Malaysian Cuisine in Singapore: Madam Kwan's

Singaporeans have always travelled to Malaysia and enjoyed the food there...of course the hawker and street fare is awesome all over the peninsula, but also some nice restaurants in KL who serve nice locale food. Madam Kwan's is one of them.

The history of Madam Kwan's is rather interesting. Started by her son Dato Rudy Foo, the restaurant offers signatures of Madam Kwan, also known as Kwan Swee Lian or Sakura Kwan. I caught up with Dato Foo in an invited media tasting in Singapore recently, and asked him about the relationship with the Sakura Restaurant in Jalan Imbi, KL. According to him, Madam Kwan, or Kwan Cheh, as she is know in KL, was a beautician in Japan. She returned to her native KL and opened a beauty salon in Jalan Imbi. But somewhere within her is the yearning and longing to cook and share her passion for food. Soon after, she started a restaurant where the beauty salon was, and called it Sakura's. Sakura became famous, mostly for the nasi lemak, and awesome chicken curry. It was probably one of the first air conditioned restaurants, other than hotels, who offered local fare like nasi lemak, curries, and noodles. During the 1998 financial crisis, the restaurant changed hands, and Kwan Cheh started a small stall selling nasi lemak in 1Utama. Her son, Rudy, then was a stockbroker, and decided to invest in a restaurant in Bangsar, as a business, but also to help refresh her dignity. When KLCC started, they were invited to start a restaurant within, and the rest, as they say, was history. Now with 6 outlets in the Malaysian capital, and 1 in Singapore, they are set to expand, and showcase Malaysian cuisine to the world.

Two new dishes were being added to the menu, the first was otak otak fried rice.

The dish was created by crowd sourcing...the Madam Kwan's management went to their facebook page, and asked fans to suggest a new item for their menu. The one which got the most votes was the otak otak fried rice. Interesting that not more restaurants offer this dish. It was quite good. The wok control and powerful fire was apparent in the wok hei. The otak otak is made in-house from fresh spices and herbs and a smooth, springy fish otak otak. Marvellous. I just wished there were more otak...:-)

The next new dish is the petai fried rice.

This is a rather common dish in Indonesia, but the dish presented by Madam Kwan's was more familiar. The petai was fresh, succulent...the petai bean itself being rather large. Beautiful flavours. Very nice...but of course you need to like petai in the first place...and needless to say, I adore petai.

We also sampled the staples of the restaurant...the nasi lemak

My all time favourite. Wonderfully fragrant rice. With a magnificent, ultra rich tasting, mildly spicy chicken curry, sambal ikan bilis, dried shrimp floss and achar. The flavours are just perfect. The richness of the chicken curry balances with the acid of the achar and the sambal ikan bilis.

and the nasi bojari

Interestingly, a google search of nasi bojari ends up only with all results pointing back to Madam Kwan's. Yet, Dato Foo reveals that he did try to patent the dish and trademark the name, but the application was rejected by the Malaysian authorities, as it was supposed to be a rather generic Indonesian dish. Interesting.

Anyway, the dish is rather special. A tricolour rice made with stock, spices and chicken and prawns is served with a beautifully deep fried chicken leg, and beef rendang and assam prawns. Again the selection of the dishes were inspired...the richness of the crispy skin and tender juicy meat of the chicken, the opulence of the beef rendang, and the acidity of the assam prawns were just right.

We also tried the fish head curry

A very fresh red snapper head, is steamed and cooked with the curry and made complete with lady's fingers, tomatoes, long beans, brinjals and dried beancurd. Tasted very home cooked to me. All the coconut milk used in Madam Kwan is freshly squeezed...none of the industrialized canned or tetra-packed stuff. And one can literally taste the coconut flavours. The spices for the curry are made fresh from scratch, no curry powder is used. I found the fish head curry to be very good, but not exactly my taste. For me, it was a bit too rich (lemak)...but I am partial to the peranakan style fish head curry. But loved the fact that there were tons of vegetables in the dish.

For desserts, the banana fritters were a clear favourite

I understand pisang emas, or a smallish, Malaysian banana is used, very ripe, coated in batter and deep fried till crisp. Served with two scoops of vanilla ice cream. How can one argue with that. Very nice.

