Volume 42 No.01 JAN 2010 MICA (P) 031/01/2009

A Pseudo-philosophical Approach to Eating guest editorial

Philosophy OF FOOd By Dr Wong Chiang Yin, Guest Editor Snowflake wagyu, special grade karubi beef in Japan. any of my friends We should realise that good food has been invented ask me what my philosophy of food and evolved over decades and centuries and is. Actually, I haven’t is a distillate of a people’s culture, history and given much thought environment. This distillate should be respected to this at all. This is my first attempt and enjoyed, not adulterated or twisted to conform articulatingM my take on food, so please to our local norms and preferences. forgive me if some the points made here are not agreeable with you. We take history from our patients. or sashimi in fine Japanese restaurants. of the rice or the fish. We end up eating Taking history is likened to “his story”: At such places, the nigiri sushi already wasabi, not sushi. I think Singaporeans the patient’s story. comes with a dab of wasabi beneath the add much more wasabi because we like Food is no different. Every dish fish. That is really all the wasabi that is spicy food and try to make the sushi as tells a story. Food is an integral part of needed to enjoy sushi. There is no need spicy as possible, and that maybe we are culture and we learn more of our own to mash a huge glob of wasabi into ignorant as well. and other peoples’ culture when we a small plate of soya sauce and then soak We should realise that good food understand this. Many people and guides the sushi thoroughly in this concoction. has been invented and evolved over tell others where to find good food. That In fact, most Japanese do not put any decades and centuries and is a distillate is important. But more fundamental is to wasabi into the soya sauce when eating of a people’s culture, history and understand the definition of good food. sushi. They only do so for sashimi and environment. This distillate should be The first thing I believe in is that even then, they use only a little. Too respected and enjoyed, not adulterated one should always meet food on its own much wasabi simply masks the flavour or twisted to conform to our local norms terms. I see many Singaporeans who and preferences. bring jars of belachan, chili and so on The next thing is that we need to and add them liberally to anything they understand the ingredients and the eat while they are overseas having foreign quality of the ingredients. To do so, food. This is not meeting the food on its we need to have a little knowledge own terms. of geography and environment. For Another example is wanton mee. example, why do Russians make good I hear comments like, “I don’t like the vodka, French wine and cognac, wanton mee in Hong Kong: no chili” and Germans beer, Japanese sake, Scottish other similar refrains. That is trying to malt whiskey and so on? The answer is make Hong Kong wanton mee become pretty simple if we know it – alcohol Singapore’s version. The fascinating is simply the enzymatic process of world of food becomes a lot smaller converting sugar to alcohol. So farmers when we adopt such an attitude. simply laid their hands on whatever Food is about diversity and confluence sugars or carbohydrates they could find of cultures. Appreciating this diversity in their environment and then converted and confluence is key to eating well. it to alcohol. In Russia, the climate is Another common example is when too cold for grapes and hence potatoes you see many Singaporeans eat sushi A little wasabi would do.... were used. Similarly, this was the case

