Poll: Your Favourite Restaurant on Ubin

If you like a restaurant that is not listed here, please tell us its name in the comments section! Restaurants means they served cooked food. Drink stalls not included!

Ubin First Stop Restaurant now on mainland Changi

On Sunday, 13 April 2008, Straits Times reported that Singaporeans can now get a taste of Ubin on the mainland.

Interestingly, one of the restaurant featured, is run by a previous islander, Mr Leong Kee Keng 56, who served water-skiiers and boaters from his family kitchen on the island's north shore. The restaurant then moved to the mainland and has been moving from place to place, now owned by a businesswoman from the mainland.

The other is the Ubin First Stop Restaurant which may be familiar to people who frequent the island since 1990. Irony again, Ubin First Stop is owned by a mainlander, Mr Alan Tan 55, "who was born on the mainland but visited his relatives on Ubin regularly as a child".

But what is the true cuisine and "taste" of Ubin? Is it synonymous with seafood as suggested by the article or is it fresh kampung food served by the locals in the kampung setting?

Ubin First Stop's owner said that he is setting up shop on the mainland because "some of his regulars began complaining that it was a hassle to travel to Ubin every time they needed a seafood fix".



However, for me, enjoying the true taste of Ubin food is when I can sit by the beach, enjoying my homecooked food as I watch the fishermen cast their nets. I enjoy eating homemade lontong at Pak Ali's in the mornings. Gigantic portions of fried seafood beehoon at the 2 sister's [located beside Ubin First Stop] for lunch. Finally seafood at Ah Lian's restaurant under the canopy and the cool sea breeze. After all, Ah Lian's father in law is now the oldest man on Ubin who is said to have lived to his grand old age from eating all the freshest seafood from Ubin! I was kindly informed by a resident who frequents Hai Liang's family restaurant and provision shop. The restaurant is after all a converted store room from the family's home!

What I find interesting is that, if the banner pictured above is where the new Ubin First Stop will be located, it is actually a precious landmark to the Changi landscape! That building used to be the customs' office at Changi. It is a wonderful building on stilts that is a reminder to the coastal village that changi was! Likewise, the location of Ubin First Stop on Ubin itself is also a historic landmark being where the maternity clinic of Ubin used to be at!

Do you have fond memories of "food and fun" on Ubin? Straits Times wants to know and so do I! Do leave a comment and share your thoughts. Which is your favourite Ubin resturant?

Endangered Ubin Lontong II

4 months ago in October 2007, I wrote about the endangered Ubin lontong.

"Now why is this lontong endangered? Well this delicacy comes from the hands of the macik (auntie) of the establishment, wife of Pak Ali. The couple must be at least 90 years old now ... Unfortunately, as with the rest of the aging population, the lontong is under threat as it may very well disappear from the face of this planet when the cook is no longer with us. Where then would we find our Ubin lontong?"

Darn my words but the lontong came very close to true endangerment a few weeks before the Lunar New Year.

On 3 February 2008, I was tipped off by a duck that the lontong was unavailable as the coffeeshop was closed on that very sunday. Some asking around revealed that the Macik who mastermind this delicious lontong has been hospitalized! Apparently she fell at her home and broke her hip a few weeks before.

Fortunately, it comes as good news to this monkey that the couple's son is still often on the island. It had worried me that like many of the older residents, their offsprings may be more comfortable entrenched in urbanised Singapore and its many conveniences such as piped water and grid electricity.

On 16 February 2008, I finally met the couple's son, Hassan. He informed us that Macik is finally discharged and resting at home. What a relief! Hopefully she has managed to pass her secret recipe to her children before she took to her bed. At least the coffeeshop is now opened for business again. Thank goodness!

Related Reads
"Endangered Ubin Lontong", Pulau Ubin Stories, 26 Oct 2007

Endangered Ubin Lontong

Wikipedia defines Lontong as "an Asian dish made of compressed rice that is then cut into small cakes". Home-made lontong is possibly rather hard to come by these days. However, on the island of Pulau Ubin exist one such specimen of Lontong that possibly defines what Lontong should be like.