But the highlight for me was the chendol

Fresh chendol, with red bean paste sitting on a bed of shaved ice soaked in coconut milk. The over it, pour a beautiful, fragrant and sweet gula melaka. Wonderful.

A version of bubur cha cha was also served

I found this to be good, but perhaps lacking a bit in the dice ingredients. Sure, there was pumpkin, yam, and sago, but would be nicer if there were more of those, and slices of ripe banana and some of the tapioca gummy, chewy thingies. Or at least, that's how bubur cha cha is served at home.

Overall, the food is very good. Service staff were knowledgable, and because this was a media tasting, service was excellent. The restaurant is rather large. Recommended.

Madam Kwan's
Truly Malaysian Cuisine
#01-155 Vivocity

Old Favourites: Good Morning Nanyang Cafe

Good Morning Nanyang Cafe is an old favourite of mine. From their early days in Chinatown point, and expanding to Robinson Road and a franchise in Sembawang. They are back again (Chinatown is closed for renovations). Now at Hong Lim Community Center.

I dropped by one morning to visit with owner Byron Shoh, and sample the new delicacies they are now offering.

Coffee and tea, or kopi and teh is made using the old time tested method of seeping Nanyang coffee or tea dust in a sock.

Nanyang coffee is different from the arabicas used in espressos. Typically an espresso blend is made from 3 or sometimes more arabicas...one providing the base and body while the others providing the blender's imagination of the flavours that go along. Nanyang coffee is traditional in this region, and more often made from robusta beans, though these days, arabica is also used. Instead of roasting the coffee dry, Nanyang coffee is roasted with sugar and sometimes maize (corn). Because the sugar caramalizes in the roasting, it forms a nice thick, black roast. Ground roughly and brewed with hot water in a sock (seeping method), it makes a powerful brew. Thick, aromatic, and because robusta has more caffeine, strong.

Byron's tea is also a bit special. He uses special tea dust, similar to the ones in Hong Kong...I forget to ask him if he did indeed buy the tea from HKG. The slight astringency of the tea, melds well with the condensed milk. Nice. The coffee too is thick, luscious, and rich with the fortification of the condensed milk. In my judgement, better than Toast Box, or Ya Kun.

Good Morning Nanyang also offers a killer orange ciabatta with butter and kaya. Absolutely delicious. So much so, that it was consumed...no inhaled...the minute it was placed on the table, and I forget to take a photograph. But believe me, this one is what Makansutra would call Die Die Must Try. And truly innovative. The butter almost just melts...the kaya rich and aromatic...the orange rinds within the ciabatta provide a counterpoint. The ciabatta itself is crispy and slightly burnt at parts, but wonderfully soft, and moinst in others.

They also started to offer chicken curry with rice or ciabatta (instead of french loaf in many other locations) and chicken stew. I will come back and try the stew another day, but the curry was quite nice:

The chicken is cooked till super tender...literally fall off the bone. The curry was mildly rich, and the slightest tinge of kick provide by the chilli. Goes nicely with the rice and also with the toasted ciabatta.

The cafe is around the inside of the Community Center, not really visible from the main road, but has ample ground...and nice open area suitable for bicycle groups. Park the bikes outside, and have kopi.

Good Morning Nanyang Cafe
Hong Lim Green Community Centre

Airline food: Singapore Airlines First Class

Some say PPS (Singapore Airlines' Priority Passenger) get treated like gods on board SQ flights. I am not so sure. I have been a TPP (Top Priority Passenger...their Solitaire class...currently the highest being offered by the program...one starts with Krisflyer Silver, then Gold, then PPS, then TPP. They used to offer LPP (Lifetime Priority Passenger) as a higher level than TPP, but withdrew that. LPPs do not have to re-qualify annually by spending S$25k on First and Business class flights...yes, no how much Economy flights you take on SQ, you will never go beyond KF Gold.) I find the treatment of TPPs varying at best. Sometimes, we get the recognition, sometimes, we are just treated like any other passenger.

One of the privellages of a TPP is access to the SQ First Class Lounges at Changi regardless of class of travel. In fact, they should rename this Solitare Lounge...as full fare paying First Class passengers get access to a special lounge within. But I digress.

