Issue 13

Many of Singapore’s classic dishes wouldn’t even exist without the Hainanese genius for re-imagining recipes. Christopher Tan tips his hat to the tasty treats cooked up by a unique culinary community 

It’s no small irony that, in a time when food trends are turning toward homegrown cuisine, so many of Singapore’s most iconic dishes were created by a displaced people – the Hainanese. Villagers from Hainan Island, off China’s southern coast, began migrating to Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia in the 19th century. By the 1950s, the Hainanese had quickly established themselves, particularly in food-related professions, adapting to local cuisines and palates with consummate creativity. 

So what is it about these immigrants that makes them experts in F&B? We asked Douglas Foo, CEO of restaurant group Apex-Pal and a blue-blooded Hainanese Singaporean, who visits the homeland as often as he can. ‘My parents didn’t push me into hospitality, but it feels kind of comfortable,’ Foo admits with a smile. He thinks it’s more a matter of temperament and mores than an intrinsic gastronomic gift. ‘We concentrate on hard work, we take pride in our craft, in doing things well – dedication and professionalism. We go all out.’ 

Hainanese diligence has been Singapore’s gain, for the culinary motifs they’ve woven into our cultural tapestry are delicious. Here are classic dishes we can’t imagine going without. 

Kopi
Hainan Island has grown coffee for a couple of centuries, so perhaps it isn’t surprising that many overseas Hainanese went into business opening kopitiams – coffee shops that by the 1960s had become neighbourhood social centres. 
In a world of computer-controlled precision brewing, classic Hainanese coffee seems, well, a bit of a mutt: beans are wok-roasted with sugar, margarine and sometimes maize to a dark blackbrown, then ground and brewed with a sock-like cotton strainer in watering can-sized pots. To espresso-attuned palates, kopi-o’s mouth-coating murk must be a jolt the first time around. But those of us who have grown up with its fullbodied, smoothly smoky character find it perfectly pitched for our climate and breakfast cravings. 
Find this classic at: Tong Ya kopitiam 36 Keong Saik Rd; 6223 5083 

Kaya toast
Some claim kaya originates from Hainan Island, but it most likely descends from a Portuguese confection called ovos moles (literally ‘soft eggs’). Given a tropical makeover with coconut milk and pandan, this soft spread made its way from Eurasian communities to the Peranakans, in whose households Hainanese cooks learnt to make it. 
The meeting of Hainanese kaya – with slight tweaks in ingredients and preparation – and Hainanese bread birthed kopi’s essential partner. Whether thick or thin, the bread should be toasted until golden; the green-gold kaya spread must have shiny, unctuous egginess that speaks in rich, sweet tones, like a well-paid radio announcer. (Brown caramel-tinted kaya is another Hainanese riff on the recipe.) Slightly chilled, thin butter slices complete the sandwich. 
Find this classic at: Ya Kun Kaya Toast; go to www.yakun.com for islandwide locations 

Chicken rice
This dish bears little resemblance to its Hainan Island ancestor, Wenchang chicken with rice, having been thoroughly ‘Singaporeanised’ by decades of cultural shifts in the kitchen. For instance, in the absence of Wenchang fowl, a breed indigenous to Hainan, Hainanese cooks prefer older chickens with firmer (but tastier) meat. Many hawkers have also adopted the Cantonese twist of an ice-water bath after poaching it to smooth the bird’s skin. 
Singaporean chicken rice has close cousins in Vietnam and Thailand, but if done right, it has no rivals for intensity of flavour. The best boasts rice grains deeply infused with chicken stock, and garlic, ginger and shallots sautéed in chicken fat; silky-fleshed poached chicken, just barely pink at the bone; fresh chilli sauce with a kick of lime; warmly pungent old-ginger sauce; treacly, dark soy sauce; and clear chicken broth (without any heretical hint of stock cube).
Find this classic at: Yet Con, one of Singapore’s oldest Hainanese chicken rice restaurants 

Hainanese curry rice
So deftly did Hainanese cooks pick up the art of curry-making to please Peranakan and local palates, Hainanese-style curry and rice has now become a hawker food option in its own right. Less chilli-hot than other Asian curries, Hainanese curry (usually made with chicken) integrates a blend of spices by simmering them with coconut milk to effect a slowburn, velvety warmth. 
Typical side dishes include belly pork braised in soy sauce, crumb-crusted fried pork chops, fried cabbage, sunny-side-up eggs, assam fish, tofu items, and even other seafood, meat or vegetable curries. For the full stereophonic effect, get your steamed rice drenched with at least two different curry gravies. 
Find this classic at: Loo’s Hainanese Curry Rice.

Traditional baked goods
Hainanese cooks in colonial expat households were required to master breads, scones and birthday cakes for teatime and special occasions. Many went on to open their own bakeries. ‘My grandfather used to be a chef for a British family, and later was the GM of a Malaysian hotel,’ says Foo. Among the trademarks of old Hainanese bakeries – many of which, sadly, have closed in recent years – are rich butter cakes, Swiss rolls crusted with glittering sugar, choux puffs filled with thick yellow custard, chicken pies and sausage rolls. Up until its lamented closure a few years ago, Katong’s famous Red House bakery still had old monochrome photos of lavish wedding and birthday cakes from its heyday stacked up behind the counter. 
Find this classic at: Chin Mee Chin Confectionery.

‘Western food’
Hainanese chefs also gave unique twists to Western roasts and grilled meats, developing now-iconic dishes such as Hainanese pork chops – crumbed chops in a Worcestershire-spiked sauce with onions, peas, tomatoes and potatoes. Basically, they’re British ingredients melded with a Chinese hand. 
At the simple end of this repertoire are the fish ’n’ chips and sizzling grills that constitute a whole hawker category – at really good stalls you still get a proper meat knife, a warmed bun with butter pat, and parsley tuft garnishes. Then there are the rustic dishes, which one imagines were but a small jump from traditional Hainanese braised goat and mutton: tender oxtail, beef and lamb stews, and borscht soups dense with cabbage and beef in a tomato-y broth. 
At the higher end of the scale are the vestiges of upper-class colonial dining: prawn cocktail, paper-frilled chicken kiev bursting with molten garlic butter, even baked Alaska flambéed tableside. These dishes were de rigueur at formal dinners for European and American diplomats in the early 20th century, and Hainanese cooks in their employ learned them as a matter of course. 
Find these classics at: Shashlik; Lion's Den Borshch Steakhouse; The Ship Restaurant and Bar.