Singaporean flavours for National Day

SOME like it classic and some like it with a twist. Whichever way you like your Singapore flavours served up, here's what some local chefs and home-based businesses have dreamt up for your patriotic dining pleasure this long weekend.

Damian's Cookhouse

Comeback king Damian D'Silva is back on the radar again after leaving the now defunct restaurant Kin at the former Straits Clan - now Mandala Club - where his prized Singapore heritage cuisine took pride of place on the menu.

He has since launched a three month pop-up, Damian's Cookhouse on Instagram, where you can order meals for four people for S$180 and have them delivered to your home for free. It will cover much of his greatest hits including ngoh hiang, ayam lemak with chilli padi, sambal buah keluak, babi pongteh and singgang - a traditional Eurasian dish of deboned mackerel cooked in a mild turmeric gravy. And, of course, his signature kueh kosui and kueh bingka for dessert.

And yes, it's a prelude to something bigger which he can't reveal yet, says chef D'Silva, who will be cooking personally with a kitchen team during this pop-up. All he will say is: "I've spent many years thinking and contemplating what a 'Damian's Restaurant' should be, and I think this new venture will tick all the right boxes."

Although he needs three days' advance notice for orders, he's ramping up service for this weekend so orders received by Aug 6 can be delivered on Aug 8 or 9 itself. But from Aug 10 onwards, all orders require the three day advance notice.

For orders, go to @damianscookhouse or call 94591603

KAI Suites

It may be an upmarket "hotel" for nursing mothers, but there's a lot more cooking in the kitchen at KAI Suites than just confinement fare. Its in-house restaurant also caters to the regular public, with menus devised by food consultant/chef David Yip, who specialises in heritage Chinese cooking. Even if you're not post-natal, get hold of a new line of sauces created by chef Yip that's packed with ingredients and flavour for boosting your cooking at home.

Forget commercial oyster sauce when his Oyster Essence Paste (S$28) is made from cooking down fresh oysters into a thick, umami-rich condiment. Then there's Kam Heong Sauce (S$18) literally translated from Cantonese into "very fragrant" - it's a dried shrimp-based sauce with curry powder and aromatics that's an all-purpose base for stir-fries or just about anything. And for a spicy kick with everything, the Sambal Chilli sauce (S$18) is an amped-up sambal belacan dip.

The oyster sauce and chilli sambal recipes are handed down from his family but tweaked "to suit today's tastebuds", says chef Yip. "I first encountered kam heong sauce in Kuala Lumpur 15 years ago. I loved it so much that I asked numerous Malaysian shifus for their recipes and I refined them to suit my palate."

There's also a coconut milk-free kaya created for post-natal mothers but equally good for everyone else - an egg yolk and soy milk Dulce de Leche (S$15) with chrysanthemum, chocolate and rose, or matcha.

To order, call KAI Suites at 88556188 or e-mail info@kaisuites.com.sg

Hiam Origins

You can't get any more homegrown or homemade than Hiam Origins, a home-based business where the sauces and flavoured oils are literally made by an auntie. Or rather Annie Chua's Aunty Lan, whose recipes passed down from the latter's parents are the backbone of this family venture that sells goodness in little bottles.

Featuring just three items - XO Scallop Sauce (S$26.80), Fermented Chilli Bean Sauce (S$8.80) and crispy fried shallots (S$8.80) - Hiam (from hiam jio or chilli in Hokkien) Origins is a tribute to Ms Chua's late grandparents, and her aunts and uncles who all worked together to run a staff canteen selling nasi lemak, chicken rice and economy rice in the 1980's. Aunty Lan is Ms Chua's fifth aunt (her grandparents had 12 children), whose power sauces became the mainstay of the family's meals during last year's circuit breaker.

After Ms Chua's grandparents passed away and Aunty Lan had more time on her hands, the idea naturally grew to bottle her sauces for sale to reach a wider audience. "The XO Scallop Sauce fills a gap in the market," says Ms Chua, whose mother, aunt and some of their other siblings pitch in to prepare the sauces. "It's not commonly found in supermarkets and only high end restaurants have it. It's value for money given the amount of Japanese scallops and dried shrimp we put into it."

The chilli bean sauce is her grandmother's signature recipe which uses sour plums as the secret recipe, while deep-fried shallots is a back breaking process of hand slicing shallots and making sure they don't burn while frying. "Two kilos of shallots yields only 500gm of finished product," says Ms Chua. "But we do it because our customers ask for it, and we know how difficult it is to do it at home."

