Me'a Kai : The Food and Flavours of the South Pacific book review

Me’a Kai: The Food and Flavours of the South Pacific
By Robert Oliver with Dr Tracy Berno and photos by Shiri Ram


As Australia Day rolls around every year, I always pause to deliberate on the issues that inevitably crop up during this time of year. What it means to be Australian, how Australian-ness is celebrated and what is deemed to be un-Australian. There are quite a few perspectives floating around. It is often not a unanimous celebratory day for all, depending on which side of the fence you sit. Most call it Australia Day, others Invasion Day and some, even Survival Day. All are legitimate perspectives in my opinion and should be acknowledged. Neighbours of mine cooked up a fantastic barbecue lamb feast that would have put a huge smile of Sam Kekovich’s face! I thought I might celebrate a bit of reflective post-Australia Day with a book review on a cuisine that is not part of our vocabulary. Many groups of Islander peoples have contributed significantly to the building of the Australian nation up in northern Queensland and Northern Territory. So why don’t we celebrate Australia Day with some islander food? Australia is an island nation surrounded by water. The Pacific is also made up of island nations and is surrounded by a bounty of beautiful produce from the sea.

Recently, I found a comprehensive and beautiful book on Pacific Islander cooking. This publication comes from Random House New Zealand. And what a fantastic job they’ve done. This book will prove an invaluable resource for those craving diverse South Pacific recipes and stories from Samoa, Rarotonga, the Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tahiti and Tonga. The author, Robert Oliver has mapped out the book with care. In it you’ll find cultural and social narratives about land, lost heritage and how locals are regaining cultural pride through keeping alive traditional recipes. This is a big project – all these stories and recipes are captured within its 493 pages. This book will no doubt inspire you to plan a holiday to the South Pacific with its photographs of toddlers sipping from young coconuts, landscapes full of swaying, coconut-laden trees, perfect idyllic beaches, hyper-colourful markets and smiling friendly locals.


(preparing lap lap over hot rocks)


Readers are introduced to cooking with coconut in all its various uses. You can drink it, milk it, turn it into oil, grate it for food and ferment it for an extra taste sensation. Banana leaves get a big look-in. Surely it’s nature’s original, environmentally-friendly food wrapper. Lovos (earth ovens) or hangis to you Kiwis out there are lovingly described; let’s not forget the Samoan umu (or above-ground spit) and we learn all sorts of interesting ways of cooking with seawater and bamboo. There is a useful market guide to ingredients too. Oliver writes of South Pacific markets brimmingwith amaranth (also a Chinese favourite leafy veg), Fijian river ferns, sweet potato leaves, taro leaves, bananas and plantains, wild lemons called molikana, mangoes, Tahitian apples. Seasonal seafood harvests like balolo (or coral worm tails – apparently they taste like caviar according to the author), sea cucumbers, glassweed (a seaweed gelling agent), and sea grapes. Exotic ingredients like duruka (Fiji asparagus) or heart of sugarcane, hearts of palm, and Polynesian chestnuts. All these things I have yet to try!


(that's not a spread - THIS is a spread!)


From Samoa, we have umu-baked pawpaw bread (wrapped in banana leaves) with coconut caramel sauce. Plantain soup with ginger, balsamic vinegar and curry powder being predominant bedmates, and reef clams with tomato, chilli and vodka salsa.

Rarotongans love their pawpaw breakfast jams, starfruit chutneys, uto pancakes (uto is fruit that develops inside a sprouting coconut!), raw tuna salad with pawpaw seeds and coconut rolls. Those who want to try these coconut-rich rolls can buy them at selected Islander bakeries in Brisbane.

Fijian delicacies are featured, such as taro-leaf wrapped river shrimps, octopus baked in banana leaf, roasted chicken with Polynesian chestnuts and Tamarind gravy, Kokoda (a kind of South Pacific ceviche marinated in coconut milk and limes.

