Tomorrows’ Retro Makan

I am a sucker for nostalgia. Theresa Teng, Led Zeppelin, Morris Minor, Pele, Magnolia Snack Bar, Swee Kee chicken rice, Odeon Theatre, mosaic tiles, Waterloo Street sarabat stalls, Hero fountain pens and unfortunately…bell bottoms and center parting hairstyles.

Sure, I’m into MP3s and 3G, but life then was much clearer before the advent of internet. Those days, feeder transport services meant hopping on to a trishaw or “pau chia” (booking a car) opposite Rex theatre at Serangoon Road to get to Hougang.

When we wanted to makan Cantonese food then, as we do today, we simply pop into an eatery that served the kind of comfort food that was de-rigeur of my gastronomic upbringing, food that pleases. It was things like fried yam pot, raw fish salad, claypot rice, roasted chicken, two-style garoupa, drunken prawns, monk jumps over the wall, dim sum, steamed chicken and ham etc…These are also flavours that transported me back into another era.

I looked ahead and it was back to the past when I walked into Lai Wah Restaurant. I was cradled by the legacy of the Four Heavenly Culinary Kings of Singapore. Tham Yew Kai, Lau Yoke Pui, Hooi Kok Wai and Sin Leong was accorded this accolade some 40 years ago for their Cantonese culinary prowess and ingenuity by a food authority from China. These folks gave to Singapore flavours like the modern day raw fish salad and fried yam pot ring.

Lai Wah Restaurant was the first eatery that the late leader of the “kings” Mr Tham co owned back in the 60’s. It’s an eatery that defied the test of time. By today’s reckoning, this place is retro uber cool, but it’s still rock and roll to me.

I push past the aluminium and glass swing doors framed by red and yellow double happiness signs, and second generation boss Mr Wong Kah Onn and his wife Helen bellows a warm greeting. They are already in their 60’s.

After citing my childhood riot makan act, I was shown my table… charming and sturdy stainless steel and deep maroon fabric cushioned chairs (which I suspect my late father once sat on), bleached white table cloth with a proud yet faded restaurant logo designed totally without the aid of Pagemaker softwares. As I fiddled with the paper napkin with the restaurant’s insignia tucked into a glass tumbler, set to be collector’s item soon, their anthem dish appears, the Mandarin Stew Chicken.

This forty year old recipe uses a petite and almost fatless 8-900grams fowl. This triple cooked chicken is fried, boiled and then stewed in a claypot of herbs, stock, wood ear fungus, bean skin and Hua Tiao wine. I was suddenly awakened to the soft Richard Clayderman’s muzak in the air. I pictured a man squatting on a chair, bowl of rice in hand and picking away heartily at this dish. It was soul food.

Then came a faded yet proud queen of yesteryear’s wedding banquet classics, Boneless Chicken and Ham with Kailan. If you are pantang (superstitious), do insist that it be served with head, beak and backside intact…for completeness in your life. At dinners, this was a dish that made people eat, not socialize. I was fixated by the softness of the chicken and ham slices smoothened by a silky oyster sauce roughened with some kailan greens.

The waitress who has been there for 30 years sauntered out with the Fried Golden Beancurd in crab meat sauce. Nobody can claim to be a decent foodie if they had not tried this. They took plain tofu suitable for deep frying, mashed it with ham and spring onions and refried it into little golden brown tofu patties which they smothered with crab meat sauce laced with carrots, green peas and eggs. Suddenly, I was humming Andy Gibb and clearly noticed the pink curtains shaded by the tinted glass that shut you off from the newly upgraded modern HDB blocks across the road.

These days it’s kinda rare for an eatery to serve a dish that needs a day’s advance notice. It’s an oxymoron to ask for a dish in a restaurant only to be served…tomorrow! But you’ll understand why, when they do it with the Two Style Garoupa. One, they thinly fillet some slices, wrap spring onions inside, steamed and sauce it. Two, the other slices are deep fried till surface crispy with carrots. And three, as a bonus, the tail and fins are battered and fried till crisp and painfully laid out on a platter with cheek slivers beckoning at the head. I was reminded about how beautiful yet complicated my first kindergarten art and craft lesson was in Geylang.

Then came the finale, like a repeat of and old Chan Poh Choo movie classic from Hong Kong, the Fried Yam Ring. Any chef can get the fillings right, prawns, crunchy and colourful greens, chicken cubes, chilli etc…But a foodie fusspot will tuck right into the fried yam walls and realise that it is the recipe of the folks that invented this dish and sigh with smooth delight.

Lai Wah Restaurant