Transcription
Hey everyone, hope you're having an amazing day! It's Mark Wiens. I'm in Singapore. It's gonna be a very special day today because I am meeting up with KFCTO.
Hi people, welcome to Singapore, man! Who is the ultimate Singapore street food hawker center guru? Swinging! And he's going to take us on a tour where we are going to eat dishes and foods that were invented, that were born and bred within Singapore. You have to come to Singapore to eat them. We're going to meet some amazing people, we're going to eat some delicious food, and I'm going to share it all with you right now in this video.
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Man, it's so good to be back hanging out with you. Oh, good. I mean, hey, uh, when you come to Singapore, if you don't have friends here, or you don't follow Mark's videos to go and enjoy food, then hello, you're losing out on a lot of things. Oh, and Sito is the man to be with because you are, I mean, the ultimate Singapore street food guru, guide, restaurateur, writer, journalist, and just, and, and getting old in age, I'm slowing down. But hey, you got, you got monkey, so you guys are safe. Where are we going first?
We are here in Bukit Merah. It literally means Red Hill. There's a little hawker center here, and today I'm taking Mark to eat stuff that are born, bred, and created in Singapore. You can't find it anywhere else. And even if you do find it, where else people will say, "Hey, that one Singapore food." Hall food. First up is, let's find out and go.
So, we are strolling into this huge kind of red-colored apartment-looking complex. So, this store behind me sells uh Satay Bihun. It is a dish that was created, I don't know exactly when, but it was quite long ago. It's iconic. You find it's only in Singapore. They take rice bihun noodles and they slather it with a savory, sweet, malty, spicy peanut sauce. It's almost creamy, and then they, they rain it with seafood. It is, it looks horrible, buddies. Oh, man.
So, they're grabbing all these different meats. Oh, that's like, look at this, look at this. There it is. This is Satay Bihun. Ugly never felt so good. Let's find a seat here.
All right, you take some of the bihun, which are the thin rice vermicelli noodles, blanch those up with a variety of proteins. I think there's some, I think I saw liver, squid, or cuttlefish. Cuttlefish. There's pork liver, and there is uh vegetables. Oh, okay. Watermelon. The shrimps. So, he kind of like blanches all that up onto the plate, and then it's all about the sauce, man. It's so aromatic. It's so peanut-peany. It has a little bit of red kind of chili oil floating on top. Oh, there's pieces of the tofu in here too. Giant pieces of cuttlefish. Oh, yeah. This is a messy, like splattering of a of a dish right here. Let me film you. Okay, okay. I'm going in. Oh, okay. Oh, film with this one. Okay. Wow. Oh, yeah, that sauce is so thick and so creamy, so peanuty, and the flavors keep on coming. It just completely saturates into the noodles, and you have the flavor of the cuttlefish. I think that's what stands out, the flavor of the cuttlefish within the peanut sauce. The liver. So, you, you gotta, you gotta take your noodles and you gotta swipe that sauce in. Yeah. Oh, man. Put it on the spoon. You don't want any bite to go uncovered in that sauce. And then you observe, you watch, and then you bring them in, bring them in. Big meaty chunks of liver, which again, you just want to swipe as much of that sauce as possible.
So, um, look who I brought here to have his first ever delicious, born and bred in Singapore dishes that we are going through today. You like it cold or hot? Cold or hot? Ah, cold, please. All right. So, the perfect accompaniment beverage, soy milk. Soy milk to the bihun. You got a nut saute sauce. So refreshing, cold, just not too rich, but just has that nutty soybean flavor to it. It's wonderful. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Won't you don't overeat? Have you got a long day? I want ya.
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Fisher. We call it uh Hainanese Curry Rice. It's actually by the curry rice because it's a story. I've always wondered where on earth did this dish come around. The Hainanese are Chinese, hardcore Chinese. And when Singaporeans talk about curry, they don't, they don't mention the Indians. You mention the Hainanese Chinese people selling curry rice. And I was thinking, where did this come from? And I started because it was the British, strangely, who introduced curry rice to Singaporeans. And the British got their curry technology from British India. So, they were, they were loving curry. If you go to London, curry is a national dish. And of course, uh, um, somewhere in there, when the British was trying to conquer the world, so were the Japanese. The Japanese were there. The Japanese came up with the Akari Katsudon, you know, that we love that. But this is the Hainanese version. If you look at the dishes, it's not truly all Indian. They've got, um, fried pork chop and fried prawns and little meatballs. That is so British. And they slather, they curry.
