Taking Comfort In Food
07 August 2016
Food is so much a part of our lives that there is a dish for every mood and emotion. We eat when we’re happy; we eat when we’re sad; we eat when we’re bored.
Let’s home in on the concept of “comfort food”. We define it as food that makes you feel good for a sustained period of time. Like hugging a friend would after you’ve had your heart thrown into the blender by the unfeeling ex. You don’t want the hug to end. You want to fall asleep in that hug. You want that hug to make all the pain go away. And, for the most part, that’s what a sincere and loving hug does.
Quite different from smoking a cigarette that might make you feel happy for a split second, but leaves you feeling like crap immediately after. You can’t breathe properly, your breath stinks and you’re craving another fag as soon as you’ve finished your last one.
No, comfort food takes you to a good place.
So says Timothy Chia, co-owner and head chef at Caffe Pralet in Tiong Bahru.
“I WANT TO BE RIDING MY BIKE WITHOUT A HELMET”
“My comfort food takes me to something and somewhere I want to be. Not the right now. It makes me feel free. Brings back memories and makes me think of something happy. Nothing bad.”
Timothy shows us a bowl of a richly purple-red dragonfruit puree sitting atop about an inch of muesli.
“I went to Bali by myself last year. It was a business trip that I had extended by about five days.
I had just started working full-time in the business. I mean, I’m still quite young and I had to take on a lot of the responsibilities of the business. There was a lot of drama, lah.
I went to a local café in Wanasari, Kuta. It’s a more local part of town and a meal here costs only a dollar. I found a shop selling this. I tried it once and went there every day after that to eat it. I asked them how they made it and found out that they even made their own muesli. Mine is an improvised version. The original is a bit creamier.
This dish looks very carefree and happy, and it’s light. Can eat any time of the day. And it’s healthy!”
RECIPE
- Muesli
- Pureed dragon fruit with yoghurt, mint and sugar. And, here’s a tip: Grind the sugar with the mint first to lock in the flavour and colour of the mint. Then, add the ground mint and sugar into the puree.
- Garnish with cut fruit and mint leaves.
- Possible alternatives to dragon fruit: peach, avocado
“It takes me back to Bali. To my good space. I surf and if you asked me to choose, I’d pick the beach life. City life is not for me.”
Timothy, or Tim as we’re now friendly enough to address him as, took over more of the responsibilities of the Caffe Pralet kitchen in early 2015. It’s a modest restaurant and cooking school business that Timothy’s mother, Judy aka Chef Judy, started more than 10 years ago.
So, he literally grew up with food. But, what does this say about his relationship with food?
“It’s a very good relationship until you make it into a business!”
He takes a moment to collect himself in between snorts and giggles.
“I’m moving towards fusion food. A lot of our customers are families and working adults. And all the uncle auntie like the more traditional dishes that we serve; still, I want to improvise a bit, lah. But, we’re not a hipster café and I don’t feel I have to cater to the hipster crowd.”
Caffe Pralet is actually in the process of rebranding, which includes an updated logo and refurbished restaurant.
“I mean, we’ve been around for 10 years already. So, this is just to let people know that we’re keeping things fresh and still cooking the food our customers love. Anyway, our old logo looks a bit school-badge! Hahahahahahhahahahahh!”
In between mouthfuls of dragonfruit heaven – Timothy made enough for us all – we talk about what a big world it is outside of the Singapore bubble, swimming in the opposite direction and the importance of flavour.
For Timothy, that means lard. Generous amounts of it.
“I’m a firm believer in lard, bacon and butter. Most of my cooking includes bacon fat.
And I’m not that kind who would put a small portion of food on a big plate.
If I make a burger, it has to have its insides and cheese spilling out.
And it cannot be just fries; it has to be duck fat fries.”
[Duck fat???!!!!]
Have you ever tried? You should try it, man!
I don’t like simple.
If I want a taste test from people, I need to see their first reaction. If they have to think about it, then it’s probably ‘meh’.”
FLAVOUR BOMBS ARE DE RIGUEUR AT THE QUARTERS
Chung Deming, owner and chef of The Quarters, is also a fan of flavours. There is a Laksa Bomb + Onsen Egg dish on the menu, which is literally a thick laksa* gravy topped with a glorious Japanese onsen egg.
“Japan’s blessing to the world,” Deming says.
In other words, flavour hits you right in the arteries.
Deming talks very passionately about his food using words such as “ultimate”, “bomb”, “flavours” and “shiok”**.
* Laksa = A dish consisting of noodles with seafood and/or chicken swimming in thick spicy coconut gravy.
** Shiok = Singlish for “delicious”. Describes both taste and sensation.
“Comfort food is savoury. It could be something saucy. Like a chilli crab sauce. It must be a bit like…rich, but not gooey. When I eat it…wah, shiok! I forget I’m in the middle of a bad day.”
Deming started The Quarters, which serves up modified Singapore cuisine, in September 2014 fuelled by what he terms as “the crazy ideal of offering value for money and good quality”.
He admits that combining passion and business can be “a tough place to be”, but this Business graduate does enjoy cooking “from an artisanal, scientific, intuitive point of view”.
“Like this Quarterade (a house special) you’re drinking. You taste the lemon and the mint first, hits you at the front of the palate…
[And then the dill kicks in!]
Right! Like a good wine, this drink has a long finish with the dill because it perfumes your palate and it sticks.”
His choice of comfort food samples stick, too. In fact, he presented a whole set – fries with a specialty salted egg yolk dip (salted egg yolk everything is all the rage now in Singapore), ayam buah keluak*, buah keluak ice-cream and durian crème brulée.
*Ayam buah keluak = “The ‘buah keluak’ tree is native to this region and is one of Nature’s monsters. It is a poisonous tree with awkward looking fruits suggesting a stomach crammed with big seeds. The poison, hydrogen cyanide, occurs in all parts of the tree. This can be easily removed by washing with water. Natives have discovered this and have devised various ways of treating the leaves, especially the seeds so that they can be eaten. The oil that can be extracted from the seeds is used by jungle folk for cooking when coconut oil is scarce. Fresh leaves, seeds or oil from the tree was used as an antiseptic & disinfectant in the early days. The treated kernels can be grounded to form thick black gravy called ‘rawon’. In Singapore and Malaysia, the seeds are best known as an essential ingredient in ayam (chicken) buah keluak, a mainstay of Peranakan cuisine.” – National Parks Board
RECIPE
- Turmeric, galangal (a root from the ginger family), lemongrass, belacan (dried shrimp paste), fresh and dried chillies, candlenut, tamarind and shallots all ground into a paste and then stir-fried.
- Kaffir lime leaves or limau purut (optional)
- Salt, sugar to taste
- If using harvested buah keluak, a small portion of about 4 chicken thighs could be done in about 45 minutes to an hour.
- Pan fry chicken thigh with skin, take out of the pan and fry the paste, which will be infused with the chicken essence.
(Left: Ayam buah keluak, Right: Buah keluak ice-cream)