14 replies to this topic

[xng]

I just watched one episode on the origin of Singaporean/Malaysian (abbreviated to SingMa) food.

Interestingly, It seems that these food cannot be found in China. Can somebody give us some practical insight on this.

Food like..

Cha Kue Tiau with cockles
Hainanese chicken rice
Bak Kut Teh
Singaporean hokkien mee (with prawns)
KL hokkien mee (thick black sauce)

Edited by xng, 30 January 2011 - 09:15 AM.

[Kenshinng]

I just watched one episode on the origin of Singaporean/Malaysian (abbreviated to SingMa) food.

Interestingly, It seems that these food cannot be found in China. Can somebody give us some practical insight on this.

Food like..

Cha Kue Tiau with cockles
Hainanese chicken rice
Bak Kut Teh
Singaporean hokkien mee (with prawns)
KL hokkien mee (thick black sauce)

Hi there,

At least for Bak Kut Teh i believe there was a more logical explanation for its creation. I saw on tv that early immigrants to South East Asia from China(at least for the poorer ones who were coolies), just took whatever meat that was left and usually it was just scraps of meat left on bones, then put them into water and boiled, soya sauce and pepper was added so give the soup more taste and in the end Bak Kut Teh was created.

[xng]

I just saw my first episode of the origin of these dishes.

It seems that Singma 'cha kue tiau' is a local invention not found in china.

In china chaoshan region, they cook it with either vegetable, beef or seafood; it's not black in color and is purely kue tiau and it is not mixed with any noodles.

In Singma, it is cooked with bean sprouts, cockles, black sauce and some yellow noodles. The black sauce seems to be borrowed from popiah sauce.

Edited by xng, 30 January 2011 - 11:30 AM.

[bloodmerchant]

I just watched one episode on the origin of Singaporean/Malaysian (abbreviated to SingMa) food.

Interestingly, It seems that these food cannot be found in China. Can somebody give us some practical insight on this.

Food like..

Cha Kue Tiau with cockles
Hainanese chicken rice
Bak Kut Teh
Singaporean hokkien mee (with prawns)
KL hokkien mee (thick black sauce)

Hainanese chicken rice is not found in China, but a similar dish called Wenchang chicken is found on Hainan. Most of the Hainanese and their ancestors in SE Asia came from Wenchang, and brought their cooking styles to SE Asia. It's just a white-cut chicken served with rice. The main difference between Hainanese chicken and Wenchang chicken is the breed of the chicken used to cook the dish. For example, Wenchang chicken has to be made from a specific type of free range chicken.

Others I cannot answer.

[xng]

Hainanese chicken rice is not found in China, but a similar dish called Wenchang chicken is found on Hainan. Most of the Hainanese and their ancestors in SE Asia came from Wenchang, and brought their cooking styles to SE Asia. It's just a white-cut chicken served with rice. The main difference between Hainanese chicken and Wenchang chicken is the breed of the chicken used to cook the dish. For example, Wenchang chicken has to be made from a specific type of free range chicken.

Others I cannot answer.

I think most people won't care what type of chicken is used. The uniqueness of hainanese chicken rice are the yellow rice, cucumber slices and 'yun sai'.

Is it the same in Hainan too ?

[xng]

I just saw another episode of the Singaporean Food Hometown series.

肉骨茶 (Bak Kut Teh) originated from some homes of Fujian province in the form of 家常菜, it was not sold commercially in China.

It became commercialised and popular when 李文地 from Klang, Malaysia modified the recipe and sold it to the public.

The 'Teh' originated from the sound '地' as he was the boss who sold it but it slowly transformed to modern day 茶 as they were similar in sound. This person name at the end of the dish name is similar to the chinese convention of '豬肉榮' a person named Wing who sells pork.

Singaporeans who came to Klang, heard and tasted the popular dish and subsequently brought it down to Singapore to sell.

Bak Kut Teh can't be found in China (a few shops do but they will say it is 'singaporean bak kut teh' and not 'china bak kut teh')

In the Chinese world, the word 'Singapore' is more popular in China but the true origin is from Klang where the best bak kut teh still thrives. The ones in Singapore are less tasty.

Edited by xng, 01 May 2011 - 08:54 PM.

[mrclub]

I just saw another episode of the Singaporean Food Hometown series.

肉骨茶 (Bak Kut Teh) originated from some homes of Fujian province in the form of 家常菜, it was not sold commercially in China.

It became commercialised and popular when 李文地 from Klang, Malaysia modified the recipe and sold it to the public.

The 'Teh' originated from the sound '地' as he was the boss who sold it but it slowly transformed to modern day 茶 as they were similar in sound. This person name at the end of the dish name is similar to the chinese convention of '豬肉榮' a person named Wing who sells pork.

