Grandma Teochew Food

GRANDMA’S TEOCHEW FOOD GRANDMA’S FAVOURITE HOME-COOKED FARE Jotted down by Sim Ai Ling Recipes recounted by Grandma Tan Sai Lang grandma’s teochew food Grandma Tan Sai Lang 2 grandma’s teochew food MANY THANKS In compiling this book, I will like to thank my grandmother (ma ma) for her enthusiasm and patience in happily sharing with me all she knows about Teochew cooking. Not suspecting that all she said will be written down, she was most generous with tips and recipes. Also my grandaunt (yee ma), Uncle Peter and my mum, for helping to explain and distil the recipes when I got into a bind with details and translations as Grandma recounts her recipes. I will also like to thank my mum for her many suggestions, and helping to vet through the recipes that are recorded. The recipes in this book except for a few which are noted are grandma’s. The comments, notes and whatever shortfalls it might contain are mine. Finally, to my dearest husband Devan who set me on this journey of wonderful discovery, and without whose encouragement and support, this little book will never have taken off . Sim Ai Ling June, 2003 - Oh nee - Produced in 2003. All rights reserved. No part of this booklet may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the author. 3 grandma’s teochew food INTRODUCTION I enjoy eating. Like most people, I just enjoy savouring delicious food which appeals to my basic senses and fills my hungry stomach. But eating does not inspire me further than that momentary bliss of savouring delicious foods. Cooking however is different. Some may view it as a chore, and I do agree when cooking becomes robotic and a burden. But it can be stimulating. To me cooking absorbs my faculties and emotions towards creating a delicious dish or meal. Your brain engages with ideas of how a produce should be used, sussing out its flavours, intertwining it with other flavoursome ingredients, condiments or spices, and choosing myriad ways of cooking it. Isn’t that more exciting than just being served with a plate of noodles or chicken that just engages your stomach? Having had lots of fun cooking my way through a wide variety of recipes and experimenting with different styles of cooking and their ingredients, I reached a point which left me curious about the foods that I grew up with. If you were to ask me, or rather my mum what was the first solid food that was placed in my mouth, I would hazard a guess that it is Teochew home-cooked food. Coming from a Teochew family, my virgin tastebuds were shaped at a young age in my parent’s and grandparents’ kitchen. When I hanker for comfort food, it would be simple Teochew dishes such as stewed salted vegetable with pork (coo kiam chye), abalone rice porridge (pau hir muay), braised pork in black soya sauce (lor bak), braised duck (loh ar) and teochew yam pudding (oh nee). Foods of our childhood are not merely reminders of the first morsel of gastronomic delight that we encounter but it revives nostalgia of innocent happy moments which is to be savoured when one is older. And these are warm memories - of feasting with loved one, pinching morsels of food that were just hot off the wok, and just eating food that one knows is made of love. Here lies the reason of this book. It is a compilation of grandma’s Teochew recipes. Food that I grew up with and which had invariably bound my brother, mother, cousins and uncles together in our memory of being a family. This is not a treatise on Teochew food and neither does it represents the best and finest of Teochew cuisine. It is just home cook food which is simple and delicious. Mum (standing), grandaunt, yee ma (left) and grandma, enjoying the nak yee kia My maternal grandma, Mdm Tan Sai Lang, is a wonderful sweet-tempered lady. She was born in Selangor, Malaya in the 1920s to immigrant parents from Chaoyang district (or Teo-Yioh) in Guangdong province of China. The family, like many immigrants, were common folks, who had migrated to Malaya and then to Singapore seeking a better life. Like many girls of that era, grandma never went to school and stayed home helping with household chores. The Japanese Occupation soon came in 1941, and fearing the worst that could befall on young unmarried women in the hands of Japanese soldiers, her parents quickly married her off at the tender age of 13 to 4 grandma’s teochew food Grandpa Yeo, another fellow immigrant from Chaoyang. Together, they raised a family of four boys and one girl, of which mum was the girl born right in the middle. Grandma’s cooking is simple and homespun, largely self-taught or learnt