Hi Pamelia, coming from Indonesia I've always found it very interesting that Malay-ness and Islam is inseparable in the Singapore/Malaysia context. As you know (and as alluded to by your podcast guest in the Peranakan nasi ambeng episode) it's not necessarily the case here -- the Javanese, Balinese, Batak, Minahasan, sub-ethnicities within the greater Malay ethnicity with significant/majority non-Muslim population, each has their own pork dishes with little to no Chinese influence. While an important footnote to be pointed out, this discussion would naturally bring about the subject of Malay cultural identity and the like, touchy stuff I'd rather not get into. Now on a lighter note, as a heritage food enthusiast who had spent quite some time in Singapore your weekly podcast is an absolute godsend -- love your interview with Gregory Leow!
Hey Nararya, thanks for dropping me a message! I'm so glad you're enjoying the podcast :-) have you listened to the episode with Spice Zi Kitchen sharing a Indian Muslim perspective?
@@sgpnoodles I have and along with Gregory Leow's and Damian Silva's, it's one of my favourites! If I remember correctly a part of it touches upon the dynamics of race and religion in relation to food, on how the same Indian dish uses mutton bones when prepared by Muslims and yet it becomes completely vegetarian in the Hindu version. Parallels can actually be drawn between this and a dish from my late grandmother's hometown in Central Java, Surakarta, called sate buntel (a kind of minced meat satay wrapped in caul fat and served with kecap manis, chilli padi and sliced shallots, no peanut sauce -- you'll love it). The Muslim majority uses minced young goat meat while pork is often used by the Christian minority. And there is also another dish from this region of heartland Central Java called tongseng, a kind of savoury, mildly spicy, curry laced with toasted coriander seeds, cumin and topped with plenty of shredded cabbage. The most common version uses diced goat meat from the hind leg, but another version, very popular amongst Christians and nominal Muslims, uses... dog meat and is called sengsu, a portmanteau of tongseng and 'asu' -- 'dog' in Javanese. Apologies for going on and on, when talking about food from this part of Asia you know full well that there's just no end in sight (in a good way)!
@@tetapsetia that's incredibly fascinating and eyeopening, I particularly love the sound of sate buntel 😍😍😍 I would love to give it a go at home one day. Thanks for sharing ❤
@@sgpnoodles You're most welcome. A quick note should you decide to give sate buntel a try one day -- traditional is a dash of white pepper on top of the skewers right before serving! I've fixed the grammar mistakes on my previous reply, too, now that you've pinned it. I'm a pedant with these things and I was just too excited typing! But really, and as also discussed in the Peranakan nasi ambeng episode if I remember correctly, I find it unfortunate that Malay/Indonesian cooking doesn't really get the plaudits it deserves. The lack of genuine culinary authorities, so to speak, who are willing to out themselves in public could be the main reason why. I'm not too sure about Singapore and Malaysia, but on our shores I could only count maybe two or three culinary personalities who truly understand the nitty-gritty of the various Indonesian cuisines with the undisputed godfather of these exclusive group of folks being William Wongso (you may have heard of him). In recent years he has become an evangelist of sorts for West Sumatran/Padang cooking, but I must note that most of his nerdy accounts and anecdotes are available only in Bahasa. Compare this to Thai cooking where you have the likes of Hanuman Aspler and David Thompson flying the proverbial flag of Thai food locally(!) and the world over. I don't think we can blame the heirloom nature of cooking from this part of world for this predicament, there's a certain quaintness about the whole thing, but with dishes vanishing left and right maybe things need to change and change fast. As a mere food enthusiast obviously I don't have a clue on what exactly needs to change, but what I do know is platforms like Singapore Noodles (in the Singapore context) are very important if we want to continue celebrate how things were in a time where everything is instant and increasingly globalised. Take the dish kacang pool: I'd never have heard of it before Gregory Leow gushed about it on one of his videos and my partner is actually Singaporean! I don't know, but I like to think that if it weren't for platforms like this and other similar ones I bet my bottom dollar that one of my favourite dishes of all time, endog petis -- poached eggs in petis (hae ko) gravy -- in the traditional Javanese north coast Peranakan style that uses salty hae ko instead of the ubiquitous sweet variety and is spicy with whole chilli padis, would go extinct within a decade or so. Anyway, it's Friday night and I'm replying a youtube comment with a short essay... what has happened to me!
@@tetapsetia Totally agree with your views. Our cuisine tends to celebrate the 'big hits' excessively - things like chicken rice, chilli crab, laksa - to the point where that's all foreigners know of our food, and the humbler dishes get forgotten. Partially it also reflects the way that times have changed and people hardly have the time or energy to source specialty ingredients like caul fat or kencur to make heritage dishes. It is sad, but many of our local dishes are fading into obscurity and, as a content creator, it is so hard to balance the tension between creating content around what people want (quick and easy meals/ trending food/ our celebration dishes) vs actually preserving lesser known gems like kacang pool! P.S. I'm a big fan of the work of David Thompson and Hanuman Aspler. Do check out Andy Ricker and Lukie Farell too! All of them do amazing, tireless work in promoting Thai cuisine.
This is one of my fav Peranakan dish! ❤
Well done. Thank you.
