Heritage Food Trails 1C3 Gp5 - more photographs (pics from the internet)

Mr Prata Stall at Great World City

Char Kway Teow stall at Zion Road Food Centre

Killiney Kopitiam at Purvis Street

Bak Kee Satay Beehoon proprieter, Mr Lee

Satay Beehoon dish

Char Kway Teow dish

Heritage & Culture of Singapore Food

Project: Food For Thought – The Heritage & Culture of Singapore Food

Project Group Members:             Charlene Phua           29

                                                       Charmaine Choo         5

                                                       Grace Low                  13

                                                       Lee Gek Chi                21

                                                        Vienne Chiam            37

Class / Group:                               1C3 Group 5

Contents

     1.   History of Hawker Centre in Singapore

2.   Singapore Cuisine

3.   The Five Different Dishes

4.   Chinese Heritage Food; Char Kway Teow

5.   Malay Heritage Food; Beef Rendang

6.   Indian Heritage Food; Roti Prata

7.   Fusion Food; Satay Beehoon & Hainanese Pork Chop

8.   Conclusion

1. History of Hawker Centre in Singapore

In the 1950s and early 1960s when unemployment was rife, many people took up hawking as a means of livelihood.  Street hawking was a profitable trade that required little capital but generated good income. Fuelled by public demand for cheap and convenient meals, the number of street hawkers increased and by the late 1960s, there were about 24,000 hawkers in Singapore. 
Street hawking, unfortunately, created a multitude of problems among which poor sanitation was the most serious. Without proper equipment and water supply, street hawkers failed to keep their utensils clean and protect their food from contamination. They also polluted the streets with food and liquid wastes. These problems posed a real threat to public health. 

There was a dire need to improve the situation.  Thus, the government decided to take these street hawkers off the streets and relocate them into purpose-built facilities, now known as market/hawker centres. By the mid 1980s, more than 140 market/hawker centres were built and all the street hawkers were successfully relocated into these proper premises i.e. stalls within market/ hawker centres.  
Hence, many popular Singapore food are found in hawker centres or food courts.  They originated from street food and some have evolved to become well known dishes served in eateries and fine restaurants today.

(Source: www.myhawkers.sg/index.php?m=discover&c=view&id=2‎) 

2. Singapore Cuisine

Singaporean cuisine is indicative of the ethnic diversity of the culture of Singapore which originated from Malaysia, as a product of centuries of cultural interaction owing to Singapore's strategic location. The food is influenced by the native Malay, the predominant Chinese, Indonesian, Indian, Peranakan, and Western traditions (particularly English and some Portuguese-influenced Eurasian, known as Kristang) since the founding of Singapore by the British in the nineteenth century. In Singaporean hawker stalls, for example, chefs of Chinese background influenced by Indian culture might experiment with condiments and ingredients such as tamarind, turmeric, and ghee, while an Indian chef might serve a fried noodle dish. With a variety of influences from different countries, it is suffice to note that the globalization phenomenon affects the cuisine in Singapore as well.

This globalization phenomenon on the cuisine of Singapore proves to be a significant cultural attraction. Most prepared food eaten outside the home is at hawker centres or food courts, examples of which include Lau Pa Sat and Newton Food Centre, rather than at restaurants. This is because such Singaporean hawker stalls include a huge variety of cuisines, ranging from Malay food, to Thai, Indian, Western, Korean, Japanese and even Vietnamese food. These hawker centres are abundant and cheap, hence encouraging a large consumer base.

Looking backward

Chinese traders migrated from several different provinces of southern China, bringing with them distinct languages and cuisines. This can be observed in the dishes of modern day Singapore. Hainanese chicken rice, arguably the king of Singaporean hawker food, evolved from a Hainan dish made of bony wengcheng chicken. Hokkiens from Amoy and Fukien provinces brought with them Hokkien mee or yellow wheat noodles, incorporated into many hawker dishes, a popular one being Hokkien char mee. 

Peranakan, or Nonya, cuisine was born in the late 1800s. When Chinese labourers arrived in Southeast Asia without wives, they began marrying Malay women and their descendants came to be known as Peranakan or Straits Chinese. Their food combined flavours from China, Malaya and the countries they travelled to as merchants. In many ways these were the earlier versions of fusion foods.