A glimpse of the rare specimen of lontong

Now why do I say this Ubin Lontong is an endangered species? It's not because you can no longer find good lontong else where in Singapore or in the world. Instead, it's this particular lontong that is endemic on Ubin. You cannot find it elsewhere but at Pak Ali's coffeeshop beside the jetty bridge on Pulau Ubin.


Pak Ali's coffeeshop

What more, it's such an rare species that you cannot even find it on other days apart from Sundays before 11am! Sometimes by 10am, it's already gone, grabbed off the shelves by its devoted followers or incidental fans.

Unfortunately, ignorant ape that I am, I have never known of the existence of this delectable lontong till last Sunday (21 Oct) when I visited Chek Jawa with Ria and a few special friends. Before we embarked on our journey, we had a leisurely breakfast, enjoying the heavenly lontong soaked in drool-inducing coconut curry gravy. In fact, just writing this is making me drool uncontrollably again!

Now why is this lontong endangered? Well this delicacy comes from the hands of the macik (auntie) of the establishment, wife of Pak Ali. The couple must be at least 90 years old now and they are still working every day at their coffeeshop under the Assam tree*. Not only do they serve fantastic lontong but the meesiam and mee rebus are also irresistible.


Pak Ali with Dr Chua Ee Kiam, author of the Pulau Ubin: Ours to Treasure book

During Hari Raya, the amazing couple also offers homemade candies and goodies in their coffeeshop. Unfortunately, as with the rest of the aging population, the lontong is under threat as it may very well disappear from the face of this planet when the cook is no longer with us. Where then would we find our Ubin lontong?


Hari Raya goodies at Pak Ali's shop

Even as life and death are part of the natural cycles of our existence, it is unavoidable that one day the Ubin lontong will cease to be. However, let it be remembered that we once had this fantastic lontong and it was delicious!

*I am still looking for the photo I have of the coffeeshop and the Assam tree beside it. Once I find it, I will be sure to share it on Ubin Stories.

"Kampung Gourmet,: by Tabitha Wang. Today, 02 Feb 2007.

KAMPUNG GOURMET
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Why chase western food fads when we have snob appeal at our doorstep?

I WAS so amazed to find unripe jackfruit at Tekka Market the other day that I called a friend to tell her. A fellow foodie, I thought she would be ecstatic. Instead, she offered a bored response: "So what? They're not artichoke hearts."

Artichoke hearts? This was better than artichoke hearts - and possibly rarer. Granted, in the bad old days, unripe jackfruit was the poor man's vegetable but now that orchards are scarce in HDBland, it is a delicacy you have to root out in obscure market stalls. Artichoke hearts you can find in almost any supermarket now.

When I was a kid, my baby- sitter was a Malay makcik. She also cooked for us so my palate was trained from young to appreciate simple kampung food.

Unripe jackfruit curry was one; the others included stir-fried sweet potato leaves and winged beans, petai (stink bean) sambal and young fern shoots in coconut milk. All simple produce she could get for free from her kampung compound but tasting so fresh and delicious.

She wasn't the only one influencing my tastebuds. Both my grandmothers were nonyas and no one's more finicky about her food than Peranakan matriach - even more so, I dare-say, than Anthony Bourdain.

Only the best would do. No factory-made palm sugar for them, only those made in bamboo.

Belachan (shrimp paste) had to come from Penang because only the Penangites used fine enough shrimp. You couldn't fool my grandmas - one sniff and they could tell the difference.

Even food preparation was down to a fine art. Spices had to be pounded to different consistencies depending on whether they were for stir fries or for curries. Buah keluak, that brown nut so beloved in nonya cooking, had to be soaked for three days before it could be used.

Having grown up under such strong influences, I've always been as exacting in my kitchen and when I go out for meals. I never thought of myself as being a gourmet, just a little nonya girl with kampung tastes.

My friends would often laugh at me when I went into ecstasy on finding the perfect tamarind paste or a rare dish of jungle herb salad. Once, I found a stall that served delicious unripe jackfruit curry and went back every day for a week to get my fix. The last few days, I went on my own as no one wanted to have curry that many times.

So, it's funny to see the same friends putting on airs these days about getting expensive gourmet food. "Oh, I've been using only free-range eggs since Jamie Oliver recommended them on TV," one told me. Another said: "You must try organic food. It has the most amazing flavour."