Oliver also gives the Indo-Fijian communities a look-in. We don’t find a lot of Fijian-Indian food much in Brisbane. Cowpeas with aubergines, mangrove mud crab curry, goat and green pawpaw curry. Oliver also sweeps the Fijian-Euro communities for fusion gems. Try chilled rourou soup (taro leaf) with coconut milk, coconut cream pies and mango puddings.

In Tahiti, the locals love raw fish. Fish tartares abound – these are made with super fresh cuts of mahi mahi, tuna and snapper. The French influence can be seen in pawpaw ratatouille, La Bouillabaise Tahitienne with fresh seafood and coconut milks – these dishes always have an Islander twist. It may be fish steaks with a blue cheese sauce but served with breadfruit chips.

Tonga serves up watermelon smoothies (complete with fresh grated coconut and coconut milk!), warm young coconut drink with lemongrass and cassava flour and the delicious Ota Ika (Tongan ceviche). Those interested in trying some of these Islander delicacies head to Matauaina’s Takeaway at 268 Kingston Road, Slacks Creek.


(Ota Ika - tuna loin marinated in lime juice & coconut milk)


Me’a Kai celebrates the diversity that exists in the Pacific and although they share a lot of common ingredients, each island nation imbues its food with different and daring twists. I have learnt so much from reading this book and thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful photographs taken by Fijian photographer, Shiri Ram. Now if only Brisbane has more Islander food places! This is a must-read for all foodies.

A dash of Baba Nyonya

Think pineapple tarts. Think beaded shoes. Think antiques. Think Nyonya kuihs (cakes) and pastries. Where do we think when we think of these things? We think of Melaka, of course! After a somewhat underwhelming eating sojourn in Singapore, we made our way into Malaysia with the promise of good, cheap street food. Melaka is known for its Portuguese ruins and promises an interesting historical past. I never paid too much attention when I was in school in Malaysia but I do recall tidbits of Melakan history. Melaka was a thriving port in the early 15th century. It was an important trading route with China being one of its biggest traders. To cut the history lesson short: Chinese merchants and families intermarried with local Malays over the ensuing generations, and as a result, we have a very unique group called the Peranakans. Or baba and nyonyas as they are so often called. Their cuisine is unique and is a fusion of Chinese and Malay flavours. You don’t find much representation of this subgenre of Malaysian food in restaurants overseas so we were very excited to see there were lots of Nyonya restaurants to choose from while we were in Melaka. Alas, Monday evenings, we discovered, is not conducive to dining in restaurants in town. Most interesting Nyonya restaurants we’d walked past in the day, and made mental notes to visit later were all shut. Our hotel concierge had recommended two well-reputed restaurants but they were all shut. After much disappointment and a lot more walking around we found one restaurant that was open – just. We had to ask the proprietor to open the doors for us – they were closing up for the night. They very kindly took pity on us and our loud, rumbling stomachs helped a bit. We tried to order some dishes but many of them had sold out so these were our picks.

Itik Tim soup here consists of salty duck pieces with preserved salted mustard leaves. My grandmother does a fabulous Teo Chew version of this preserved vegetable and duck soup for my father (but with leftover roast duck, salted mustard, fresh mustard, dried whole chillies, tamarind peel and tomatoes). It’s his favourite soup and he can drink gallons of this rich, hot, sour and salty broth.

(our dinner at Anak Nyonya Restoran)

The cubes of spongy-looking custard is otak otak Melaka-style. The otak otak I’m used to are usually wrapped up in banana leaves and either steamed or grilled. These cubes were an onslaught of flavours, chilli, turmeric and kaffir lime leaves punch through and the texture was a good mixture of smooth and slightly coarse fish meal. Think spicy fish mousse for those of you who haven’t yet tried it.

Ayam masak merah or red chilli chicken is a favourite dish with many Malaysians, and is usually eaten with mounds of rice. This version had some fiery chilli heat for extra kick. The sauce was very rich and had an almost caramelized/treacley consistency.