Laksa, one of the several dishes both Singapore and Malaysia have invented. Katong laksa is a vermicelli noodle soup made with coconut milk, prawns, cockles, fish cakes, bean sprouts, lemongrass, turmeric, homemade shrimp-chilli paste and the all-important laksa leaves. The turmeric and chilli suggest Indian influence, while the sprouts suggest Chinese influence. The rest incorporates a mix of Malay, South Indian and Eurasian influences.

One Singaporean dish with obvious Indian influence is the curry puff, created as a British friendly version of the samosa. Curry puffs are puff pastries filled with potatoes, Indian spices and meat.

(Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singaporean_cuisine)

 Source: www.bbc.com/.../20101214-travelwise-singaporean-food-past-and-present)

3. The Five Different Dishes

Our group has selected the following 5 different types of food which are well loved by most Singaporeans.  This project description includes:

-  brief account of the origin and history of the dish
-  food preparation methods and variations  
-  personal food reviews 

Through this food trail, we have discovered that local dishes such as those we selected were originally not from Singapore but rather they were brought into Singapore by early migrants and have since evolved into what they are today. During our research, we have also discovered that some of these dishes such as Char Kway Teow has been “exported to” and “modified by” food connoisseur of other countries who have come to enjoy them.

4. Chinese Heritage Food  

The Chinese constitute about 80% of the population of Singapore according to census taken in 2010 by the Singapore Department of Statistics. Among them, the Hokkiens, Teochews, and Cantonese form the largest dialect groups, while the Hakka, Hainanese, Foochows, Henghwas and Hokchias make up the smaller sub-groups.

Char kway teow, literally "stir-fried rice cake strips", is a popular noodle dish in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. The dish was (and still is in some places in Malaysia), especially in Singapore, can be best enjoyed at Hawker Centers and food courts. It is one of the favorite national dishes in Singapore.

A hint of char kway teow’s origin comes from the final word “teow.” Char kway teow originates in the South China ethnic group called the Teochew, more specifically, around Swatow, or modern day Shantou. As migrants moved from southern China to Southeast Asia, they brought their cuisine with them; however, the same ingredients were not always immediately available. Char kway teow grew out of the improvisations these migrants made. The Hokkien also professed that this is one of their traditional dish from China.

Ingredients & Preparations

It is made from flat rice noodles (河粉 hé fěn in Chinese) of approximately 1 cm or (in the north of Malaysia) about 0.5 cm in width, stir-fried over very high heat with light and dark soy sauce, chilli, a small quantity of belachan, whole prawns, de-shelled cockles, bean sprouts and chopped Chinese chives. The dish is commonly stir-fried with egg, slices of Chinese sausage and fishcake, and less commonly with other ingredients. Char kway teow is traditionally stir-fried in pork fat, with crisp croutons of pork lard, and commonly served on a piece of banana leaf on a plate.

Char kway teow has a reputation of being unhealthy due to its high saturated fat content. However, when the dish was first invented, it was mainly served to labourers. The high fat content and low cost of the dish made it attractive to these people as it was a cheap source of energy and nutrients. When the dish was first served, it was often sold by fishermen, farmers and cockle-gatherers who doubled as char kway teow hawkers in the evening to supplement their income.

Variations

As the dish has become increasingly popular, many cooks have come up with their own interpretations of the same basic main ingredient of rice cake strips/flat rice noodles fried with anything from eggs (chicken or duck), onions, garlic, prawns, cockles, Chinese sausage, chives, etc.
Of all the notable versions, the Penang style of char kway teow is the most famous. Its popularity leads many char koay teow sellers outside Penang to call their products "Penang char koay teow" in order to attract customers.

In the past it was usual to stir-fry char kway teow in pork fat without eggs (which were, however, available on request). More recently, ordinary cooking oil is commonly used for health or religious reasons, and eggs have become a standard ingredient in the dish.

In other parts of Malaysia, such as Miri in East Malaysia, additional ingredients may include beef, onions, sweet soya sauce, etc.
Versions of char koay teow prepared by Muslims in Malaysia will exclude pork fat and may include extra soy sauces and spices and the use of broader-width flat rice noodles. There are also vegetarian varieties that may or may not include eggs

There are also "gourmet" versions of char kway teow, commonly found in Ipoh and Penang, where the dish may be prepared with more seafood, with crab meat and with duck eggs.
In Indonesia, the dish is known as Kwetiau Goreng (Indonesian: fried flat rice noodles) and is served in Chinese restaurants and by travelling street hawkers. The Indonesian version is less oily, uses no lard, and normally incorporates beef or chicken to cater to the majority Muslim population. However, some Chinese restaurants in Indonesia that serve non-Muslim customers do use pork and pork fat.
Char kway teow is also popular at takeaways in Australia and New Zealand, where it may appear on the menu as 'Kwai Due' or some variant spelling thereof.

