“You must blanch the mee a bit first, then when you fry, it will be smooth and soft. Cannot fry it direct from the packet, very funny taste.”, went one of them, “your marble top must not be too oily, otherwise the prata will not stretch when you flip, it will slide back.”, went another. All these little gems of advise, certainly not found in recipe books, were nuggets of wisdom a few street food experts and masters imparted to us when we were setting up to pre-open our first regional food court, the Makansutra Asian Food Village in Manila last week.

Our Singapore top hawkers trying to pause for a smile in
between fussing over recipes.

It was a dream in concept (at least for me), and a nightmare in execution, kind of food court. To begin with, it is an open island kitchen set up with fourteen stations serving up over 100 items. We had to train 38 chefs Pinoy chefs and sub divide them to man sections and stations- thing is, none of them had ever been to nor eaten anything from Singapore and Malaysia, let alone Thailand and Indonesia, whose food we offered at the eatery. They are “performance” chefs set in hawker-like stations inspired by a make shift village food festival atmosphere. Each chef cooked ala minute and in front of curious customers. All the food signs on A-stands had explanations of what they are, were hand painted with poster paint and chisel brushes (it is a dying art in Singapore but over in Manila, there are hundreds of Jeepney painters waiting in line to offer their services, and they are fast and cheap enough). You see what you like, order, pay and go eat in a environment with an eclectic mix of kopitiam tables, chairs and old Spanish style street café furniture with Indonesian tok panjang seatings. We even used wooden crates for seats. If you observe carefully, you will notice tin cans and old kerosene lamps used as bulb holders to illuminate the eatery.

The centerpiece of the whole eatery is the
naked-open-kitchen concept operation.

The kitchen occupied about 2000 square feet in the middle of the eatery and was the key focus and “culinary stage” of the eatery. My colleagues and I had all the pre-tested recipes well ready in advance (a good four months ahead of time) and was approved by the four street food masters we sought help from. The masters from Singapore were not shy nor secretive with advise when the showed up at our eatery a week before opening to fine tune the techniques and recipes with our Pinoy cooks. Mohd Hussin or Sam, from Alhambra Padang Satay at Gluttons Bay by the Esplanade, insisted that the 12 ingredients used for the marinade, must not be compromised and the skewering technique must be observed, otherwise, he warns, “they fall apart when you bakar (grill)”. Alex See of Geylang Lor 29 Fried Hokkien Mee (396 East Coast Road), was particularly active in defining style when imparting his skills, “eh, when you fry the last bit of garlic for finishing, use a little bit of oil with three bits of lard can already, the smell sure come out, then you flip the noodles over it”, all this, in between telling us to pre blanch the yellow noodles before frying. The chilli crab sauce from Francis Yeo (Ah Heng) from Tian Jin Hai Seafood (01-09 Zion Road Riverside Food Centre), had an A and B pre sauce technique which must only be mixed when frying the dish, for max flavour effect and reminds us to “smell the sauce on the wok first, when very pang (fragrant), then you put the crab in, this will give you the flavour. If not, you will taste the raw spices.” Of course, the Pinoy chefs, half the time, had no idea what they were saying but somehow, action spoke loudest and they could relate. But of all the dishes the team had to master, the most difficult one was also the easiest to enjoy- roti prata. We had the privilege of being guided by Mohamed Nasiruddeen Hudek (or Deen). He runs Flavours Prata (210 South Bridge Road) and hails from some of the top prata joints in Singapore and had been at it for over 20 years. “Your fingers must be soft, you must relax and you must face the customer, otherwise, your prata will go sideways when you flip” and “tabletop must not be oily, or prata cannot stretch”. We also had an eagled eyed full time trainer, Hokkien and Mandarin speaking Cheng King Tong, a, what I would call a pao-ka-liao (everything also can) kind of hawker, who helped us relay our recipes to the Pinoy chefs.

We are in debted to these street food masters for their help and advise. Now, we are ever so ready and honoured to have The Philipines President Gloria Arroyo grace our opening event this evening (7th July 09) and feast on our authentic makan made by an all Pinoy crew.