Cincaluk omelette is another popular Nyonya dish. Fermented tiny shrimps are beaten into the egg mix and shallow-fried – the texture is springy and very light. Delicious!

Our last dish, chap chye is a typical vegetarian dish you’ll find in many households on the first and fifteenth days of the month. Devout Buddhists observe vegetarian days on the first and fifteenth days of the month and this dish features heavily on the menu. It’s a comforting dish of braised cabbage, wood ear fungus, lily buds, mung bean vermicelli and bean curd skin.
Here are other food ramblings in Melaka town.

The Jonker Street markets offer a mix of touristy offerings and locally-made products. You’ll find this gentleman who runs a mobile popiah stall at the markets. Popiah fillings can be as economical or as luxurious as you want. Typical fillings consist of shredded yam bean, carrots, firm bean curd, pork and a heap of shallots and finely shredded lettuce. Some more upmarket popiah makers fill their thin skin wrappers with crab and other such indulgent fillings!

This Jonker Street Market popiah seller’s fillings (from memory) were very tasty despite lacking in luxurious ingredients, and made extra tasty by a dash of hoisin and chilli sauce. The guy handled dirty notes and coins – all the while preparing these parcels! Maybe that’s why they tasted so good!

Here is another memorable meal. Lunch at Hoe Kee for Melaka’s famous chicken rice balls. Imagine Hainan chicken rice packed up and rolled in giant golf ball-sized morsels. Call me boring but I think I preferred the normal chicken rice. The chicken was super smooth and tender and the accompanying sticky soy and gingery chilli sauce went down a treat. I didn’t think I’d get excited about cabbage but the stir-fried cabbage here is the goods! I could’ve eaten a whole plate of it if I weren’t with other people and had to share!

The soup was very tasty if you can get past the chopped up bits of chicken feet. Boil pork bones, black beans (also called turtle beans), ginger and lots of chicken feet for hours and you have a really tasty broth. My grandmother makes a version of black bean soup but with lamb shanks, ginger and honey dates. This makes the perfect winter pick-me-up.


(Hainan chicken rice balls in close up)


Melaka is a touristy town but with a bit of heart and soul and we had a great time walking around town looking at the old Chinese shop houses with their intricate carvings and plasterwork. The hotel we stayed at, Hotel Puri is a beautiful space to relax in. It’s a heritage Nyonya house with lots of interesting nooks and crannies filled with antique artifacts, kitchen and cooking utensils.

Here is a demonstration setup of a typical old-fashioned Malay kuih-making kitchen. !



(Such interesting kuih moulds)

The hotel is so ambient and relaxing even the swallows have found their way in and made comfortable homes in one of the foyers! It’s the most magical thing to walk into this room in the late evening and have these birds fly in and out encircling the room in search of a perch stop. The concierge told us that the owner of the hotel harvests the birds’ nests for soups every now and again. Birds nest can costs up to several thousand ringgit per kilo so this is a good omen indeed! There is a huge market for birds nest we discovered in Malaysia’s east coast (post of this later down the track!).



(There must be several generations of birds in the one room - oh the noise!)

Restaurants featured are:

Anak Nyonya Restoran, 88 Jalan Tokong, Melaka (closed Wednesdays) from 10:30am - 9:30pm

Hoe Kee Hainanese Chicken Rice Ball, 4-8 Jalan Hang Jebat, Melaka

Jonker Street night markets from 6pm - 12 midnight Saturdays and Sundays.

Pass the mush, we're in hospital now

Last week I had my first taste of hospital food. How did I come by hospital food? My grandmother was admitted to hospital and her condition was looking critical so I flew down to Sydney to visit her. Her lunch arrived – she didn’t have any appetite (the woman had an appetite that would shame us all in her younger years) so I ate some of it. I thought at the time, this isn’t as bad as people say it is. Then I changed my mind when I saw what she was served for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Hospital food is, at best, tolerable, for a day or two. Stretch it out three times a day, five , six, seven days in a row and you start to see a pattern – a very repetitive one. I was there for four days and was already bored with the menu. Yes, I know hospital food is not meant to be palatable but patients have to eat in order to regain their strength, surely. In my research about hospital food, I came across a couple of articles about vulnerable patients in hospitals suffering from malnutrition. Read about malnutrition in hospitals.