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for barley in Northern Europe. With the steak could have weighed maybe 700g advent of metals that can withstand before ageing. That is why a dry-aged heat, distillation was discovered and beer steak is so expensive. could be converted to whiskey, wine into But even with ageing, marbling cognac and so on. (that is, fat) is still desired for texture Another example is beef. Soft, juicy and flavour; hence the premium one and flavourful beef is prized. How is pays for a sirloin or a rib eye steak. that achieved? There are basically two Fatty meat is also more forgiving when ways but first, we have to understand it comes to cooking. You can overcook what makes beef (or any meat) tough. a fat cut but a thin cut will taste terrible. Meat is tough because it is mainly Another example is that of pasta muscle, fascia, fibrous tissue and some and sauces. Why do certain sauces go fat. Meat gets tough because of fascia better with certain types of pasta and and other fibrous tissue content, as well not with others? Why is angel-hair as muscle hypertrophy from muscle use. pasta almost always paired with a light (Remember anatomy and histology? sauce and not with a heavy one? The Photo Credit: Dr Wong Tien Hua Tien Photo Credit: Dr Wong Useful here too.) Unhealthy fat on the reasoning behind it can be traced to the other hand, is soft and flavourful. flavour-intensity of a sauce versus the The Japanese created the famed marbled surface area-volume ratio of a particular Wagyu beef. wagyu by giving the cow plenty of rest type of pasta. The higher the ratio, the and lots of food (to fatten it). The animal less intense the sauce and vice versa. actually the fallopian tubes and uterus of is massaged often from young. The result So an understanding of what sort of the gravid snow toad. is that tough, thick fascia doesn’t come ingredients and the environment you Understanding the cooking method into being and fat is found inside the are dealing with is important. In fact, is the third point in appreciating food fascia and between the muscle bundles. bakers, salad bars and Japanese udon for me. Basically cooking (other than The meat is soft, hence the Japanese makers will tell you that even the when we eat raw food), in its most and Chinese term “snowflake beef” to humidity level is important. elemental sense, is really about bringing describe top grade wagyu. But I have to admit that some other physical and chemical change in food The Western world, in particular information may actually not be very ingredients through the transference of the Americans, have another approach useful to the enjoyment of food. For heat energy. The transfer of heat is by altogether. They also feed the animals example, you may not want to know that three ways – radiation, conduction and well (but not to the same extent as the the fragrant orange bits of sea urchin convection. I am no big fan of molecular Japanese). They then hang the beef (AKA uni) you eat in Japanese food are cuisine, but cooking is really simply the in cold rooms (not freezing) for a few actually the gonads of the echinoderm. use of a combination of convection, weeks to induce a slow rot. The rot Or that the sweet double-boiled Hashima conduction and radiation to change softens the muscle and fascia. Most of served as dessert at Chinese dinners are food (primary school science). But to the rotting flesh and fascia is removed before the steak is carved out of good meat. When we eat an aged steak, we are actually eating partially rotting meat (that’s the truth folks) and maybe you will notice this the next time you eat an aged steak – the muscle fibres are not as clearly delineated in the cross- section surface of a muscle (say a rib eye or a tenderloin). The next thing is that aged beef doesn’t quite bleed even when it’s cooked rare. That’s because the red blood cells have haemolysed during the ageing process. Dry-ageing also has the important feature of letting water evaporate (as compared to the cheaper wet-ageing method). As water evaporates, flavours concentrate and the steak is tastier. But a 500g dry-aged Live uni sashimi on sale in fish market in Hakodate, Hokkaido.