These are not new discoveries. What are free-range eggs but kampung eggs? And kampung folk have been eating organic food (fertilised by free-range chickens) since before Jamie Oliver appeared on TV. Since before TV was even invented.

And the same people who poked fun at my "nonya tastes" are now snobbishly telling me I have to "educate my palate" to enjoy truffles and foie gras. I don't need to - truffles have the same earthy flavour that you find in mushrooms harvested from the jungles behind kampungs while foie gras has the same texture of well-made otak otak.

My palate knows them well.

It's sad that these "gourmets" hooked on Western food fads can't see the rich heritage they already have.

Last weekend, I went for a cookery course held in a 200-year-old kampung house on Pulau Ubin. We harvested herbs from the garden to make nasi kerabu, a traditional dish that is harder to find now than coq au vin because of the rarity of the ingredients. None of the herbs used could be farmed - we were lucky because the house was so old that they still grew in the garden like weeds.

My class had 18 people, of which only six were Singaporeans. The rest were foreigners who obviously appreciated Singapore's fare more than the locals do. Where were the rest of the Singaporean self-styled gourmets?

My bet would be at a $300 cooking class conducted by a foreign chef on how to use imported free-range chicken and herbs harvested from Umbria instead of Ubin.

Tabitha Wang is no food snob but still takes a plane to Penang for her belachan.

More cookery magic on Ubin

Cooking Class in a Kampong House on Pulau Ubin (29 July 2006, Saturday, 8.30am - 2pm)

Menu: Nasi Kerabu. We wil go harvest the jungle herbs for the cooking. This is a hands on cooking class. You will also be served Lontong upon arrival.
1. Nasi Kerabu
2. Sambal Blachan

3. Butter Pepper Fresh Prawns
4. Ice Kachang.

Cost: S$85 per person (Cost includes ferry and taxi ride on the island)

Contact Ruqxana at Cookery Magic

More Cookery Magic

This is coming a little late but perhaps there may still be vacancies... although knowing the popularity of ruq's classes, perhaps you can sign up for her mailing list instead!

Ruqxana wrote:

My next two Pulau Ubin classes are as follows. Email me if you are interested to attend any of them.

Cooking Class in a Kampong House on Pulau Ubin

28 May 2006, Sunday, 8.30am - 2pm; or
3 June 2006, Saturday, 8.30am - 2pm (only 2 places left)

Menu: Nasi Kerabu. We will go harvest the jungle herbs for the cooking. This is a hands on cooking class. You will also be served Lontong upon arrival.
1. Nasi Kerabu
2. Sambal Blachan

3. Butter Pepper Prawns
4. Ice Kachang.

Cost: S$82 per person (Cost includes ferry and taxi ride on the island)

Also, kindly forward this email to your friends who may be interested in attending my cooking classes.

Regards

Ruqxana
Cookery Magic
ruqxana at cookerymagic dot com
www.cookerymagic.com

Kampong Pictorial

(l-r) Feasting on the floors of the house. Homemade lontong and tea by our host. Old fashion ice shaver brings back good memories. Found a scarecrow outside the house - perhaps to prevent the garden from being nibbled away? Photo by November. 31 Jul 2005.

Last weekend, visiting Kamariah's house for Cookery Magic's kampong cooking class was surely an eyeopener for me.

The layout of a malay kampong house is often remarked as being very unique and most of all, it can always be lifted up whole and moved elsewhere! I always thought that was a very innovative feature! You would also have noticed that it is on stilts. According to answer.com wikipedia, "a main characteristic of a typical kampung house includes the obvious fact that it is raised on stilts or piles. There are five or six advantages for this: to avoid wild animals, to be above floods, to deter thieves and enemies, for added ventilation from underneath and as a storage area below."


A thriving and beautifully maintained kampong home. Photo by November. 31 Jul 2005.

Another unique feature is the raised verandah attached to the house which is for "seated working or relaxation or where non-intimate visitors would be entertained, thus preserving the privacy of the interior" (wikipedia). It is also rather obvious that where we were seated, it was an area for hosting guests as the family quarters are beyond the room. Also noted in the description of a malay house is that it has "at least two parts: the Main House called Rumah Ibu in honour of the mother (ibu) and the simpler Rumah Dapur or Kitchen Annex - this way if the kitchen catches fire only that part would be damaged, saving the main house" (wikipedia).


