Food Playground!

After school ended, I was lucky enough to travel to one of my favourite countries: Singapore. With the hot and humid climate, I was in my element.

 (Left: fried sesame ball with peanut filling!)

The main reason of the trip was to take a Singaporean cooking course, but I also found another haven – Yoga Movement – where I completed 11 hours of hot yoga in 8 days.

 (Left: a stunning mango dessert at Changi airport – think mango smoothie, ice cream, pomelo, and bursting juice balls!)

Let us backtrack to the food. Upon searching Google, I found Food Playground. This is where I enrolled my mother and myself for 5 consecutive, 3-hour-long classes. It was a good decision, to say the least!

At Food Playground, we were stepped through not only the cooking instructions for each dish, but were also given history lessons – for ingredients, for whole dishes, and for cooking styles. I think that was the lovely part about this particular cooking establishment, because my teachers were full of personal stories about the culture of Singapore and how past traditions influence the food of today. Further to this, the instructors were good-humoured and quick to make everyone laugh.

 

For the first lesson, we learnt how to make Hainanese chicken rice (right, above) with fresh chilli sambal, as well as a won ton soup (left, above). It’s hard to choose between them, but this was my favourite class. Filling the won ton wrappers with chopped prawns, vegetables, and the likes was not as difficult as I thought! Now, “Chicken rice” may sound like a simple dish, but anyone who’s tried the authentic Singaporean version will tell you how the delicate flavours meld together into something surprisingly stunning. This lesson also taught me how to make that magical rice texture (“grain by grain”) I’ve never been able to accomplish before.

Day two brought us Char Kway Teow (left, above), Peranakan Hoon Kueh (below), and Chicken Satay skewers with a peanut-chilli sauce. Char Kway Teow are the true ‘Singaporean noodles’ – and I don’t mean those fake, 2-minute strings of evil you get in a packet. I’m talking Chinese sausage, bean sprouts, and oodles of flavour.

 

Hoon Kueh is something that would seem foreign and pretty odd to a New Zealander. It’s a dessert (a custard made of mung bean flour and studded with corn) set in ‘moulds’ of pandan baskets. Is this just sounding weirder by the second? Well, as I was brought up with some of my mother’s Filipino cooking, this dessert was right up my alley. Not too sweet, and scented with the fragrant pandan so beloved of the Singaporeans, I found Hoon Kueh more than tasty.

 

Chicken Satay (above, left) is something most people understand in my country – or, at least, they think they do! This version’s flavourful chicken, with its freshly cooked chilli dipping sauce, was a far cry from the imitation satay we find in bottles on our supermarket shelves. I adored the spices and hot flavour (because those of you who really know me are aware of my chilli addiction).

Day three was a fresh trio of fabulous dishes: Potato Curry Puffs (below, left), Nasi Lemak and Telor Dadar (above/ below). I’m sure you’ve had curry puffs before – the little parcels of deep-fried goodness – but Nasi Lemak was a little more obscure. However, it’s more than popular in Singapore. My countless visits to the hawker food centres had me drawn to Nasi Lemak stalls, particularly for breakfast, where this rice dish was topped with various meats and vegetables. The version we made was pandan coconut rice, accompanied by the traditional fried peanuts and anchovies (don’t be scared – these taste amazing!), cucumber, prawn sambal, and a Malay-style omelette (Telor Dadar).

On a side note, if you’re wondering what sambal is, think chilli! Or, in other words, think of sauce which screams Fizzi. Sambal can incorporate a variety of ingredients, from garlic, to lime, to dried shrimp paste. It’s like magic with a meal.

Our penulimate day at Food Playground was curry day. Kueh Dadar (below, right), Potato Curry and Roti Jala (above/ below) made their way onto our plates and into our stomachs. Roti Jala, meaning “bread nets”, are like pancake-style roti made into a lacy shape with a special scoop (dotted with holes on the bottom). Kueh Dadar are pandan-flavoured pancakes, rolled with a filling of palm sugar and coconut. Asian crepes?

 

The fifth day of pre-Christmas cooking gave to me a golden Laksa. This soup was laden with exotic spices and tofu pouches, poured over noodles and garnished with prawns, cucumber, sliced fish balls, and Vietnamese mint. Alongside the Laksa we re-made Hoon Kueh (much to my delight), and rolled then fried some vegetable spring rolls. It was a glorious way to finish our final class, and the Food Playground director, Daniel, gifted my mother and me two aprons.

 

So, what are my overall thoughts of the course? Fantastic. I would recommend Food Playground to anyone searching for a fun, cultural, hands-on culinary journey. I met some great people – a special shout out to Philip! – and now have a totally different perspective of Singaporean food. Thank you to Daniel, for making the experience possible, and to each of my funny and friendly instructors: Mary, Lesley, Helen, and Lydia.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Singapore, and its local food has taken on a new meaning for me. When I packed my bags to leave, folding my yoga clothes and looking out through the window into the heat waves that last time, I made a promise that I’d go back. My kitchen is now stocked up on many litres of coconut oil from my favourite Singaporean supermarket (Mustafa!) to last me through.

My trip has inspired me to expand my blog. I’m creating a new section to incorporate ‘cultural’ recipes, and my take on other cuisine’s dishes. I’m not sure when I’ll return to Singapore, but until then: I’ll be enjoying their food, and have already started using my newfound culinary knowledge in my own little kitchen here in New Zealand.

(Above: two Singaporean-inspired dishes! On the right are fried noodles with slow-cooked then crisped pork belly, and on the left are pork noodles with a broth)