I didn’t think it was polite to take photographs of my grandmother’s hospital meals do I didn’t. Readers out there will have to use their imaginations. I was surprised to see the number of non-nutritious food items that is being served up in our hospitals. The next time you're visiting someone in hospital - look around you - sugary juices, syrupy fruits and spongey white bread abound. On the menu featured items like two fruits, chicken and gravy, lamb and gravy, seasonal vegetables, tuna pasta bake, mashed potato, rice pudding and apple or orange juice. What they mean by fruit is individual servings of fruit in syrup – the kind you peel off a plastic tab and dig a spoon in. Fresh fruit is an apple (not so appropriate when the patient can’t really eat and has dentures). Chicken is an anaemic rubber ball, potatoes dry, sweet potato water logged, beans leathery and tough as old boots. This is what I suspect lies in wait for most public hospital patients. Perhaps readers who have been in private hospitals have a different experience?

My grandmother gathered up her strength to screw up her face when I lifted the lid of her lunch. A plate of indeterminate meat slathered in packet gravy, surrounded by hunks of sweet potato, potato and beans. She turned away and said feebly, I can’t eat that. A Caucasian woman who was sharing my grandmother’s ward; when I asked her what she was having for lunch – she stopped chewing and stopped for several seconds then said, rather embarrassedly, I don’t know what meat this is.

You have to eat, I said, to get better. Deep down, I wouldn’t have wanted to eat that either to tell the truth. She managed about a quarter of a potato and a mouthful of sweet potato. My mother and I ended up making her some thin fish congee and some vegetarian noodles the next couple of days. Her lunches and dinners continued to arrive – they sat untouched.

Cultural diversity must be a pain to address in public health settings. We often forget that Australia is becoming so much more multicultural these days; as a result, we end up alienating a large part of the population that end up in hospitals don’t eat the Anglo-Saxon way. Yes, it’s convenient and easy to roast a hunk of meat, chuck a heap of beans and potatoes in a big pot and forget about it. I can appreciate the logistical nightmare of cooking for a niche group but some considerations for menu planning would be so much appreciated by patients. If hospitals presented better quality, better thought-out food, patients will eat more and faster, regain their strength a lot quicker and hopefully leave these dire places pronto. This youtube clip about hospital food pretty much sums it up!

While I write this, my grandmother is still in hospital, no doubt wanting to get better faster but very likely refusing another round of chicken in gravy and two fruits. Maybe Jamie Oliver should start a Ministry of Better Hospital Food for All Vulnerable Patients?

Book launching a go

My little food guide celebrated its third edition just this Friday, 5th November 2010. Like all good book launches before, it was backed by a supportive crew of booksellers at Avid Reader. An interested audience came along and an interesting foodie panel discussed, well, food and coffee! The fabulous duo, Margaret Connolly (on violin)and Dorothy Williams (contralto singer) entertained us with Black Coffee and One Meatball. I had a food and travel writer (Karen Reyment also wrote the foreword to my book), baker-food blogger (Julia Tuomainen), food journalist (Natascha Mirosch), cooking school/food tour operator (Sally Lynch) and a fantastic barista (Ben Graham).


What a great window display - thanks Avid crew!


The foodie panel at work


More foodie panel.


M & D doing their thing.

In the year of writing the guide, getting caught up in the craze of MasterChef and other food-related madness - one thing always disturbed me. The fact that while a large percentage of Brisbanites are gorging on food in every way possible, a growing percentage of people are increasingly left with nothing or not enough to eat.