(l-r)Several views of the window, from outside and from within. Perhaps the simple pleasures from a relaxing afternoon sees wide smiles from our instructor. A congkak board in our host's home. Photo by November. 31 Jul 2005.

One of the first things that captured my attention when I entered the house is the congkak board (above) by the window. The image of the Congkak (or congklat in bahasa indonesia) often speaks in my mind as being synomynous with the malay kampong lifestyle. Read more about Congkak in Wikipedia.

Still, this must be the shared heritage in Singapore as often people forget that in the past, as perhaps even today, in villages such as on Ubin, there are not many differenciation between ethnicity. Islanders communicate not using english but malay or chinese or its dialects. My grandmother spoke her native dialects, mandarin but also Malay. My mother also mentioned that Malay islanders not only speak with their chinese counterparts in Malay but also in Mandarin! The cross cultural exchanges goes both ways.


Kamariah's uncle's al fresco shop front with its festive disco ball. One of the many cats homed by the Ubin barber. Photo by November. 31 Jul 2005.

Perhaps a good example would be Kamariah's uncle, who would be of my grandmother's generation. He works on the island as the resident barber, probably the only of his kind left. Upon some questioning from my host, she reveals that most of his customers are regulars and they are mostly Chinese! However, at this point in time, he no longer serves new customers but only his long time clients.

Interestingly enough, Kamariah and her sisters and their families only visit the island and the house on weekends, spending weekdays on the mainland and at their respective jobs and school. On the other hand, her uncle commutes daily to the island to work and instead there was no sign of her uncle that weekend. Still, his house is just right in front of theirs! Kamariah reveals that at one point in time, his house was home to 50 cats but ravenous wild boars has reduced the population significantly till certain measures were taken by her uncle to protect his feline house guests.

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If you wish to organize visits to Kamariah's home to experience a true kampong experience, contact Kamariah at:
email: visit_ubin@hotmail.com
mobile: 91006958

Kampong Cooking on Ubin

Getting ready to cook al fresco with freshly pick herbs from the jungle. Photo by November. 31 Jul 2005.

Over this last weekend of July, a rather unique class was conducted on the island of Pulau Ubin. In fact, it probably was one of the most interesting class I ever attended, and definitely the most enlightening visit I had to Ubin in the last one year.

As mentioned several times over the month, Ruqxana of Cookery Magic has been conducting special Kampong Cooking Classes in an authentic kampong family's home on the island. In conjuction with the Singapore food festival, lessons were held on the 30th and 31st of July. I was fortunate enough to be able to join them on this second date.


Well trodden paths between homes in the Ubin Malay Kampong. Photo by November. 31 Jul 2005

Not only was this the first time I entered a real authentic Malay Kampong house on the island, and a very well maintained one at that, I also visited a part of the island I never had the leisure to explore before. This is perhaps the last thriving Malay Kampong on Singapore soil. It also allowed me to forgo any need for vivid imagination when I saw the well-used village paths that my mother talked about.


Lunch! - Mixed herb rice, Nasi Kerabu, served with freshly pounded and fried sambal belachan chilli in Simpoh Air leaves! Photo by November

Participants were led by the nature-taught guides through their backyard jungle to pick fresh herbs and plants off the tree and from the ground to make a most delicious Nasi Kerabu which is a mixed herb rice. At the same time, our knowledgable organizer informs us of the many wonderful medicinal and cooking properties of these herbs. What more, after frequently telling others about it, I finally had the first hand experience to eat my food out of Simpoh Air leaves, also known as tempeh leaves as they are often used to wrap those fermented beans.

All in all, it was a most fruitful morning despite misplacing my brimming notebook on the island. What more, to add the ice-ing on the cake, I got to witness my mother's favourite childhood dessert - the mythical ice balls!


Ice balls made by our little host. Photo by November.

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If you wish to organize visits to Kamariah's home to experience a true kampong experience, contact Kamariah at:
email: visit_ubin@hotmail.com
mobile: 91006958

For more information on Ubin Kampong Cooking Classes or other interesting cooking classes, visit the Cookery Magic Website.