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master cooking or just to appreciate food But some steamed fish are eaten cold. Another example is the humble soon requires more in-depth knowledge. An example is the Teochew steamed kueh snack. Our local Teochew version is A simple example is stir-fried vegetables mullet. You can eat it hot when it is stuffed with a turnip-based mixture. in a wok. A traditional cast-iron wok steamed with preserved plum and salted The truth is that the real soon kueh in is shaped such that most of the heat is vegetables with lots of sauce. You can also China is stuffed with bamboo shoots, concentrated in its small centre area. steam it dry without any soup or sauce. hence the name means “bamboo cake”. The whole point of stir-frying is that the Cool the fish for about half an hour and But when our forbearers from China first intense heat concentrated there cooks and yes, the fish does taste a little fishy but migrated to South-East Asia, bamboo desiccates the vegetables quickly, leaving the sweetness of the flesh really comes shoots were impossible to come by in a them crunchy and tasty. You really can’t into its own when cold and dry – there tropical climate, hence they used turnips do Chinese stir-fry in a saucepan or skillet are no other accompaniments to distract instead although they kept the name of because the flat surface distributes heat. you from the flavour of the flesh. And the food. Our Hainanese chicken rice in The result is that water seeps out of the since it is dry-steamed, the fish’s flavours Singapore is also evolved from Wenchang vegetables, together with the ingredients’ do not escape and dissolve into the stock. (a city in Hainan province) chicken, flavours. Worse still is the teflon-coated Serving food is like serving wine – the which cannot be found here. wok. The teflon prevents burning correct temperature is very important. precisely because it distributes heat Another facet of cooking methods evenly. A telflon wok is useful for frying is the knowledge of oil and its heat an omelette or steaming fish but to use it capacities, viscosities and other qualities. to stir-fry a plate of kai lan is almost an When we gush over a dish because of oxymoron, if not tragic. the wok hei, we are really talking about Sometimes, even the conduction the heat of the wok and the energy properties of the receptacle are transferred to the food. To have wok hei important. I remember many lamented persist, you need oil with a specific high that the meepok in the old Singapore heat capacity so that temperatures don’t General Hospital (SGH) Housemen’s drop quickly in the plate. For that, you Canteen tasted different when they used need animal fat. So a plate of vegetables disposable styrofoam bowls instead of the fried with say, chicken oil versus another reusable melamine ones during the SARS plate fried with corn oil in the same outbreak. I suspect that was because wok will have more wok hei (in addition styrofoam was a poorer conductor of to the fact that chicken oil is tastier heat than melamine and the meepok than corn oil). Viscosity of oil is really Penang chee cheong fun. "So smooth, so delicious..." says this GP cooled down too rapidly. The meepok important when it comes to mixing and tasted better when melamine bowls were tossing. Remember when Singapore had used again after SARS. But then again, no pork during the Nipah virus outbreak Perhaps the biggest threat to everything in Housemen’s Canteen tasted and noodle shops used vegetable oil Singaporean Chinese food (I cannot better after SARS, I suppose. instead of lard? The result was that no comment on the other races) is the loss On the other hand, hotter is not matter how long you tossed the noodles of our dialect culture (notwithstanding necessarily better. I was taught that in the plate or bowl, the oil stayed as a the benefits of our Speak Mandarin steamed fish must always be eaten hot puddle at the bottom and didn’t coat the Campaign). If you think about it, all because it will taste fishy when cold. noodles and they were a pale shadow of Chinese food is dialect-based. There their usual self. is really no such thing as a monolithic How did the cuisine evolve to its concept of Chinese food. There is only current state? This is perhaps the most Chinese dialect-based food – Cantonese difficult question we have to grapple with, wanton mee, Teochew bak chor mee, fried but it is an important one. An example Hokkien mee, Hakka yong tau fu and so on. is Malay food. To most of us non- But as we lose our roots, the ability to really Malays in Singapore, we think it is a appreciate these foods also erodes as we fail homogenous cuisine but it is not. In fact to appreciate the diversity of our dialect there are many different types of Malay backgrounds and their respective cuisines. food. It tastes different in different parts To underline this point, we go to of Malaysia. For example, Kelantan’s the last and most practical question: Malay food is heavily influenced by Thai What are the key performance cuisine. Many Kelantanese will tell you indicators for assessing the dish? Melamine power in old Houseman Canteen, SGH they cannot take very spicy food. Let us now return to where we began:

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wanton mee. So what makes for a good Duck eggs render the mee more springy and the foodies look for. Getting a good piece wanton mee? flavourful. After the noodles are made, they of meat is important. The sort that has Like what we learnt in medical are aged for one to two days for the dough to a thin layer of fat intercalated between school, it is useful to dice up a complex develop structure and flavour.A good clue to two layers of muscle is most desired subject and explore it in parts. First, let whether the stall sells good wanton noodles is (actually this comes from near the armpit us recognise that there are at least three whether the uncooked mee looks grey, dusky of the pig, I am told). Then it is sprinkled phenotypes when it comes to wanton mee and even sallow (like chronic renal failure with a sugar-laden dry seasoning and and the commonality is the presence of patients). Bright, cheery-looking yellow some soya sauce, maybe hoisin sauce, wanton and the mee (not even char siew). noodles do NOT make good wanton mee spices and so on, and almost immediately The Singaporean and Malaysian in Singapore, Malaysia or Hong Kong. roasted. This is key. Water is a bad thing versions are usually dry and the soup is not When the noodles are finally brought in making char siew. Water dissolves the an important part of the equation. The to the stall, they are cooked in boiling sugar crystals and as a result, the meat Singaporean one is heavily-dosed with chili water, then blanched in cold water and won’t burn too well. The meat should sauce (usually the garlic-ky and vinegary then put back in boiling water again really be coated with sugar crystals, which kind) and tossed with lard. So here, the (which we do likewise in Singapore and is why one cannot let the seasoned meat quality of the chili sauce is paramount and Malaysia). Finally, they are placed in a stand too long as well, as exosmosis will the noodles must be springy (or “Q” in bowl of soup. But the placement of the occur – the seasoning is hyperosmolar Hokkien). The wanton is usually prawn noodles is also an art. Traditional stalls which then draws the moisture out of the meat mixed with pork but seriously, will put a Chinese spoon inverted into meat. The water drawn out dissolves the

If you think about it, all Chinese food is dialect-based. There is really no such thing as a monolithic concept of Chinese food. There is only Chinese dialect-based food – Cantonese wanton mee, Teochew bak chor mee, fried Hokkien mee, Hakka yong tau fu and so on. But as we lose our roots, the ability to really appreciate these foods also erodes as we fail to appreciate the diversity of our dialect backgrounds and

Making char siew their respective cuisines. not much attention is paid to the wanton. the bowl then place the noodles on top sugar coating and also makes the meat less It’s the mee and the chili sauce and maybe of the inverted spoon. Then a little soup juicy. Once the sugar dissolves away from the quality of the char siew (which is is placed in the bowl that covers only the the meat, it is left swimming in seasoning another subject by itself) that are under bottom half of the noodles as the noodle’s and won't burn well when roasted. scrutiny. The Malaysian version is also dry position is elevated by the inverted spoon. This can be deduced by observing the and the emphasis is also on the noodles and This is not to say the boss is stingy on soup centre of the cross section of char siew the sauce must be soya sauce-based and but rather, to prevent the noodles from slices in excellent char siew stalls in mixed with lard and oil fried previously getting soggy too quickly. Too much soup Malaysia (I personally think char siew with shallots. The taste of the soya sauce would mean the noodles are swimming in from Kuala Lumpur is the best in the blend is key. The char siew quality should a sea of water which will soften them too world) and it is always white. In other be excellent – fatty and charred. Again, the quickly. The wanton’s skin must be soft words, it hasn’t been seasoned for long. wanton doesn’t really take centre stage. and the prawn really fresh, and seasoned So there you have it, an approach The Hong Kong/Canton version is with just the right amount of seasoning to the appreciation of wanton mee soup-based. In fact, when you order wanton and spices. The wanton must not be too (and char siew). mee in HK, they will serve you wanton big or too small, just the right size to pop I hope some of you have enjoyed noodle soup – it is assumed to be so and no into your mouth with a good crunch. reading this as much as I have writing it. questions are asked. And there, they have Finally a word on char siew since we are I don’t think it amounts to a philosophy. refined it to an art. First, the soup is boiled on the subject of wanton mee. Char siew It’s more a rambling of sorts. Since stepping with pork bones, beans, yellow chives and is roasted pork. In other words, it must down as SMA President in 2009, I have most important of all, dried fish. The soup be roasted and preferably slightly burnt. not written anything consequential or must taste delicate and refined. Next, the Only two things burn in char siew – fat significant for the SMA News until this issue. noodles. The mee must ideally be made and sugar. Muscle doesn’t burn well. I wish to thank the Editor, Han Chong for with duck eggs and NOT chicken eggs. Hence lean char siew is really not what giving me this opportunity.

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