Anyway, my work has allowed me enough flying to be TPP...and have been for 13 years. More than a million miles clocked on SQ tails. I never book on First Class, but travel on Business Class often enough to qualify. And seldom...in my 13 years, I can count on the number of times SQ has upgraded me to first. Once to Shanghai, once on return from Zurich. And just a few days ago, on my return flight from Frankfurt.



The seats on the 77W First Class is not too different in width from the Business Class seats. But a bit more pitch (airline lingo for length of the seat translating to legroom). There is no hump from the seat in front...but there are no overhead storage in First...so the bags stay under the seat.

Note new unisex toiletery kit (still Salvatore Ferragamo) right of the TV, and the new Givenchy pajamas (track suit) just left of my boots.

Krug is the champagne of choice in First, though, on request Dom Perignon is also available. I prefer Krug anyway...



And dinner? We started with a fairly large dollop of caviar with toast and accompaniments...nice. No pic of that, sorry.

And a very beautiful pork soup...nicely done...tasty, hot.



For mains, I selected the coconut chicken curry with rice



Rich...extremely rich coconut milk...perhaps cream...the spices are nicely balanced, though slightly overpowered by the richness of the cream. The rice was nicely done, long grained, fragrant. Overall, quite enjoyable...especially after 10 days of weisswurst, schweinshaxe and rich French meals (two of those will be featured in the next blog entries...both Michelin starred meals...and one with a twist).

And the dessert? White choc...



Needless to say, service was superb...um...first class! Attentive, always with a smile, always addressing me by name. Suberb.



SQ325 Frankfurt to Singapore
Seat 2A, Nov 12
First Class on Boeing 777.

Recipe: my mom's Curry Chicken

My mother is a great cook. She can concoct anything in her kitchen, and it tastes fantastic. I know...everybody says that about their mother, but I say this not only because I grew up eating her food, but also as a seasoned gourmet..traveling the world over for work, but always taking time to sample the gastronomic delights...cooking as varied as sous vide in France, all manner of cooked and un-cooked food in Japan, spicy stuff in Thailand, fragrant and spicy biryanis and currys in India, fresh seafood and al dente pasta in Italy, huge steaks in the US, et al.

My mother grew up in a traditional Khek household, her grandfather walked (yes on foot!!) from China...a journey that must have taken years...and married into a 10 generation peranakan family must have been tough.



My father's sisters and aunts were wonderful cooks themselves, each lording over their kitchens, and each with some special dish which was mind-blowing in its excellence. But each jealously guarding their recipes, never telling more than 90% of the technique or ingredients. During family gatherings, always a great opportunity to feast, they would bring their specialities as pot luck, and impress everybody. My mom, had to learn peranakan cooking, by piecing together bits and pieces from the secretive family, and experimenting on her own.

I am introducing a series of articles now, to capture some of her recipes. The measurements are never exact, her sense of taste prevails.

Ingredients
1 chicken, about 1.5 kg
about 6 tablespoons of oil. We usually use peanut oil, but any vegetable oil is fine. For a richer but less healthy alternative, ghee can be used
1 stalk of lemongrass
1 shallots 500g
1 belachan
1 thumb sized lengkuas (galangal)
1 thumb sized kunyit (tumeric)
2 packets of Alagappa curry. We used to live next to an Indian family who grind their own fresh spices. I would run over and purchase 20cents for curry. They use a grinding stone to make the curry paste from scratch. See here for a description.
3 sprigs of curry leaves
1 table spoon of chilli sauce
100g dried chilli, scald with boiling water, remove seeds, ground till powder, fry with a little oil till dry…use 1 table spoon
1 coconut two pressings for santan. 1 bowl first pressing – dilute with half bowl of water, 1 bowl second pressing dilute 1 bowl of water

Method
Cut chicken into size, about 2" a piece is good
Boil and peel potatoes. Cut to rough cubes about 2" across

Curry gravy

Grind lemongrass, with shallots, lengkuas, kunyit with food processor till it reaches consistency of a paste
Saute in oil till golden brown
Curry powder mix with water to paste
Add paste, chilli
Add chicken, add second pressing of santan and cook till tender
Add curry leaves,
Add the boiled potatoes, skin peeled earlier
Simmer till potatoes tender
Add first pressing of santan
Salt to taste



Serve with basmati rice.

Please let me know, post a comment, if you would like to read more of these recipes or just regular restaurant and hawker reviews.