There are some old traditional dishes out there which were once popular but are now extinct for one reason or another. Lo Kai Yik, for one, is now almost extinct save for a couple of lone cooks out there who revived it recently, believing that this old mix pork offals, tofu and chicken wing casserole stew, flavoured with nam-yu (red fermented tofu), still have a following. It is time consuming to prepare and not many folks today can handle the smokey fermented and salty stench of nam-yu. Besides, a good square of top grade nam-yu can set you back by three bucks each and you need quite a few blocks of it to flavour a whole pot of offals. Time consuming preparation, high cost of production (offals are no longer sold at market-reject price anymore), lack of knowledge and appeal (many see this as Ah Pek’s food, so old fashioned) and a total disconnect with this once peasant dish(many don’t even know what it is), are really good reasons enough for anyone to steer clear from Lo Kai Yik.

Then there’s also Lo Mei, usually a collection of stewed or boiled bite sized pig head cuts- tongue, ears, cheeks, skin etc…to go with tofu, vegetables and a good chilli dip. Supplies and demand are waning and they aren’t cheap like they used to be. I can also think of Lemang – Malay rice cakes wrapped in banana leaves, stuffed in a hollowed bamboo and grilled over charcoal. The flame flavoured smokiness and the sweet fragrance of the soft grains was a heaven made match with beef rendang. Gone. It is not quite environment friendly to be mass char-grilling these in crampy and stuffy Singapore and no one will endorse it if made otherwise. Last time I had it was in the Disco Duck era of the early 80s. I never knew I’ll grow up here to miss these things- and I do. These days, I get my Lemang- rendang fix in Indonesia and Malaysia.

It took Mdm Letchmi a year, of agonising trial and error and improvisation with the former owner’s recipe, before the queues and repeat customers started to appear for her appom and other dishes.

I suspect another candidate in this “future deprivation” makan list would be- Appom. This comfort pancake snack from South India, made from rice flour batter enhanced with hints of coconut milk and sugar, is not one you often spot in any hawker centres and coffeeshops (don’t even bother searching in the food courts). I have been enjoying my Appoms, and they come freshly made and piping hot, from a little unremarkable looking hawker stall at Ghim Moh. Only in recent memory that I realised you can count with the fingers of one hand, just how many decent Appom stalls are left standing around. Appom is usually made from a similar batter that many hawkers here use for Thosai, another flat, South Indian pancake, except it takes longer to cook and is quite difficult to make (if heat is not well controlled, you can’t get the wonderful crispy edges and the thick mass of dough in the middle can come burned).

But thank goodness for Letchmi and her family. She gave up a boring desk job ten years ago and boldly took over a stall selling Thosai and Appoms- get this, with no prior experience in cooking nor running such stalls. It took her a year, of agonising trial and error and improvisation with the former owner’s recipe, before the queues and repeat customers started to appear. She has never looked back since. She preps at 4am each day, churning out the batter, masala, dhals and chutneys, and is ready to dole the first portion by 6am. They never fail to sell out by lunch each day and just judging by the appreciative non-stop flow of customers each day (Chinese makes for 80% of her clientele), it is easy to tell why.

Her’s come with a crispy edge and a very soft and comforting blob of sweet and moist dough in the middle. The thin biscuit like edges reminds me of love-letters, crispy, light, gently sweet, coconutty and thin. She makes it individually over a little blackened and seasoned-through-the-years wok (it does not even look smooth) where she swirls her batter over ever so gently to leave a thin crust at the sides and allow the extra batter to gather and simmer at the base. She ferments the batter with a good grade Thai rice flour and it does not come, unlike many other’s I’ve had, with a sourish hint. It goes traditionally with orange sugar dip and fresh grated coconut. Many prefer it with her spicy dhals and chutneys.

Another fave hit is her Thosai. I prefer the masala version- simply because the spiced cabbage and potatoes she stuff them with is too good. But Thosai are going to be around for a long time yet.

Heaven’s Indian Curry

Address Blk 20 Ghim Moh Road #01-15, Ghim Moh Market & Food Centre

Opening Hours 6am-2pm daily