Interview: British Hainan's Frederick Puah & his decades-old Hainanese recipes

My father was quite fortunate, he worked in a black and white colonial home – near the Old Changi Hospital. I was just about four years old. I would kid with my friends “you know, back in the day, I lived in a black and white colonial bungalow.” 

Here, Frederick chuckles and says:  

“Very rich ah – servants’ quarter, so what.” 

He continues describing how the recipes have held up over time, specifically, the use of sweet potato in the restaurant’s famous braised oxtail stew. 

The “master” that my father used to work for was a diabetic. In the olden days, we were on the poorer side. Most of the time, after the war, we had more sweet potatoes than rice. There’s a natural sweetness in sweet potatoes, and now we know that they have antioxidants. In the old days, according to the English “master”, you had to cook the oxtail with a very high temperature. But my father noticed that if you do so, it’ll burn. You’ll waste a layer of meat. So I would rather sear it with hot oil. 

Oxtail was a British delicacy in those times. But we cook it the traditional way, using no wine. The richness is because we steam sweet potatoes, instead of using carbs – no flour or butter. But I feel that it’s a bit carb-heavy, since it turns into sugar. That’s the way my father cooked it. 

The oxtail. Well, three things: the oxtail, the Hainanese pork chop, and the herbal mutton soup. The latter keeps you warm but you can’t have it too often – it’s too 热 (Chinese for “heaty”) – so at most, twice a week. Back in the day, migrants couldn’t always afford a blanket and the houses were long and narrow. They had to sleep in a line – then it got very cold. That’s when they would enjoy a bowl of herbal mutton soup. 

We started in 2013 – my daughters had just graduated from university. So we soft-launched in August 2013. It’s me, my wife, my eldest daughter Amelia, my second daughter Vanessa, and my son Clinton. 

From 2013 to May 2015, we made just $500 each as an allowance every month. 

But we were all committed. We built it up slowly and sank in the foundation. If you’re doing any business, there must be dedication – give yourself time to build. With what it’s like now, it’s hard to employ manpower, and that’s why a lot of businesses fail. First of all, your food must be good. Second, you need something unique. 

I like a lot of vintage, I like to play with vintage. I’ve connected with all the collectors locally, and I have my own collection as well. The entire British collection is mine, with the entire restaurant built with all the knickknacks I collected in mind. It was only recently, about three years back, that my friend, a doctor who is also a collector of cultural revolution artefacts, gifted most of what you see in the Chinese collection. 

We were seated in the Chinese collection area, so here, he paused and pointed out certain artefacts from China’s cultural revolution – dating back from several decades ago. 

That way, I’ve created British Hainan. We have a reason for the name. So when it came to starting my restaurant, I thought: “if you start another restaurant, it’ll be yet another ordinary one”. Why not start one with a concept I like? 

I pledged to a Christian ministry to help ex-offenders. To give them a chance. It’s hard to do anything with a record – you can’t even be a security guard. The world isn’t fair. I wanted to give them a chance, encourage them, so that’s what I did with the Kallang Way outlet. It could be a calling in certain ways. 

As for Purvis Street, it’s a very Hainanese enclave. You have eateries like Chin Chin Eating House, YY Kaifen Dian, and Yet Con Restaurant which has since closed. Hainanese migrants used to stay in the area.