I haven’t been home to Singapore since February last year and that was the last trip I had taken on a plane. I’ve really lucked out having discovered the community of home cooks in Hong Kong doing amazing food.
Southeast Asian food is rich, complex and delicious. It is also alot of prep work to create the authentic flavours – there are no short cuts and you can definitely taste the difference when someone takes the short cut.
I’m all for supporting local businesses and all these wonderful people putting their love into cooking up meals for all of us who are homesick. Here are some favourites:
Medan Lang
Authentic Indonesian food prepared with love. I’m so lucky to be Mel’s neighbour and I’m on a retainer for Mel’s Nasi Lemak. I’ve tried both the chicken, rendang and mackerel, they are all excellent. She also does chicken soto congee and there are weekly/monthly specials.
Duan Pisang
Courtesy of Mel, I discovered Duan Pisang. Meaning banana leaves, everything is packed and served in banana leaves – like how I remember in childhood. It’s 100% sustainable, no plastic packaging, everything goes back into my compost. I love the grilled tuna corn rice – my mother used to make something similar and it’s my comfort food. She does nasi padang too with beef rendang and a kale coconut soup.
Sedap Sedap
I am on a retainer for their otak otak. I haven’t been successful making my own. Their model is interesting as they do all the food prep and you have to cook some of the food yourself, including laksa gravy that’s frozen (you have to buy your own ingredients). I’ve ordered their special Sambal Stingray and it’s so nice to have authentic flavours of home. (Cook is Malaysian).
Cake in a cup
You must order the ondeh ondeh cupcakes. They are like an upgrade of the original ondeh ondeh dessert. I’m not a dessert/sweet person, and the cupcakes here are absolutely the right balance. They do customised cakes too and I can’t wait to order one for baby’s first birthday.
We are spending so much time at home these days. I hope everyone’s mental health is doing ok. We are very grateful that life in Hong Kong is as normal as can be and masks are compulsory everywhere.
If you are planning to try to cook more Singaporean food at home, there’s a great Singaporean cookbook I love by Christopher Tan, the Hainanese chicken rice recipe is easy to follow and super authentic, as is the bak kut teh, which we used to make often.
Your Malay kueh fix sorted. I’ve only tried the Ang Ku Kueh (okay they were purple, all natural colours and no preservatives) you have to eat them within 24 hours otherwise the skin gets stodgy and hard.