Hi Pamelia, coming from Indonesia I've always found it very interesting that Malay-ness and Islam is inseparable in the Singapore/Malaysia context. As you know (and as alluded to by your podcast guest in the Peranakan nasi ambeng episode) it's not necessarily the case here -- the Javanese, Balinese, Batak, Minahasan, sub-ethnicities within the greater Malay ethnicity with significant/majority non-Muslim population, each has their own pork dishes with little to no Chinese influence. While an important footnote to be pointed out, this discussion would naturally bring about the subject of Malay cultural identity and the like, touchy stuff I'd rather not get into.
Now on a lighter note, as a heritage food enthusiast who had spent quite some time in Singapore your weekly podcast is an absolute godsend -- love your interview with Gregory Leow!
Hey Nararya, thanks for dropping me a message! I'm so glad you're enjoying the podcast :-) have you listened to the episode with Spice Zi Kitchen sharing a Indian Muslim perspective?
@@sgpnoodles I have and along with Gregory Leow's and Damian Silva's, it's one of my favourites! If I remember correctly a part of it touches upon the dynamics of race and religion in relation to food, on how the same Indian dish uses mutton bones when prepared by Muslims and yet it becomes completely vegetarian in the Hindu version. Parallels can actually be drawn between this and a dish from my late grandmother's hometown in Central Java, Surakarta, called sate buntel (a kind of minced meat satay wrapped in caul fat and served with kecap manis, chilli padi and sliced shallots, no peanut sauce -- you'll love it). The Muslim majority uses minced young goat meat while pork is often used by the Christian minority.
And there is also another dish from this region of heartland Central Java called tongseng, a kind of savoury, mildly spicy, curry laced with toasted coriander seeds, cumin and topped with plenty of shredded cabbage. The most common version uses diced goat meat from the hind leg, but another version, very popular amongst Christians and nominal Muslims, uses... dog meat and is called sengsu, a portmanteau of tongseng and 'asu' -- 'dog' in Javanese. Apologies for going on and on, when talking about food from this part of Asia you know full well that there's just no end in sight (in a good way)!
@@tetapsetia that's incredibly fascinating and eyeopening, I particularly love the sound of sate buntel 😍😍😍 I would love to give it a go at home one day. Thanks for sharing ❤
@@sgpnoodles You're most welcome. A quick note should you decide to give sate buntel a try one day -- traditional is a dash of white pepper on top of the skewers right before serving! I've fixed the grammar mistakes on my previous reply, too, now that you've pinned it. I'm a pedant with these things and I was just too excited typing!
But really, and as also discussed in the Peranakan nasi ambeng episode if I remember correctly, I find it unfortunate that Malay/Indonesian cooking doesn't really get the plaudits it deserves. The lack of genuine culinary authorities, so to speak, who are willing to out themselves in public could be the main reason why. I'm not too sure about Singapore and Malaysia, but on our shores I could only count maybe two or three culinary personalities who truly understand the nitty-gritty of the various Indonesian cuisines with the undisputed godfather of these exclusive group of folks being William Wongso (you may have heard of him). In recent years he has become an evangelist of sorts for West Sumatran/Padang cooking, but I must note that most of his nerdy accounts and anecdotes are available only in Bahasa. Compare this to Thai cooking where you have the likes of Hanuman Aspler and David Thompson flying the proverbial flag of Thai food locally(!) and the world over.
I don't think we can blame the heirloom nature of cooking from this part of world for this predicament, there's a certain quaintness about the whole thing, but with dishes vanishing left and right maybe things need to change and change fast. As a mere food enthusiast obviously I don't have a clue on what exactly needs to change, but what I do know is platforms like Singapore Noodles (in the Singapore context) are very important if we want to continue celebrate how things were in a time where everything is instant and increasingly globalised. Take the dish kacang pool: I'd never have heard of it before Gregory Leow gushed about it on one of his videos and my partner is actually Singaporean! I don't know, but I like to think that if it weren't for platforms like this and other similar ones I bet my bottom dollar that one of my favourite dishes of all time, endog petis -- poached eggs in petis (hae ko) gravy -- in the traditional Javanese north coast Peranakan style that uses salty hae ko instead of the ubiquitous sweet variety and is spicy with whole chilli padis, would go extinct within a decade or so. Anyway, it's Friday night and I'm replying a youtube comment with a short essay... what has happened to me!
@@tetapsetia Totally agree with your views. Our cuisine tends to celebrate the 'big hits' excessively - things like chicken rice, chilli crab, laksa - to the point where that's all foreigners know of our food, and the humbler dishes get forgotten. Partially it also reflects the way that times have changed and people hardly have the time or energy to source specialty ingredients like caul fat or kencur to make heritage dishes. It is sad, but many of our local dishes are fading into obscurity and, as a content creator, it is so hard to balance the tension between creating content around what people want (quick and easy meals/ trending food/ our celebration dishes) vs actually preserving lesser known gems like kacang pool!
P.S. I'm a big fan of the work of David Thompson and Hanuman Aspler. Do check out Andy Ricker and Lukie Farell too! All of them do amazing, tireless work in promoting Thai cuisine.
Bes,xcelen pork belly,so hungry!