Chinese masters of superb food

Press, 26 February 1980, Page 21

Chinese masters of superb food

In many cities. Chinese. Malay, Indian, Japanese and other Asian food is prepared by cooks who are often as indifferent as the ingredients they use. Singapore has no such disadvantages. Its cooks are superb and its food, as excitingly multi-racial and' regional as its people, is one of the island republic’s greatest attractions. You could eat a different Asian meal each night for months and still have the best French, Russian, Italian or English dishes waiting for you in manyfine hotels and restaurants. The Chinese say that cooking is like marriage — that two ingredients served together should match. The Chinese should know. They are the world’s masters of food. But in Singapore, where the Chinese originally stem from different regions of South China, you don’t just get “Chinese food,” or one of the city’s delights is its Chinese provincial cooking and the wide and delicious choice available. Cantonese cooking, light and not fatty, concentrates

on fish and poultry — beef and mutton were hard to find in the silkgrowing province of Kwangtung — and on nest and others, and subtle sauces, fish cooked soups, shark’s fin, bird’s in black bean is unforgettable. Teochiu food is heavier and ronger than Cantonese, but extremely good. Pork is served a lot — a roast suckling pig is a memorable dish — and onion, and garlic are used in clever ways. Among the more exotic dishes are frog’s legs or “water chicken” and baked sea cucumber (for hardy palates). Steamboat was originally Teochiu. It’s not only delicious but also fun, since you cook your own meal at your table. You’re “served” with a charcoal burner surrounded by a trough of stock and dishes of cut meat or fish and raw vegetables. You put

the pieces into the boiling liquid where they cook almost instantaneously y u finish the meal by

drinking the strongly impregnated stock as soup. Much Hokkien food is fried and, like Shanghai

cooking, inclined, to be a little greasy. Hokkien mee — noodles in thick soup — is delightful, and so is fried pig’s liver, pig’s feet, and vermicelli, stuffed sea slugs, and many more dishes. For some people Hakka food is too strong. Food in Singapore is not something _ separate, confined to dining rooms and restricted by the clock. It is a deeply embedded. part of the individual and family day and night life of this exciting multi-racial and religiouscity. Good food is respected' and 'dmired in Asia., because there has never been enough, of it for ail. That is one reason why it is so good. And remember, too, that . in Singapore as elsewhere in Asia, the best food is not necessarily found in expensive., over-decorated restaurants.

Chinese food tastes better when eaten with chopsticks. They also enhance the adventure of the meal. AU restaurants in Singapore provide chopsticks as a matter of course, but silverware is available for those visitors unable to master the simple art of using them. The following diagrams show how chopsticks are held.

The first chopstick is held firmly in the hollow between thumb and forefinger, and rests on the fourth finger. This chopstick is kept stationary.

The second chopstick is held with the tips of thumb and forefinger, and rests on middle finger.

To pick up food, the second chopstick is moved up and down with the use of forefinger and middle finger.