About 14 years ago I decided to have a meal in a soup kitchen in Sydney. It was an experiment for my writing. What I didn't expect was that the experience left me completely humbled. I walked away feeling ashamed of my excesses even though I was a uni student then surviving on using past use-by-date milk and two minute noodles. That soup kitchen meal has never left me. I was lucky to stumble on Mama Rene's charity recently. The charity is locally run by a Pastor John Dowell. They run a mobile soup kitchen and grocery distribution from a carpark in Spring Hill and have other operations down on the Gold Coast and other suburbs around Brisbane. They don't turn anybody away - individuals that need a hot meal and groceries are welcome. For my third book launch, I had a fundraiser event for Mama Rene's. Daniel and Tina are two very hardworking and generous souls from Mama Rene's who came and spoke to the audience about the work they do for the homeless. Together we raised a neat amount of funds that I hope will help them. So thank you to all who generously donated their time and money on Friday night. The money will be put to good use I am sure of it.


The queue lining up for groceries on a rainy night in a Spring Hill carpark.

Those who want to check out what Mama Rene's website can go to www.mamarenes.org

For delicious baking check out www.melangerbaking.com

For budding travel and food writers www.adayinthelifeimages.com/profilekarenreyment

Food journo's foodie adventures check out http://blogs.news.com.au/couriermail/food/

Coffee lovers drink this up http://onedropspecialtycoffee.com/

Brush up on your cooking skills? http://www.tastetrekkers.com.au/

Intrepid foodies who want a copy of my book go to www.brisbanebudgetbites.com.au


Below is a short piece I wrote all those years ago about the soup kitchen I ate in.

Meanwhile on the other side of Chinatown

It was the sign that did it. It read Free Meals – All Welcome!

The soured smells of old men with bags for hats and cans for cash hang in the air. In the dead of winter, a bare-chested man with a leather jacket sits hunched up rolling cigarettes while he waits for his four course meal. He has rings for knuckles and sunglasses for eyes. The leather man shreds bread as if feeding pigeons, scattering crumbs into his dishwater soup. He waits for the bread to suck up the hot soup, waits patiently for them to plump up into wheaten dumplings before gulping them down greedily.

Another man, more decrepit, holds two slices of bread in his left hand spoons soup slowly and meticulously into his mouth. He has a plastic bag for a bib and looking a little like a displaced cricket player, sports a smear of sunscreen on his forehead and above his eyes. His hand luggage is a swagger of plastic bags. Bags within bags. The balloon of bags rustle as they rub against his body. Huge rubber bands clump together around his shoes to keep him from losing the sole from the rest of his shoe. His hands shake.

A toothless old man with a brown hat and a brown jumper stares at the men inside and the other men stare at his brand new shoes. The toothless man leaves almost immediately after he finishes his meal. He is uncomfortable. He eyes the men as he walks out, his brand new shoes squeaking and clicking under him.

Pictures of Jesus and Mary loom overhead together with cardboard cut-outs of the Easter bunny. The volunteers all stand around in plastic aprons, strangely grim, all of them with beards. An older volunteer suggests to the leather man that perhaps he should say grace. The volunteer and the leather man both break out in laughter. Leather man is obviously a regular.

Skinless sausages with gritty gravy is on the menu. Dishwater soup with bloated vermicelli, a floret of cauliflower, a spoonful of spinach, a small serving of boiled pumpkin, a handful of mushy chips on the side also feature on the menu. The basket of soy and linseed bread is a nice surprise. It sits there on the communal table – touched by all hands. Hands that have rifled through old newspapers. Hands that have dug into rubbish bins for edible scraps the night before. The fruit salad is close to fermenting as it sits in the plastic container. The old men imagine fermenting grapes turning into wine before squashing the rotting grapes and mandarins down their throats.

A child and his mother pass by the soup kitchen and the boy yells out to his mother that there are free meals here. The mother pulls her child away and chastises him that this is no place to eat. No place for them to eat.

The old man with the two slices of bread in his hand gnaws at his bread, obviously leaving the best for last. He fastens his plastic bag bib, brings the plastic bowl to his lips and drinks every last drop, mops up sausage gravy and swallows every grape seed and savours the hot tea. This is a place where homeless men and women break bread, eat like it is their last meal. This is also a place where the arrogant are humbled.