Many Southeast Asian restaurants in Hong Kong offer char kway teow as a Malay specialty although it is of Southeast Asian Chinese origin. The char kway teow served in Hong Kong is an entirely different dish: stir-fried Chinese-style flat rice noodles with prawns, char siu, onions, and bean sprouts, seasoned with curry and bright yellow in colour. In some places this is known as Fried "Good Dale", a transliteration of the characters "炒貴刁".

The Char Kway Teow in Kampar, Perak, Malaysia, is served with cockles but with no prawns (although prawns may be available on request). According to old Kampar Char Kway Teow sellers; this is because Kampar was not near any source of fresh prawns. In Singapore, char kway teow has evolved into a healthier version with more vegetables and less oil. Furthermore, the greens and bean sprouts gives off a fresh, crunchy texture that makes the dish taste even more unique from other dishes of the cuisine.

From how the dish’s evolution, we can see how it reflects the different lifestyle we have at different geographical location and periods. In early Singapore, we could tell that many wanted to save money and were not educated on the importance of health. However, as Singapore developed and education was made available to many, Singaporeans are more health conscious and make it an effort to eat healthily.

Food Review

The store we visited was located in the Zion Road Food Centre.  The stall has been in business for more than a decade. The stall has also won several awards and the owner was proud to displace them in front of his stall.

There was a short queue as we arrived after lunch hours. The store was generally clean and has a 'B’ grade for cleanliness by the authority.

We tried the version with dark sauce and cockles. It tasted a little soggy and oily but flavourful.  Our char kway teow included a little vegetable and slices of Chinese sausages. The cockles were partially cocked and have a slight raw taste to it. 

The dish of fried noodles is difficult to perfect, but the final product is totally worth the effort!  High heat, a well- seasoned wok and lard are stepping stones to perfection. The more times you cook this, the more attuned your eyes and hands will become to the short successive frying stages for the different ingredients.

We all liked it and agreed that it was worth our visit.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Char_kway_teow‎
Source: www.keropokman.com/2008/08/history-of-char-kuey-teow-national.html‎

Source: sgfoodhistory.blogspot.com/2012/07/char-kway-teow.html‎

Source: Chinese Heritage Cooking by Christopher Tan & Amy Van

5. Malay Heritage Food

The Malay community in Singapore makes up about 14 per cent of the country’s population today. Malay cuisine In Singapore is a reflection of the country’s multifaceted heritage and culture. It is strongly influenced by Indonesian and Malaysia cuisines and has infused elements from the various ethnic communities in Singapore. 

Malay Food - Beef Rendang

Rendang is a popular dish of meat stewed in coconut milk and spices, commonly found in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Rendang is a savoury, flavourful, Indonesian accompaniment dish made of meat or vegetables, which is served with a variety of rice dishes. A perfect heritage dish of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore; this traditional spicy food from the Minangkabau cuisine is prepared for festivals and special occasions. Rendang recipes are of two basic types- the dry and the wet. The dry form is a much-preferred ceremonial food mainly prepared to honour guests. Though many Malaysian curries are broadly classified as Rendang, the dish in the true sense of the word is not a curry, though it may appear to be so.

Origin of Rendang 

Rendang seems to have been invented in or before the first half of the sixteenth century as reference to the dish is observed in 1550 A.D., in the literary works on Amir Hamzah, one of the greatest heroes of Malayan history. Rendang is believed to originate from West Sumatra where water buffalo was traditionally used as the meat. The dish signifies the wealth of the person or community that can afford to put down a water buffalo for consumption. Water buffalos; however, tend to be tougher than common beef found in most Western countries. To make it more palatable, the meat of the buffalo is thus cooked on a low temperature over a long period of time and braised in coconut milk and spices until it becomes a dry curry. As the whole buffalo was prepared, the dish was cooked in large quantities, often using a large wok. Rendang was originally wrapped in plantain or banana leaves for consumption on long journeys.

The dish today is considered a celebratory meal, served regularly during Hari Raya, a major feast day amongst Muslim Malays, and at Malay weddings. It is eaten with rice or a staple like lontong.

