nonya culture

Nonya culture, east meets west. Food loving blog.

Monday 28 May 2012

Jacks Place

My birthday is on a working day so my hubby brought me for a dinner for just the two of us at Jacks place, on Sunday night. An early celebration

We're broke but he's chalked up enough credit card points for a jacks place voucher to surprise me with. We had that rare treat. Tenderloin steak, slowly savoring every bite.

The baked potato with sour cream, bacon bits and chives set off the tender juicy steak perfectly. I dipped each morsel in their delicious pepper sauce for a totally indulgent meal.

Bliss . That was a delightful private celebration.

Friday 25 May 2012

Shepherds Pie

Growing up in my mom's home, I loved the shepherd's pie my mom would bake. It's basically mashed potato with butter that encases a yummy minced beef filling.

Guess what? I had lunch at my favourite western food stall at ubi ave 3 vertex. The lady whispered to me she had 2 shepherd's pie left in the oven. Did I want one?

Yes! Since I was having their fabulous strip loin steak for lunch, I packed a shepherd's pie for dinner.

Needless to say, I had a blissful dinner tonight ... mmmm...

Saturday 12 May 2012

A simple breakfast

My kids were hungry. What's for breakfast?
I sent my son to buy some bread. Then I made ham cheese toast for them. They loved it. Simple and nice.


  1. Coat baking tray with olive oil

  2. Bake honey baked ham 10 minutes high heat

  3. Set the ham aside and spread more olive oil on baking tray

  4. Place the bread on the baking tray

  5. Cover with cooked honey baked ham

  6. Cover with smoked cheddar cheese

  7. Bake 5 minutes to toast bread and melt the cheese

  8. Serve hot and crispy


Thursday 10 May 2012

Roadside ice cream

As a little girl, I'd get so excited whenever the ice cream man came along with the cart. I loved the home made ice cream in plain crunchy cones.

Imagine my delight when I found this elderly couple selling home made ice cream near my work place.

Yeah there is the ever popular mass produced Ice cream cut in slices, sandwiched in wafer or bread.

There's the old fashion home made type on flavors like attap chee, mango, sweet corn and chocolate.

I went for the home made in all flavors . Yum!

Friday 4 May 2012

Rib eye steak at tiong baru food court

Tiong baru plaza has a pretty decent food court with western food. The rib eye steak costs about $12

I wanted meat. Had minestrone soup out of the can for lunch and was hungry.

The steak is really tender served medium well. 70% cooked. The sauce was average . The fries superb. Crispy on the outside. Soft and fluffy inside

Not bad at all.

Thursday 3 May 2012

Katong laksa

Why is it all the laksa shops in Katong are called Katong laksa?


Ian and I walked down the streets of Katong at sunset. That's where we started dating almost 2 decades ago. Kids were home. We abandoned them. :p

Anyway, we were looking for food that's good and cheap. There's lot to eat in Katong if you're willing to spend. But not us. We're broke. What's affordable and yummy?
Laksa.
Katong is so famous for laksa, you see store after store selling laksa and otak, each proclaiming that they're the famous Katong Laksa store.

What's laksa without the chilli or sambal that goes without it?



We settled down at one of the Katong Laksa stores for a bowl of laksa each. Laksa is an asian dish that consists of the thick round noodles in spicy coconut gravy with prawns and cockles.

Here's what's left of mine, by the time I remembered to take photographs. :p

Still got a long way to go before I can be a proper food blogger. Need to remember to shoot before eating.

Tuesday 1 May 2012

Euroasian food

I'm in a coffee shop at ubi ave 3 waiting for my mouthwateringly delicious striploin steak from m2cuisine, a shop that specializes in euro asian food.
The store owners are friendly . Their accent is vaguely familiar. Exactly like my late grandpa's a 3rd generation straits born Chinese, aka peranakan.
The food tastes exactly like grandpa's cooking .uncanny. Peranakans embraced the British culture too . We speak English as well as a kind of Malay mixed with toneless Chinese
Grandpa loved a good steak. As do I. My food just came. I'm going to tuck in . Steak with veggies in teriyaki sauce. With that x factor that makes it a class above the rest.

I had a chat with the owners. Guess what, they're peranakan too :) That's why the food had that distinct straits born taste. It's in the marinade. Their secret recipe.

Nonya Cuisune

I miss mom's cooking.

You know the saying, translated to English, it's "A married daughter is like water that's been poured out."

How true. I married out of a peranakan family and into a traditional cantonese family. No kebayas for me. When my figure was good, I wore cheong sams.  I visit my parents twice a year. On Chinese New Year's day and on Christmas eve.

Mom cooks up a storm each time we go there. I mean, there's all the Wee family specialties mom learnt from Ah Kong (My dad's dad who is by far the best cook this world has ever known.. in the eyes of this grand daughter)

This was what Mom cooked last Chinese New Year.

There's the quintessential Buah Keluak that takes a week to prepare. You need to soak and scrub these underground nuts daily, dry them completely in the sun, crack them open and scrape out the hard kernel from each nut. The result is a highly prized nonya delicacy. It's the first dish all true blue peranakans attack at the feast. Cooked with chicken (some families use pork), it's heavenly.

There's Pong tau hu. Mom's favourite which she learnt from grandpa. Something you can't get in stores either. It's tauhu  meat balls, cooked in a prawn based soup with bamboo shoots, carrots and tau cheo (salted bean paste). I loved it. Used to cook it too a very very long time ago.

Ayam sio. The nonya version of fast food. I used to make this when I first married but my hubby got so sick of it as I served it for every meal. You marinade the chicken overnight, then boil the chicken in the marinade to cook it. At this point, we'd freeze it into smaller portions. Oh, my family will cook in bulk for convenience, and then freeze for later meals.  When we're ready to eat it, we fry the chicken in the marinade until the marinade is all dry. Grandpa would do it til it's slightly burnt. Heavenly!

Chap chye. Its a veggie dish with cabbage and dried soya pieces and vermicelli, prawn, black fungus.. can't remember what else. I just eat it.

There's pong teh. Another favourite with pork cooked in salted bean paste, carrots, potatos, bamboo shoots.. kind of.. stew-like?

She did a braised duck for my in laws who were unable to show up that day. They are used to a different style of cooking altogether ;)

When I married, on our first chinese new year's eve together, my hubby wanted me to cook the new year's eve dinner for his family. I panicked. Nonya style is so different from canton style and I had no idea what to cook. In the end, I cooked what I was familiar with. A full scale nonya dinner, which my father in law.. had some problems adjusting to. Oops.

The bright side is... they never asked me to cook again. Mom in law volunteers to cook each year.. telling me tactfully, that my father in law has rather.. erm.. different.. taste in food.