Favorite Food

My favorite Singaporean dish is Seafood Hor Fun.  It's one of my mom's favorites too.  It is readily available in many of the food courts in Singapore.  But my mom and I liked our seafood hor fun best from the Tanglin Club.  The Tanglin Club started off an a private club for British expats during the colonial era but has since evolved to include locals (with many of its starchy rules remaining in effect).  My parents were members for as long as I can remember.  When my father passed away, Mom moved to a smaller space, a condo only a stone's throw from the Tanglin Club.  Whenever my daughters and I visited Singapore, we would  frequent the Club, first with my parents, then with just my mom.  It was like a second home.  The girls spent hours in the pool (they had their first swimming lessons with Mr. Jimmy, a most miserable experience), frequented the library, took Chinese brush paining classes; I worked out at the gym (occasionally); and Mom and I enjoyed afternoon tea on the mezzanine level.  But our favorite spot was the poolside restaurant, partly because it was the most egalitarian--young and old were welcomed--there was no dress code, and the menu offered an international cuisine.  The girls would order their sandwiches, pasta or salads, with a definite side order of fries (one of the best I've had) and Mom and I would delight ourselves with the local dishes like seafood hor fun, Hainanese chicken rice, rojak, or char kway teow.  Mom and the girls would end the meal  with a good selection of desserts from ice-kachang to tiramisu.  With the sun setting and the evening breeze kicking up, we would walk back to the condo, happy as larks to have spent yet another carefree day together at the Tanglin Club.

Those carefree days at the Tanglin Club are behind us now.  But the happy memories are forever etched into our collective memory.  I've never made seafood hor fun; I think it's time to give it a try.  It won't be like Tanglin Club's, and there is no Mom to enjoy it with.   But hopefully it'll taste just as good and every bite evoke sweet moments with Mom.


Recipe for Seafood Hor Fun
Ingredients:
8 oz of broad kway teow (translucent flat rice noodles)
4 slices of fish (seasoned with salt, rinse and rub with a bit of cornflour)
4 medium size shrimp
2 brunches of chye sim (cut into 2 inches long)
6 slices of fish cakes
4 slices of pork (marinate with mixture of half teaspoon of cornflour, 1/4 teaspoon light soya sauce and dash of pepper)
2 teaspoons of minced garlic
1/2 beaten egg
Preserved green chillies (optional)
Mixture A:-
1/2 cup water
3 rounded teaspoons of cornflour
Mixture B:-
1/2 tablespoon of oyster sauce
3/4 tablespoon of light soya sauce
Mixture C:-
1/2 tablespoon of light soya sauce
1 tablespoon of dark soya sauce

Preparation for Kway Teow:-
1) Heat up the wok with 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil.
2) Add 1 teaspoons of minced garlic, stir fry till fragrant.
3) Add kway teow and stir fry in medium heat.
4) Add in ‘Mixture C’ and continue to stir fry.
5) Set aside on plate.
Preparation for Gravy:-
1) Heat up wok with 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil.
2) Add in 1 teaspoons minced garlic, stir fry till fragrant.
3) Add in sliced fish and fish cake and stir fry for a few seconds.
4) Add in chye sim and 1/2 cup of water and leave it to boil.
5) Add in shrimps and stir till 1/2 cooked.
6) Add in ‘Mixture B’ and add pepper.
7) Slowly pour in ‘Mixture A’ until the required thickness.
8) Move all ingredients to side of the wok, and slowly add in 1/2 beaten egg to the gravy.
9) Turn off flame immediately after about 10 seconds, and move all ingredients to the gravy.
10) Pour the gravy over the broad kway teow and serve with preserved green cut chillies.
** Above recipe is for 1 serving.