Mooncake madness

Not once did I ever think that I would make mooncakes. It’s not something that a layperson does or thinks that he or she can make. For one, they’re fiddly as hell to make. And the mid-autumn season is so short, it’s way easier to just go down to the shops to buy them. After about two decades of not eating them, here I am, suddenly obsessed by these sweet morsels from my childhood. As a child eating lotus paste mooncakes were already indulgent, if we were lucky, we’d get a double salty egg yolk bunger – now that was luxury in my time.

Having just returned from Singapore and Malaysia where the mooncake is seeing a modern revival, I was blown away by the breadth of variety of these suckers. I was hooked. The mooncakes in Asia are like pieces of mini art works – the pastry skin takes on the intricate carvings of flowers and Chinese calligraphy and the fillings infinite and cleverly combined with western ingredients. I also had to justify my recent horde of mooncake moulds – what good are they sitting in the cupboard?

I happened to buy a Malaysian food magazine, Flavours at the airport on the way back to Australia. My mooncake obsession could take hold – there was a spread on mooncakes and recipes. What luck! So today, I made my first batch of mooncake dough. I didn’t want to make both dough and filling – thought I’d take baby steps first. I’m not the best of bakers – most of my baking expeditions veer off in unexpected tangents! I used a peanut-shaped mould, a traditional calligraphy mould and a tablet shaped mould.

The peach-shaped calligraphy mould was by far the most diffcult mould to use. The dough stuck furiously to its sides and it took a bit of beating mould on bench to unmould the sticky stuff.

(golden syrup, lye water and oil mix resting)


I have used the dough on its own as biscuits although its purpose is to form a skin around fillings. The dough works quite well on its own though a bit sweet. I divided my dough and mixed half of it with a mixture of grated nutmeg and ground cinnamon for a slightly spicy flavour.


(this is the shiniest dough mix ever!)



(pre-oven specimens)

My version puffed up about double and as a result, lost most of its intricate patterns. Perhaps I put too much sodium bicarbonate in? Or maybe with a filling the dough keeps its shape better. I will make some lotus paste for the next batch and see what happens. The texture is pretty good, it's slightly chewy and spicy from nutmeg and cinnamon - not unlike a German Christmas cookie!


(post-oven specimens)

Here is Flavours basic mooncake dough recipe.

250ml golden syrup
110ml peanut oil (I substituted this with canola oil)
1tsp alkaline (lye) water
430g plain flour sifted
¼tsp sodium bicarbonate

1 egg lightly beaten for egg wash

Mix golden syrup, oil and lye water in a bowl until well combined. Cover with cling film and set aside for 1 hour.

Sift in flour and sodium bicarbonate . Mix to firm a dough – if the dough is too sticky, work in 1 to 2 tbsp flour. When the dough looks shiny and smooth, cover with cling film and rest for another hour before filling and shaping.

Baking: Preheat oven to 170°C. Place shaped mooncake biscuits on greased or greaseproof lined tray. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove and brush with egg wash. Lower heat to 160°C and bake another 10 minutes. Remove from oven when biscuits are golden brown.

Singapore Singapore!

The quest for great food is always a good excuse to leave the country in exchange for new culinary experiences. A wedding is an even better excuse to leave the country. My cousin YW finally tied the knot having found his soulmate in Singapore. Many family members traveled from Malaysia and with family and friends coming from various overseas countries. The wedding was beautiful. The bride and groom looked tired but very happy. I’ve got the menu from the wedding reception to reflect what is typically on offer if you do decide on a Chinese-style reception in a big hotel.


