Tag: singaporean food

This Hawker Stall In Bedok Run By 3 Young Dudes Serves Ume-zing Japanese Fusion Food For Under $7

Fusion food is a rather ingenious concept that gives us the best of both worlds, but it more often than not comes with a premium price tag as well.

The much-hyped Lobster Nasi Lemak, for example, costs a whopping $22 — a price point higher than some restaurants, mind you — while hawker chain Fish & Chicks charges $12.90 for their chilli crab and salted egg fish & chips.

The folks at Plum & Rice, however, have flipped that idea on its head, and the result is an incredibly satisfying meal at an even more satisfying price.

Small Menu, Big Flavours

Occupying a humble corner stall at Bedok North Street 1 Market and Food Centre, Plum & Rice serves Japanese-inspired rice with Singaporean-inspired dishes.

The concept is the brainchild of three friends who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America (Singapore) — they discovered the titular combination of Umeboshi and rice while searching for inspiration in Japan, and decided to adopt the fusion angle to better suit the Singaporean palate.

The menu, while small, is all about choices — right from the get go you can choose between rice or porridge, both of which are infused with an Umeboshi paste.

Unfortunately, the porridge was sold out by the time we got there (a testament to how popular it is, perhaps), but the rice is definitely something to write home about.

Thanks to the addition of house-made furikake, cereal, curry leaves, dried shrimp and seaweed, everything comes together to form an extremely flavourful bite, and I could have seriously ate a bowl of it on its own. The owners have also recently added red rice into the mix, making it as healthy as it is tasty.

On the meat side of things, you have three choices: braised pork belly, braised pork shoulder, and fish. Both pork dishes are prepared in the same dark soy sauce and are therefore rather similar in taste, but the belly is ultimately is the one to get thanks to its silky smooth texture.

Breaking apart at the slightest touch, every slice quite literally melts in your mouth. There’s also a rather…homely feel to the taste, which forms a nice juxtaposition with the Japanese rice.

The fish was also sold out (pro-tip: go early), but co-owner Raphael tells us that it’s cooked sous-vide style, which makes it very, very tender. Judging by how smooth the pork belly was, we wouldn’t doubt it.

Each meal also comes with a side and (refillable!) soup, both of which change every two weeks. We were served bean sprouts and peanut soup, and their lighter tastes balanced out with the savoury meat and rice perfectly.

One personal recommendation I have to make is the house-made chilli —it provides a decent kick of spice without going overboard, and adds a whole new dimension of to an already-flavourful meal.

Cheaper Than You Think

You might think that all this would be pretty expensive, but a meal at Plum & Rice will actually cost you less than $7.

Yup, that’s right — you’re getting rice, meat, a side and free-flow soup for the unbelievable price of $4.90 ($6.90 if you’re going for the fish, which is still very reasonable), which honestly might be the best deal we’ve seen in recent history.

One caveat, however, is that the stall closes at 2pm, which might be a problem for office workers and those not living in the east.

Those willing to put in the effort to try them out, however (there’s always the weekend), will not be disappointed.

Plum & Rice
Address: 216 Bedok North Street 1, #01-45, Singapore 460216
Opening Hours: 8am – 2pm (Closed on Mondays)

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Also Read Tsukiji Fish Market Restaurant Is Pretty Close To The Real Deal — Serves Fish, Ramen, Yakiniku All In One Place

(Header Image Source: Discover SG)

10 Foods Invented By Singaporeans That Will Give You Massive #SGPride

A foodie’s paradise with cuisines from all over the world, Singapore is probably the one country where eating is a national pastime.

For a country that loves food so much, it’s no wonder we’ve taken it upon ourselves to invent new culinary delights. Here are 10 amazing foods invented by Singaporeans that will give you massive #SGPride!

1. Chilli Crab

Ask any tourist what Singapore’s national dish is and the answer will probably be Chilli Crab.

Sweet, savoury and lightly spicy with thick threads of beaten eggs floating through its sauce, eating Chilli Crab is always a messy affair.

[caption id="attachment_22869" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Photo Credits: The story goes that MJ Gomez, a South Indian restaurant owner in the 1950s, sold curry in a colonial building at Mt. Sophia. In an attempt to connect with the Chinese community, he incorporated whole fish heads into his curries, thus inventing the Fish Head Curry we know and love today.

[caption id="attachment_22875" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Photo Credits: Chef Hooi Kok Wai, former chef at the old Cathay Restaurant in 1958, needed to prove his love and dedication to his fiance, Leong Ah Lin. Struck by inspiration and with his obvious dedication to cooking, he invented the Yam Ring, a circle of mashed yam fried golden brown, surrounding a bed of stir-fried vegetables drowned in a silky sauce.

If you want a taste of this romantic dish, you can find it at the couple’s Did you Lou Hei this Chinese New Year? As you were shouting out New Year wishes (and trying to bring the salmon sashimi closer to you), did you know that Lou Hei is a singularly Singaporean dish and activity?

[caption id="attachment_22876" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Photo Credits: Silverkris[/caption]

Lou Hei Yu Sheng literally means to toss raw fish in Cantonese. Fishermen in Guangzhou used to eat raw fish on Renri, the 7th day of Chinese New Year. In 1964, chefs Tham Yui Kai, Lau Yoke Pui, Sin Leong and Hooi Kok Wai decided to popularise it as a lucky Chinese delicacy.

As a result, the popular dish now consists of a plate of raw fish (typically ikan parang or mackarel) with radish strips, carrot strips, pickled ginger, crushed nuts and pomelo. The dish is then sprinkled with deep-fried flour crisps, peanuts, sesame seeds, and cinnamon, then doused with a specially proportioned sauce consisting of plum sauce, kumquat paste, rice vinegar and sesame oil.

5. Singapore Sling 

I mean, of course we would include the Singapore Sling to this list! It literally has the word “Singapore” in it.

While the exact year of its creation remains a mystery, the most popular story goes that this drink was invented by a Hainanese bartender, Ngiam Toon Boon, at Raffles Hotel in 1915.

We’d recommend leaving it to the professionals at Pasar Malam (Singaporean night markets) these days are getting so artisanal, it’s become much easier to find rainbow bagels and ice cream macaroons than the classic Tutu Kueh.

[caption id="attachment_22877" align="alignnone" width="960"] Photo Credits: Zoylent[/caption]

A health-conscious individual with a busy work schedule himself, Alvin decided to hop onto the Soylent train. Marketed as a meal replacer that has “all of the elements of a healthy diet, with limited contribution from less desirable components such as sugars, saturated fats, or cholesterol”, it sounded like a futuristic dream come true.

He decided to switch from passenger to conductor after one sip. Malty but otherwise flavourless and boring, Alvin’s Singaporean identity as a foodie kicked in and he set about improving the flavour by 1000%.

Working with a food technologist and an R&D team in Malaysia, Zoylent was thus created, a vanilla-coconut-y drink that will save you the time and money a typical lunch might waste.

9. GSH Conserves

Jam shouldn’t be restricted to berries, marmalade or coconut and eggs (à la Kaya) and Joey Gan of GSH Conserves agrees.

[caption id="attachment_22872" align="aligncenter" width="448"] Photo Credits: Invented by three School of Chemical and Life Sciences students at Singapore Polytechnic, together with their industry partners RevoPack Pte Ltd and Fountainhead Manufacturing Pte Ltd, the Singapore Salad Sauce is the result of combining spices from around the region.

Also read, 20 Pictures That Show How Singapore Looked Like 20 Years Ago