Ingredients and Food Preparation Method

The meat, usually beef but sometimes chicken or mutton, is stewed in coconut milk with spices such as ginger, chillies, galangal (blue ginger), lemongrass, garlic, shallots, kaffir lime leaves and turmeric. A wide rather than a deep pot is preferred to allow the milk to evaporate during a slow boil of up to three hours. Skill is required to ensure the liquid does not over boil and cause the milk to curdle. However, if the fire is too low, the meat could burn. Correctly cooked, the liquid will thicken into the distinctive rendang gravy. This cooking process has several purposes – it adds flavour to the meat as it is braised in the spices; it softens and tenderises the meat as the dish dries up; and it enhances the preservation of the dish, allowing it to remain edible even two to three days later without refrigeration or up to two weeks in the refrigerator.

Combine all rempah ingredients in a blender and blitz into a smooth paste. Pour into a large mixing bowl together with beef and mix thoroughly. Cover, refrigerate and leave to marinate overnight or for 2 hours at minimum. To cook, transfer meat into a large non-stick saucepan. Add remaining ingredients and cook uncovered on a low to medium heat until half the liquid has evaporated. Stir occasionally to check the mixture is not catching on the bottom. 

Cook until the rendang develops into a dark brown with most of the liquid evaporated and beef tender. This should take 1 – 1 ½ hours.
The dish is best eaten with rice and is sometimes consumed with ketupat (steamed pressed rice). It is more often served in hawker centres as one of several dishes in nasi padang.

Food Review

The store we visited was located along River Valley Road. This was a Nasi Padang eating house, The various dishes were already cooked and displayed on the shelves, in the chafing dishes for customers’ selection.

As we visited the eating house after lunch, there was no crowd so we need not wait to enjoy the food.

The beef rendang was spicy. The meat was a bit tough but juicy. The aroma from the spice, herbs and coconut made it all so appetizing. As we visited the store after lunch hours, the food had been left on the shelf for awhile, so it was not piping hot. It would have tasted much yummier if it were hot. The flavors of Beef Rendang unfold in layers. First there are the zingy flavors of lemongrass and ginger, then comes the savoury beef along with a torrent of chilli, finally, as you continue to chew you start tasting the creamy coconut milk towards the back of your tongue.

We would recommend it to our friends.

Infopedia.nl.sg › Heritage and Culture‎

en.netlog.com/FewelwclAnnofamae/blog/blogid=5293169‎

www.ifood.tv › Encyclopedia‎

malaysiakitchen.com.au/?type_recipe=pohs-beef-rendang

http://norecipes.com/blog/beef-rendang-recipe/#sthash.7MvcuxkG.9zqd1Dt7.dpbs

6. Indian Heritage Food

Indians in Singapore are mostly the descendants of migrants who came from the Indian subcontinent and the peninsula of Malaya during the British rule. The early immigrants came seeking opportunities to work and trade. Indians came to Singapore first as indentured servants and later as traders.

Indian cuisine can be broadly divided into North Indian and South Indian. While the northerners tend to cook with cow’s milk and ghee with are milder in their use of spices, the southerners generally cook with coconut milk and oil and have a penchant for curry leaves.

The early Indian immigrants in Singapore incorporated local ingredients and cooking styles into their traditional cuisines or spiced up Malay or Chinese dishes with an Indian touch, creating new dishes unique to Singapore.

Indian Food - Roti Prata

Roti prata (Pratha) is a round pancake, often eaten with mutton or fish curry. It is sold mostly by Indian Muslims at coffee shops and hawker centres and often costs anything between 60 to 80 cents. To many, it serves as a staple food for breakfast, lunch and dinner although it is most often eaten at breakfast.

Origins

 

The Roti Prata belongs to a group of breads which are indigenous to India. Brought to Singapore by Indian immigrants, the Roti Prata is said to be either of Punjabi origin or introduced by the Muslim conquerors, who also specialised in making various types of breads. 

Perhaps roti prata is the most popular Indian bread in Singapore, commonly eaten with a Malay-style mutton rib curry cooked with dhal. Traditionally parotta (the bread’s original name) is eaten with a coconut milk-based curry called kurma. There are two common varieties of roti prate- plain and with egg but Indian Muslim stalls across the island also offer interesting and innovative versions incorporating cheese, mushrooms, bananas, sugar, jam, chocolate, ice cream and other similarly unexpected ingredients.

Ingredients & Food Preparation

Flour, sugar and salt are the basic ingredients for Roti Prata. Water is added to the flour to form a stiff dough. The dough is kneaded next. This is an important procedure as it makes the dough soft and pliable. By kneading, the dough is also aired and this makes it light. After this, the dough is divided into smaller portions and left to rest overnight.