from her mother, relatives, neighbours and even Grandpa Yeo. Undeniably, it bears the hallmarks of Teochew cooking style, with its clear uncomplicated taste, use of fresh produce, and its penchant for strong and salty flavours of preserves, like salted vegetables, salted dried shrimp and sour plums. The Teochew kitchen calls for simple condiments, of fish sauce (hir loh), light soya sauce (chiao cheng), black soya sauce (see yiu), salt and pepper, with a preference in many of its dishes to be steamed, braised and stewed. Although Teochews originate from Guangdong Province which boasts of the popular Cantonese cuisine, its food is less similar to Cantonese cooking, than to Hokkien cooking of the neighbouring Fujian province, for which it also shares similarities in its dialect. Teochews hail from the Huilai, Puning, Chaoyang, Jieyang, Chenghai Raoping, Chaoan and Dapu districts of Guangdong Province. Being in the southern coastal areas, they enjoy for generations a bountiful of fresh seafood and natural produce, such as rice, sweet potatoes, yam, maize, wheat, oranges, lychess, bananas, pineapples and many more. Naturally its cuisine leans on the availability of these fresh foods to create dishes which accentuates on freshness and its light clean flavours. Many Teochew immigrants such as my great grandparents and grandpa Yeo who migrated from the Teochew districts brought with them the skills and knowledge of this cooking style which continues to thrive in many homes today. Over the years, Teochew cuisine in Singapore has evolved, like other immigrant cuisines. Living in multi-ethnic Singapore, with a plethora of ingredients and cuisines, it is natural for certain dishes to adopt a different sheen from what it was in its native land, and creation of new dishes which combines the flavours and tastes of the different worlds. Such “fusion” food has emerged in Teochew cooking. An example being the use of chilli and sambal that is traditionally Malay, in some Teochew dishes today. To name a few are the sambal dried shrimp (or hair bee hiam, see pg 7), sambal crayfish, the dried Teochew fishball noodles with chilli, or the Teochew yam pudding (oh nee) with coconut milk. Yet despite this merry marrying of produce, Teochew home and professional cooks continue to maintain familiar taste with strong resonance of flavours that emanates from their forebears in the Teochew districts of China. Grandma’s food is such – Teochew Home Cooking. All the recipes here can be whipped up in your home kitchens for a delicious meal for family and friends. 5 grandma’s teochew food A Map of the Teochew Districts in Guangdong Province, China 6 grandma’s teochew food WHAT’S IN HERE? page Nak Yee Kia – Little Meat Balls 9 Hair Cho – Prawn Balls 13 Toh Bak Char Hair Bee Hiam – Sambal Dried 15 Shrimp with Pork Teochew Char Kway Teow 17 Fish in Chinese Leek Sauce 18 Teochew Steamed Fish 19 Hir Tow Oh – Stewed Fish Head with Yam Soup 21 Stewed Tua Chye with Meat, Mushroom and Chilli 23 Chap Huay Tng 25 Kiam Chye Ar – Duck with Salted Vegetable Soup 27 Kow Lak Ar – Braised Duck with Chestnut 29 Loh Ar – Teochew Braised Duck 31 Ngoh Hiang – Fried Pork Rolls 33 Oh Nee – Teochew Yam Pudding 35 7 grandma’s teochew food 8 grandma’s teochew food Steamed Nak Yee Kia “We will make tins of nak yee kia, have it sliced and fried up in batches for relatives and friends during new year and other festive days…” 9 grandma’s teochew food Nak Yee Kia– Little Meat Balls The nak yee kia, or rou yuan zai (Mandarin), is a Teo-Yeo (Chaoyang) speciality, which grandma and grandaunt remembered as a snack that was often served during Chinese New Year and festive days in the old Potong Pasir home. Trays of nak yee kia would be made, and sliced in wedges to be fried crisp as snacks for family and friends. A wonderful treat for all who came bearing good wishes for the new year and for nibbling on while enjoying the melodious drama of Teochew opera which were often commissioned for festive days. Fond memories indeed, and might be why this was the first dish suggested by my mum when she heard of my intention to learn Teochew cooking from Grandma. Sadly this is a dish which is unknown in Singapore even among Teochews. The tofu hawker whom I bought the 9 cakes of tofu to make 2 trays of nak yee kia was smiling broadly at his windfall (for it seems that few customers ever purchase more than 2 -3 cakes of tofu at each time) but was equally blank when told what it was for. Teo-Yeo or Chaoyang is the district in China where Grandpa was born.

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