Let's try some stuff here. Are we going to try this next? Yeah. Oh, yeah, of course. So, next up, Hainanese Curry Rice. How the situation works is, you get rice, you choose whatever you want, more than a dozen different things to choose from, from proteins to vegetables. They put that next to your rice, and then slather on this thick, sticky, yellowish curry sauce. Pork belly, rice, braised cabbage, curry sauce, fully saturated in that curry sauce. Oh, man. Pure comfort. Well, you really. Okay. All right. See though. Okay, KFC is taking over to hijack the camera. Now we're going into the video.
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Oh, that is like comfort food on another level. Oh, it's just that sauce is unbelievable. It's like more like a gravy, but you taste some of the curry powder spices in there, a little bit of chili powder in there. You've got the comfort of that like braised pork belly and braised cabbage, soy sauce flavor kind of mixed in, mingled with the curry powder. Such a melting pot in on one single plate. It feels right. Like every topping has their own individual flavor and seasoning, but then you, when you like mash it all together, it's the sum of everything that makes it even better. It's right. Drawn. You know, this is a corn Chinese style tempura, and you've got beans there, like the overly breaded, overly breaded prawns. Love it. Comforting. Knowledge. We're gonna explore new territory. The South Pole. New territory in this plate of Hainanese Curry Rice. Got the egg in this bite. We've got some of the popcorn shrimp. We got, is this a chicken cutlet or a pork cutlet? Or let me see. Looks like chicken. Looks like chicken, right? You're going to chicken here? Yeah. Oh, man. This is the type of dish you can never have enough sauce either. The crispy chicken cutlet, the creaminess of the egg yolk, but it's all about that sauce for me. And then also that crispy popcorn shrimp. Oh, it's like a pillow of fluffy dough. Off to an amazing start. I love Hainanese Curry Rice, you know?
Right in front of us, there's a little uh temporary market, and they're selling yet another born and bred in Singapore dish. There's two here. We're gonna go for one. It's called Kuay. Uh, it's created by the Tan family here in Singapore. You can see how they make it. It's very interesting. One order. One. One order.
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This is not fast motion. It's normal motion. Yes. Uh, rice flour. No, there's rice flour. That's coconut, and then like a peanut chocolate and chicken. Some more. Oh, uh, Gula Melaka. Okay. Oh, yeah. Steaming hot right off that steamer. And it always. Oh, coconut. Yeah. Sweet. Steaming hot. Good. Yeah. Do too quick. There you go. So, another thing that was discovered and recreated here in Singapore.
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There's a huge wet market. So, we're just going to take a little stroll through the wet market, see some of the fresh ingredients that go into the food. So, remember, once upon a time, I mean, hawkers were out in the streets. Not everybody sold food. They also sold things like this, daily utilities, utilitarian stuff, dry goods, and things that you need, spices, and all that. And they were also uh hawkers. So, there is a food part of the hawker center, which is very popular. There's also the fresh produce part of the hawker center. Let me show you this stuff. So, they have been uh selling spices. This auntie here. Oh, she peels all this, and then they blend this into a wet paste. And they have this family installed here. I think three generations already. Grandfather, three generations, the son. Oh, and this is the stall. This is the right over here. Okay. Yeah. So, they blend their own spices down there in the machine back there. Uh, here, here it is. Hello. Hello. Hello, Uncle. How are you? Brother. So, they blend all their spices here. This is the father. Oh, hello. And then there's a grandfather, father, now son. Wow. Three generations. Awesome. So, they, they cut all these spices, they blend them, and whenever you come here, you just tell them what you want to cook. I want chicken curry. I want milk booze. I want me see them. I want whatever. They will scoop all the wet and dry spices. Take a look at that pit of spices. Red paste or a dry paste? Dry one keeps longer. The thing about the vendors, they are hawkers too, like them in Singapore. They are fading fast because everybody is shopping in supermarkets these days to find yourself. But my mother, my grandfolks, they came to such stalls before in the past. And the beautiful thing is that, uh, I mean, it may not be air-conditioned, but I can talk to this for now. You know, he can tell me what else to cook, how should I cook things, and, and, and listen, these people do it because it's part of their family business. They continue. You're a teacher, right? Yeah. Yeah. And then you come and continue your parents' business. I, I applaud that. Three generations here. Uh, where are we at exactly? Where we're at, Bukit Merah, um, [Music] block 79, Red Hill Market. This is stall 89. Buy your spices here when you're in Singapore.