In the morning, the ball of dough is placed on the work table and the prata-maker gets to work. With sure, quick movements, he whirls and twirls the dough from left to right, from right to left until it is paper thin and four or five times larger than the original piece. This is the most difficult step in prata making and is considered an art in itself. After folding this thin piece into a rectangle, he tosses the prata on the griddle greased with peanut oil. 

Fry it in an oiled pan on both sides till brown spots appear and crispy. Crush by pressing it together with both hands and serve immediately.

The prata is said to be cooked when dark brown "blisters" burst on the surface. A well-made prata should be crisp outside and soft inside. Pratas can be eaten with sugar, curries or just plain. The most enjoyable way of eating the prata is with the fingers; the bread is torn into bite size pieces and dipped into the curry before being popped into the mouth.

Variations

There are many variations of the ordinary prata. When egg is added, it is an egg prata. This usually costs double the price of a plain prata. When minced meat such as mutton or chicken, eggs and onions are added, it is called muruthapa. Vegetarian Indian restaurants also sell muruthapas with a vegetable filling.

The dish has evolved somewhat differently in Singapore and in Malaysia. In Singapore, economic affluence and cultural influences have created variations reflective of the cosmopolitan character of the city. For instance, it is common to find outlets serving roti prata with flavourings as varied as garlic, banana, chocolate, durian and cheese. This is less common in Malaysia. Also roti prata variations are more likely to be known by names such as cheese prata or onion prata rather than with a roti prefix, and mostly in the English language. More recently, the dish has also evolved to other sweeter and crispier variants such as "tissue" and "paper" which are pan-fried with butter, rolled into a cone shape and sprinkled with sugar.

Food Review
The store we visited was located inside the food court at Great World City. The name of the store is Mr. Prata. This is a branch of an existing eatery elsewhere.

The store holder was friendly and the service was great. He even volunteered to demonstrate the making of the prata for our recording. The prate was crispy on the outside and chewy and soft on the inside. The curry sauce for dipping was not too spicy and delicious.
We had a great time and definitely a good idea to visit it again.

Source :www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=33849090616964

Source: infopedia.nl.sg › Heritage and Culture

Source: recipes.wikia.com/wiki/Roti_Prata‎

Source : Indian Heritage Cooking by devagi Sanmugam & Shanmugam Kasinathan

7. Fusion Food - Satay Beehoon

Satay beehoon is a dish of the cultural fusion between Malay and Chinese. Satay bee hoon sauce is a chilli-based peanut sauce very similar to the one served with satay. The satay sauce is spread on top of rice vermicelli.

    

Ingredients

The main ingredient of satay beehoon is satay sauce and beehoon. Cuttlefish, kang kong, bean sprouts, pork slices, prawns and cockles can be added to the vermicelli before spreading the sauce.

Origin

Arabs were known to skewer their meat on swords before roasting and Middle Eastern nomads would barbecue their meat on metal skewers in a dish known as kebab or sharwarma. The spice trade brought Arab traders to Southeast Asia and led to the spread of Arab culinary culture to the Indonesians and eventually to Malaya.

The satay sauce, made from ground peanuts and other spices, was first introduced in the Philippines by the Spanish from South America. It is used to marinate the pieces of satay meat, with the remaining sauce served as a dip with the grilled meat.

Satay & Satay sauce in Singapore

The travelling satay man, a street hawker who prepared his delicacy with a portable charcoal grill, was a familiar sight to Singaporeans up to the late 1970s. The Satay Club, a collection of stalls hawking solely satay in the evenings at the edge of the park at the Esplanade, was a popular dining destination until it was demolished in 1995 to make way for new developments. Today, satay is sold in many hawker centres and whole industries have grown around it. There are now wholesalers that prepare uncooked satay for hawkers, taking over a tedious task that used to be the sole duty of the satay hawker.

A local variant of the traditional satay sauce has the peanut mix topped with pineapple puree. New dishes have also been introduced, such as satay beehoon, which has adopted the unmistakable satay ingredients. To make a good Satay sauce, you need to roast the peanuts with the skin on, then remove the skin and grind it into sandy powder and then slow cook it with 15 different ingredients in order to achieve that smooth, nutty, spicy, sweetly goodness.