Singaporeans who came to Klang, heard and tasted the popular dish and subsequently brought it down to Singapore to sell.

Bak Kut Teh can't be found in China (a few shops do but they will say it is 'singaporean bak kut teh' and not 'china bak kut teh')

In the Chinese world, the word 'Singapore' is more popular in China but the true origin is from Klang where the best bak kut teh still thrives. The ones in Singapore are less tasty.

It is still a mystery to where did Bak Kut Teh originated from.

It might be more famous there but it still doesn't prove that Bak Kut Teh originated from Klang itself.

What is "true origin" anyway ?

It is the same as you ask this question -- Did we have Hokkien-style Bak Kut Teh first, or Teochew-style Bak Kut Teh ?

I do not see definate answers to which style of Bak Kut Teh appeared first, and neither I see a definate answer to the origins or it

Edited by mrclub, 02 May 2011 - 01:39 AM.

[Loong]

Ok, here goes.

Bak Kut Teh
Do not know the origins of Bak Kut Teh, although my maternal side of the family originates from Klang (and spent part of my childhood there). I will say that the Klang is famous for Bak Kut Teh, probably they propagated the use of chinese herb to give it the additional flavours. However, I don't think there is any claim that it originated/invented by them.

Chicken Rice
In hainan, the wenchang chicken (or boon shio kui - hainanese pronunciation) is common throughout, except the chicken are free ranged and originating from wenchang district with a special taste (which cannot be explained except taking a plane to hainan and trying out for oneself). There are no special chicken rice in Hainan. The rice available are mostly duck rice. Chicken rice in Malaysia/singapore is cooked differently, where the water used to boil the chicken (which becomes the broth) is used to cook the rice. Main difference : Hainan people emphasize on chicken, M'sian/S'porean emphasize on rice.
PS. In KL during the 70s/80s, there were two stalls in Jln Sultan - Loke Yuen and Nam Heong. Loke Yuen emphasized on rice, and the other on chicken. Nam heong trived while loke yuen folded. Nam heong is part of the esquire kitchen group now.

[Freddy1]

What no pictures?

[Swordsman]

Bak Ku Teh is a dish consist of pork ribs and soup. The soup are either in black herbal or white peppery.

[YummYakitori]

These Chinese dishes in Singapore and Malaysia have been mildly affected by the countries beside it. All these were created by our ancestors on board the ships to Singapore and Malaysia in the past. They used very simple ingredients to cook these dishes as they were poor. Bak Kut Teh these days, have quite a lot of meat on their bones. In the past, flakes of pork on bones were put in boiling water and peppercorn was added.

Hokkien Mee was also once very simple, it was just dark soy sauce, bean sprouts and noodles. Soon, chicken and fish variations were added, then abandoned. Then they tried using prawns and the flavor tasted better.

[eJcob]

Hi, I am currently doing a project in my University on food and history (general knowledge).
After reading all the posts in this forum, I find it interesting to know that Bak Kut Teh has been made in different ways with different mixture of ingredients through time as China develops.
In relates to China, I have recently posted a blog about national dishes of Indonesia and during the time of my research, I found that rice, which is a staple food of both China and Indonesia, originally came from China in result to a trading made between the two countries during the colonisation era in Indonesia. It is not only Indonesia that was heavily influenced by China, but Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan as well, as discussed in this forum.
There is one thing I am curious about though. On my post, I mentioned that Nasi Goreng (fried rice) is Indonesia's national dish, although the dish is often associated with Malaysia and Singapore as well, but there was a rumor that Nasi Goreng was actually from China.
Is that true?



China-Originated-Bak Kut Teh is labelled Singapore-Bak Kut Teh and China-originated-Nasi Goreng is labelled Indonesia's national dish

Attached Files

•  Nasi Goreng-smallersize.jpg   37.82K   2 downloads

[Loong]

I would say nasi goreng is too general to be one's national dish.

Any rice eating culture would take leftover, and reheat by frying it. Hence calling it fried rice..... I guess they probably developed it independently in all these country.

[xng]

The Chinese were stir frying rice thousand of years before Indonesia.
So Yes, it originated from China except that the fried rice in Indonesia is more spicy.
The same goes to Thailand fried rice , it originated from China but with local ingredients. You can still see Thai stir frying their rice the chinese way with wok.

[abbydowdle]

Hi,

 

Im personally experience with Singapore restaurants. Moreover here are some chinese food i tasted and experienced about Chinese spices:

 

• Xiao Long Bao soups chinese dumplings
• Wagyu
• pulau Ketam - Singapore chili

For More info: http://accidentalepicurean.com