Rempapa
Making kueh is painstaking, if you want to do it right. Coconut milk has to be freshly squeezed, pandan leaves blitzed and strained to extract the fragrant juice. There is a lot of stirring by hand. Long steaming.
All of which explains why crimes against kueh are many. Some are rubbery when they should wobble voluptuously. Others come in hues not found in nature. Is anything more off-putting than luridly coloured kueh?
That is why biting into chef Damian D’Silva’s kueh is such a pleasure. The wobble. The heady perfume of pandan. The rich mouthfeel of coconut milk. If you are eating his kueh salat, that soft glutinous rice, salted just right.
The 67-year-old’s restaurant, Rempapa, has 20 kueh in its repertoire, and nine of them are available every day. I always thought I had to head to the restaurant to have them, until a friend brought boxes of the kueh to a potluck dinner.
It turns out, you can order boxes of four ($8), eight ($16), 12 ($24) or, from April 15, 30 pieces ($60 – there is a 10 per cent discount) for takeaway or delivery, and to dine in. Whole kueh salat and his famous kueh bengka are also available for $65 each, for takeaway and delivery only.
The standouts are, of course, the kueh kosui and kueh bengka. The kueh bengka is even better after a couple of minutes in the toaster oven.
But my recent box also included kueh bakar pandan, a custard kueh that packs a triple whammy of delights – pandan, coconut milk and toasted sesame seeds. It is soft, fragrant and a joy to eat.
I even like the tiny, tender-crumbed mandarin orange huat kueh, its citrus burst balancing out the richness of the other kueh in the box. And the honeycombed sarang semut, or ant’s nest, represents a triumph in caramelising sugar expertly. Better yet, the sweetness is held in check.
My only gripe is that every piece is so very dainty. Two bites and it’s gone. Better order 30 pieces.
Where: 01-01/02/03 Park Place Residences at PLQ, 2 Paya Lebar Road
MRT: Paya Lebar
Open: Weekdays, 11am to 3pm, 6 to 10pm; weekends, 10.30am to 3pm, 6 to 10pm
Tel: 9459-1603
Info: rempapa.sg. Order at rempapa.oddle.me/en_SG at least three days in advance
Eee Mo BBQ
It looks like Singapore is going to have a very long, hot summer in 2024. The heat – and it is only April – is unbearable. The Government is even coming up with ways to help people cope with high temperatures.
My way of dealing is to duck into cool, dark Eee Mo BBQ at Maxwell Chambers, a little after 1.30pm, when the lunch crowd has dissipated. And there, I order a bowl of its stellar Kong-gugsu ($26), cold noodles in a creamy soya milk soup.
The thick, beige soup is a little smoky and tastes so intensely of soya. It’s a little like soya bean milk on steroids. I love that there are no distractions, save for cucumber strips and toasted sesame seeds.
The noodles could be more springy, but I am happy just slurping up that cold, thick soup. In many ways, it is like eating ice cream in the heat – cold and creamy, but in this case, less calorific.
A Korean restaurant’s banchan says a lot about the quality of its food, and here, I get five with my noodle order. On my most recent visit, the chwinamul banchan, made with dried aster scaber, a type of mountain vegetable, is excellent – it has a satisfying bite and a faint smokiness.
It must get really hot in Korea too, seeing as how there are other cold noodles in the cuisine – mul-naengmyeon, noodles in cold beef broth; and bibim guksu or cold noodles with a spicy sauce. In my book, creamy kongguksu is the clear winner.
Where: 01-04 Maxwell Chambers, 32 Maxwell Road
MRT: Tanjong Pagar
Open: Daily, 11am to 3pm, 5 to 10pm
Tel: 6509-4173
Hainan Street Cafe
The classic Singapore breakfast of kopi or teh, kaya toast and soft-boiled eggs is dependable. Some places do it better than others, by making sure the elements are done right – kopi properly brewed, eggs suitably runny, bread properly toasted.
Hainan Street Cafe, a 64-seater that opened in October 2022 at Leisure Park Kallang, does Kaya And Butter Toast ($2.80 for a la carte) right. The traditional bread is properly toasted and you see the grill marks – this is not half-heartedly toasted bread that is soft in parts.
The caramelised kaya, made for the cafe, is not too sweet. Best of all, the sandwich comes with two slabs of satisfyingly thick Irish butter. These are not barely discernible slivers.
It all makes for a satisfying breakfast or snack, together with a smooth cup of kopi-c ($2.40 a la carte). I have the set ($6.20), which comes with the toast, coffee and soft boiled eggs, but the eggs are unremarkable. Just focus on kopi and kaya toast here.
Where: 01-42 Leisure Park Kallang, 5 Stadium Walk
MRT: Stadium
Open: Mondays to Thursdays and Sundays, 8.30am to 8pm; Fridays and Saturdays, 8.30am to 9pm
Info: @hainanstreetcafe (Instagram)