(menu from Chinese wedding)

The streets of Singapore seem almost swept clean of debris and most eating places on the surface look sanitised and very clean. Street food in Singapore has been kept confined in ‘coffeeshops’ in specially-built buildings for this purpose. There are no longer sit-on-footpath type eating. As a result of the government’s zeal for cleanliness, Singaporean food stalls shoved into custom-built buildings have lost a part of their street appeal – the vibrancy and authenticity just isn’t there. Food isn’t overly expensive but neither is it overly cheap. A typical bowl of noodles will cost around $5. Don’t get me wrong, there is good food to be had in Singapore, just don’t expect raw, edgy street food, like you would in the rest of South-east Asia.

A good place for a cheap eats is Singapore Zam Zam Restaurant, recommended by fellow Brisbane blogger, Tunaf_ranch was a hit. The murtabaks here are pretty big and crispy perfect with a pint of frothy teh tarik.


(fat crispy parcels of goodness at Zam Zam)

A good friend of mine and Singapore resident, D brought us to a Teo Chew restaurant, Hung Kang for dinner. It was a joy to find beautifully prepared food at very reasonable prices. We started with pomegranate-shaped bags with crispy spring roll skin filled with diced chicken, crunchy chestnuts and spring onions. A thick, sweet soy sauce made a good dipping accompaniment. Stir fried kai lan (Chinese broccoli) with shiitake mushrooms and crispy fish skin was a textural sensation. The match of crunchy vegetables with silky mushrooms and crispy skin is so clever. The century egg stir fried with water chestnuts and black fungus was a highlight. The century egg loses a bit of its pungency but marries perfectly with the other ingredients. Deep fried goose was tender and very moist.


(dinner at Hung Kang)





The pork thigh braised in a complex soy broth with chestnuts was excellent eating – the meat perfectly fall apart tender with nutty chestnuts and a layer of gelatinous rendered fat.



(this braised pork dish was absolutely delicious!)









(Hashima (or frogs glands)with gingko nuts)

We finished off with snow frog glands with gingko nuts warmed in a sweet soup and oh nee (yam in lard and sugar) and cheng teng (cold clear dessert soup with longans, snow fungus, dried jujubes). It was an interesting array of textures, flavours and ingredients and acted as a good palate cleanser.

We were also lucky to visit while the mooncake festival was on. There were mooncakes everywhere we looked. Some of the streets downtown turned into mooncake alleys. Dozens of Chinese bakeries and specialist mooncake makers displayed their colourful wares in tents. Singapore has not only modernised its street food, the traditional mooncake of my childhood has also been transformed into elaborate pieces of artworks.


(this photo doesn't do the mooncake booths justice but imagine these stalls multiplied by about thirty)

Hundreds of mooncakes were on show – the traditional pastry with lotus paste with egg yolks were a minority. The east-meets west samples seemed to rule. Five star hotels have also gotten in on the action – hotels like Raffles, Shangri-La, Goodwood Park Hotel were showcasing exquisite-looking specimens.


(and these little mooncake piglets went to market...)

We said goodbye to the old-style baked pastry with lotus seed varieties and said hello to a new variety of dewy delicate snowskin mooncakes. These snowskins come in D24 durian paste, apple caramel, mango and pomelo, single malt whiskey, chocolate with rum and raisin and the piece de resistance – champagne and truffle. These exotic specimens don’t come cheap – expect to pay from $42 for four pieces. We moved around these mooncake booths trying their free samples.



(sample of local bakery, Bakerzin's snowskin mooncakes from their 2010 collection!)

I managed to find some traditional wooden mooncake moulds in Malaysia and am going to start to try and make some mooncakes. It’s all a bit sad but wooden moulds are becoming harder and harder to source – plastic is gaining momentum with cooks everywhere apparently. I am going to attempt making some mooncakes in the next couple of weeks time so stay tuned.


(mooncake moulds washed and seasoned with oil)



D also brought us to sample beef balls noodle soups at Purvis Street. It was a memorable lunch at a beef ball koay teow restaurant in Purvis Street in Singapore.

The appetisers of lor bak (spiced fragrant meat with a crispy bean curd skin) and century egg were a good combination.