Ingredients & Food Preparation 

Grind all although the ingredients for peanut sauce and stir-fry with some oil till fragrant. Combine with other ingredients for the gravy, mainly tamarind juice, water, sugar and roasted peanuts and bring to boil till thickened and. Stir in curry powder. Blanch beehoon, cuttlefish, bean curd puffs and kang kong in boiling water. Drain and transfer to dish and pour hot peanut sauce over the beehoon. You may add de-shelled cockles. Ever wonder how the cuttlefish is made?  Well, you start with dried cuttlefish, soak it in a lye water (kee zhui) solution and keep circulating the water overnight in order to rehydrate it into that translucent, crunchy consistency.  It is little wonder that there are not many people want to sell the stuff! 

Food Review

The store we visited was located at Redhill Food Centre. The name of the store is Bak Kee Satay Beehoon. 

The satay sauce was thick and creamy. It was full of peanut flavour with a strong dose of chilli. The kang kong was crunchy and the vermicelli was cooked to perfection - al dente. The store holder was generous with the other ingredients like cockles and cuttlefish.

It was definitely worth our visit. Those who do sell Satay Bee Hoon, do it because they really love the dish.  Without passion, it won't be easy to continue stirring that pot of Satay sauce otherwise.  The satay sauce is so precious that you can't actually ask for more of it.  The sauce is after all the star of the show while the other ingredients are just there to give you a reason for eating it.

Source: Simply Singaporean by Eric Teo (Seashore Publication)

Source: infopedia.nl.sg › Heritage and Culture‎

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satay_bee_hoon‎

Source: sg.openrice.com › Singapore Dining Guide › Articles‎

Source: ieatishootipost.sg/2009/04/bak-kee-teochew-satay-bee-hoon-why-is.html

Source: Simply Singaporean by Eric Teo (Seashore Publication)

Fusion Food – Hainanese Pork Chop

 

Origin & History

Hainanese refers to the Chinese who originate from Hainan Island, the southernmost and smallest Chinese province. Most Hainanese Han people were originally fishermen from the Fujian and Guangdong provinces who later settled in Hainan. They make up 7 per cent of the Chinese in Singapore today. They arrived in Singapore only around 1850s because of the late opening of Hainan Island to foreign trade. As they came later than the rest of the Chinese, they stayed further from the main godowns along the Singapore River and resided in the areas around Middle Road, Purvis Street and Beach Road, which is still very much regarded as the main enclave for the Hainanese.

As their dialect was unintelligible to the other Chinese groups, the Hainanese found it difficult to communicate with the others. They also did not have the connections to help them get into established trades.

Thus worked as cooks and domestic servants for European families and wealthy Peranakan households in the Bukit Timah, Tanglin and Changi areas, as well as waiters and cook boys in coffee shops, bakeries and restaurants/hotels.                             

In Singapore & Malaysia (known as Malaya then), most Hainanese worked as cooks in British military camps and in the homes of British expatriates during the colonial days. Many of them transported their culinary prowess to their own coffee shops.

Ingredients and Food Preparation Method

The Hainanese Pork Chop is of western origin but uses a combination of western and Chinese ingredients and is unique to Singapore and Malaysia. The Anglicised restaurant and hawker dishes we now call “Western food” largely evolved from these roots. The original version of this dish was likely seasoned with British condiments such as HP sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Versions that added tomato ketchup to the sauce mix are more common nowadays. The Hainanese also added cream crackers as coating to give it the crispy and crunchy texture which is unlike the origin version.  

The boneless pork chops are dusted with corn flour and set aside for a minute. Dip them in  beaten egg and coat with cream cracker before deep-frying until golden brown. HP, Worcestershire sauce, or ketchup and other sauces and seasoning are used to cook the gravy. Other ingredients such as potatoes, onions and peas are then stir fried before pouring over the thicken gravy onto the crispy pork chops.

Food Review

The shop that we visited is located at Pervis Street. It is a well known eatery called Killiney Coffee Shop. The shop is famous for its kaya toast and local coffee.  It also serves very delicious Hainanese pork chop. The manager was very kind and hospitable towards us.  She accepted our interview willingly. 

The pork chop was very tender and juicy. It is coated with sweet and spicy tomato sauce. It goes very well with plain white rice. We enjoyed our visit to this eatery and would definitely recommend others to try it out.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hainan_people

Source: ofmiceandramen.blogspot.com/.../hainanese-pork-chops-and-my-homet...‎

Source: Chinese Heritage Cooking by Christopher Tan & Amy Van

Source: A Culinary Journey into Our Cultural Roots by Pang Nyuk Yoon

END