cooking to managing food courts here before starting her own eateries.

Given current market conditions, fine dining remains more of a pipe dream - instead, she has come to a compromise by serving casual Vietnamese-style seafood dishes in the CBD area. You can sample them at her fourth outlet, the new flagship restaurant along Anson Road, opened since last December. The space - a homely restaurant with some modern touches - has an eclectic mix of street art and contemporary Vietnamese lacquer and oil paintings by the likes of Nguyen Hong Son and Nguyen Quoc Cuong.

Foodwise, there's barbecued river fish with lemongrass and chilli padi (S$19.90++), Hanoi grilled fish (S$23.90++), tamarind crabs (seasonal price) or grilled pork belly (S$8.90++), which offer more substantial alternatives to her popular noodle sets. These are largely exclusive to dinner service.

There's a gulf between North and South Vietnamese food which Singaporeans don't always recognise, says Ms Mac: "We don't add sugar, and our flavours are purer and clearer - there's more of a Chinese influence," she explains, adding that the herbs and spices she uses, such as dill and chillis, are tasty rather than spicy because of the sub-tropical climate in the North, compared to the equatorial heat of the South.

That's why she insists on ordering many such ingredients directly from her homeland. That authentic flavour has drawn Vietnamese diplomats and expats, who in turn bring their foreign friends.

By Tan Teck Heng