(lor bak with century egg appetisers)









(beef ball noodle soup. Photo by Neil Lee)
The broth was complex and rich without being overpowering and the beef balls were very tasty. The chilli sauce with Calamansi limes gave the beef some kick too.

The Teo Chew dinner, murtabak at Zam Zam and beef ball noodles lunch were some of my more memorable eats in Singapore.

The mid autumn mooncake festival ran from 10 August to 22 September 2010.
Singapore Zam Zam Restaurant can be found at 697, 699 North Bridge Road, Singapore.
Hung Kang Teochew Restaurant can be found at 28 North Canal Road, Singapore.
7th Storey Hainan Cafe, 27 Purvis Street, Singapore.

Real Food Companion by Matthew Evans

The Real Food Companion by Matthew Evans

I had the pleasure of meeting Matthew Evans at his book launch earlier this year. His talk was informative and passionate. His attitude towards food and his frankness about not having a lot of agricultural knowledge to begin with provided me with motivation for learning more. Matthew Evan’s event was sponsored by Food Connect (a great organisation committed to farming sustainability and communities). I had much respect for Evans when he was a Sydney Morning Herald food reviewer and I have even more respect for him now that he’s championing the awareness of sustainable farming and opting for simpler eating and living. For those of you not so familiar with his written work, you may be more familiar with his television show, the SBS food documentary Gourmet Farmer.

I’m a big fan of Murdoch food books in general, but this tome is really a little bit special. Not only is the book beautifully made, from the rustic jacket to the photographs and text – a lot of care and love has gone into it. Evan’s prologue is especially touching. The publication of the book coincides with the birth of his first child. The prologue turns into a kind of ‘life’ letter, which I guess, is also a form of love letter to his first born. With this, Evans introduces his family and his food aspirations to his child. He sagely advises his child to “Dine in front of the television at your own peril. Keep your self-esteem intact and your front door open to visitors. Keep the pantry full and the larder enriched. Keep the invitations going to those who seek refuge, as well as those who come to bring joy. Be generous with the ladle and cavalier with the wine. Cook, my child, for hospitality is the glue that binds humanity together.” What lovely sentiments.

(the book with its scarecrow jacket on)

Evans’s life-changing journey starts with tasting real milk, which for him, is a driver for uncovering the real, core flavours of ingredients. He is not a fan of mediocrity, he supports ethical eating and like the title of the book suggests, he is interested in real food. Evans could’ve bleated on and on about sustainable eating, farming and the feelgood factor of buying and eating organic. Yes, he espouses all of these food philosophies but he doesn’t come across as greenly pious or shouts obnoxiously from his soapbox. He makes the reader aware of these issues gently; almost reminds us that we shouldn’t neglect the soil that nourishes our vegetables and the welfare of the animals that we depend on for food.

The chapters are well laid out and categories of ingredients are explained in simple, easy-to-understand language. The beauty of the Real Food Companion is that it is a personal collection of rustic, delicious recipes combined with introductions to individual farmers and their produce, and explanations of uses for ingredients. The dairy chapter sees recipes like baked nutmeg custard, goats’ milk latte cotto and labna. The flour chapter shows off the flexibility of wheat, whether for turning leftover crusts into a bread and butter pudding or dough being kneaded into silky pappardelle. The recipes are never overcomplicated or fussy. Traditionalists will delight in the English and French comfort foods like homemade bacon baked beans and coq au vin; and the multiculturalists will appreciate the taxi driver’s lamb curry and fattoush.

(Matthew Evans's homemade bacon baked beans)

And where would a good reference/cookbook be without a workable index? The index is broken up into two separate categories: Food and Topics. The food index is user-friendly and pretty thorough although some food entries could have been more practically thought through. For a book that is part reference and part cookbook, the level of indexing is spot on. The Topics section is easy to use but some entries seem to have been overlooked and locators are not all there. Overall, Real Food Companion is a heartwarming read and provides inspiration to all of us who are vying for a change of pace in our hectic lifestyles. This book makes me want to find time to nourish and grow something wonderful from a little patch of dirt.