To order, go to @hiamorigins on Instagram

Candlenut

Because it's National Day, and because the current lockdown is getting everyone down, Malcolm Lee of the Michelin-starred Candlenut decided to have a little fun and create a Singaporean-style burger just for the heck of it. The result is Candlenut's Buah Keluak Burger (S$28), which is like a meat patty with multiple layers of Singaporean heritage. There's wagyu patty with crunch from chicken cartilage and glazed with a buah keluak sauce, sandwiched in a potato bun spread with ikan bilis sambal, the chef's mum's curry, fried egg, cheese and garlic chilli butter. It's earthy, smoky, salty, juicy and tender all at once - and certainly not your run of the mill burger.

"It started as a staff meal we had in our previous location in Dorsett Hotel," explains chef Lee. "That was in 2015 or 2016 and it went viral when we posted it on social media then. We have only done it on occasion since, in collaborations or private events outside Candlenut. There were a lot of requests for it but we always said no. But now with this latest lockdown, we just wanted to do something fun for National Day and until dining in resumes."

On top of that, he has also created a Singa Love drink (S$8.90) that's inspired by the long-gone Sinalco drink - made of rose syrup, calamansi juice, lemongrass, ginger and ginger ale - that almost brings back fleeting memories, at least for those of a certain vintage. "I've seen Sinalco when I was very, very young," laughs chef Lee.

He's most familiar with gula melaka, of course, which is turned into a crisp tart shell with a wobbly, custardy filling (S$30) for a sweet ending to National Day.

To order, go to candlenutsingapore. menu

Miss Vanda

Ramly burgers may not be a totally Singaporean thing, but no doubt more than enough Singaporeans have lusted after this notorious little snack from across the Causeway, and enough have tried to replicate the distinctive, mystery meat patty with all the fixings.

Han Li Guang of the Michelin-starred Labyrinth was a big fan of the localised ramly burgers to be found in the pasar malams of his childhood and he's replicated it at Miss Vanda, his Asian home delivery pop up that's in place during the current dining-in ban.

"The classic Ramly - there's a unique texture to the patty that's why it's called "ramly" - is seasoned with MSG and Maggi sauce, and comes wrapped in omelette and an overload of mayo, ketchup and chilli sauce," says chef Han. Miss Vanda's Van-Li (S$28) is made with a wagyu chuck patty seasoned with concentrated dashi stock and Maggi sauce, wrapped in a thick, fluffy omelette with cheese ("because Singaporeans like cheese in their burgers") and stuffed into a brioche bun.

It comes with a large portion of tingly ma la fries on the side for good measure. For dessert, how about durian pie (S$14) styled after McDonald's crispy apple pie? Miss Vanda's fried crispy-chewy pastry holds a good dollop of durian cream within, a warm taste of familiarity for aficionados and Singaporeans alike.

To order, go to missvanda.sg

Sexhands

Two hands, four hands, no it took six hands or rather, Sexhands, to produce a set of Japanese-inspired onigiri with very Singaporean fillings. It's a collaboration among three local F&B operators - Jekyll & Hyde, Mezame! and the home-based Jelebu Dry Laksa - in a show of camaraderie during these difficult times, to create a takeaway set specially for National Day.

Chef Alvin Tan, Manfred Liew and Renee Tang Eyrn devised a set of rice balls in a gift box (S$60) topped with the likes of beef rendang, ma la pork. lu rou or pork belly stew and tiger prawn laksa.

"This period has been tough for F&B, and we are three young local ventures discussing how we can tide over this second Heightened Alert (HA)," says Dannon Hong of Mezame!. "It hit us that we all offer different styles and flavours, so why not come together in a unique collaboration that brings something new to customers?"

They picked onigiri because "people still crave travel and Japanese food is popular with locals, especially now with the Tokyo Olympics. We wanted to create an experience for people to remember their travels and celebrate our nation's birthday as well".

For Mezame!'s chef Liew, his lu rou onigiri and dried scallop & ti po onigiri are based on his grandmother's recipe for braised pork belly and childhood memories of porridge with dried scallop and fish.

It's the same with chef Tan's beef rendang onigiri and ma la pork onigiri, which incorporates family recipes and his own love for ma la spiciness. And, of course, chef Tang's laksa is the result of extensive trials to perfect her dry laksa recipe which she adapted for her onigiri.

"For us, it's about supporting each other and surviving this period together in true kampong spirit," says Mr Hong.

To order, go to sexhands. paperform.co