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We had a little bit of a drive, and we are now in a total different area of town. What's next? Midday lunch. This is, this is another national uh noodle dish of Singapore. It's one of my favorites. It looks so easy, you know, it looks nothing much, but there is a pack, there's a densely flavored, roasty, warm, roasted noodles in there. I think it will floor you, Mark. I think this will floor you. Oh, I can't wait to try it. And we're going to see the entire process of how it's made. So, he's a son-in-law fan underneath. It blows. Keeping it. That keeps it fired up. That is the magic. That's all important. Stop. And that's stuck. I never said it was a healthy dish. So, [Music] that's a lot of eggs, people. That's a lot of eggs. Eggs. And there's a lot of flavor in there. Large. A lot in oil. And it's just, you just fry the eggs. How many portions are there? One walk. 10, 20. That's going to have 20. About 20 plates of Hokkien Mee. How many eggs is that? 22 eggs go in. That is just bubbling. Bean sprouts lend some sweetness to it. Heck of a lot of bean sprouts. So, two packs of foundation of bean sprouts. And then the yellow noodles. Yellow noodles. Yeah. Wow. It's a hawker noodles. A bit of egg in there. And then the bihoon, the rice vermicelli. So, this is a duo noodle. Okay. And the first round is stock. Goes in. Wow. An amazing frying technique using the spatula, using the plate to just kind of shovel it around. Two types of noodle. An equal amount of bean sprouts. And that's a raging hot charcoal fire. Now, that little process of covering up is very important. It locks the flavor. Not an ounce of flavor escapes. Now, if you see the way he fries, the spatula doesn't cut into the noodles. She scrapes it. So, nothing roasts below. I think he shovels them. Just get the feel of the noodles. That should be used. Kind of shovels it around. So, uh, in the words of, uh, Alex, the the founder of this face, he says, so that the noodles are long, so you pick them up, it comes long noodles. You don't break them into little bits. It's very irritating to pick up noodles with chopsticks when they're short. Already smells so good. And you can see how the noodles are so moist. They've already absorbed that prawn broth. And he's very strategic in what he's doing, kind of pulling out plate by plate, very strategically. It's really a technique. That's where you add. See, garlic. Now he puts the garlic last. So, you don't over-fry the garlic. If you put the garlic right from the start, the garlic just gets lost. So, when the flavor is intense, you watch the guy. Times it. He falls the noodles over. Well, that's good. Old large croutons. Large craze. The lard. Large croutons. Some chives go in now. When does he fold the noodle over? You got to smell it. You got to learn to man. Lard and garlic. Here we go. They're all important. Is going to bless the whole thing with lots of stock. It looks very wet. Now he puts a bit of soy sauce. It's a special soy sauce. There's a blended soy sauce in there. Yeah. Okay. And he fries it till they are moist. It's very wet. [Music] Oh. [Music] Now comes the shrimps. Good old hand-filled shrimps. They don't buy them from the spread. Squid. Oh, no. Belly pop. Awesome. This batch is ready. I hear a lot of Singaporeans talk about fried Hokkien Mee with such passion, gusto. Why is it one of those dishes that you are so passionate about? You only probably hear it from those who have eaten at the masters. This dish was, uh, well, you saw how they cook. This is the technique of it. You don't see a lot of hawkers employing that technique. They just fry the noodles, they bless it with the stock, and then out it goes. This guy fries it a couple of rounds, steams it, bakes it, and then he does blah, blah, blah, blah. And the garlic comes on at the end. And, uh, you know, I've been observing all this, uh, Thai here, me, because it's hard masters for years. And, and the good ones really employ the technique. They're very patient. And I'm sure this is the type of noodle that if you overcook it, it will be bad because it will be mushy. It will turn to mush. If you add too much sauce. Okay, this is just, we need to go in. Yeah. Yeah. It is just shot of moshi. Let's do this. Yeah. Oh, awesome. If we get like a, did we get a two-person sized portion here? Yeah, it's a two-person. A two-person. Take a little bit. Sometimes one. Here we go. The flavor of the prawn, the garlic, the seafood, and then just knocking, finishing off with that sambal, with that squeeze of lime. Okay, I'm moving in. Um, I don't think I had any sambal on that last, but I'm moving into that sambal. Yeah. It's, it's, it's not so wild. It's, it's, it's polite. Oh, my goodness. And a little squeeze of that lime is already in the noodles. Yeah. Not too much, just a little bit. What I like to do, you know, a little, a little close-up on the squeezes with a little sambal. The sambal drizzle. Oh, come on, come on, come on. Come on. A little bit, a little bit more sambal drizzle. Yeah. Oh, come on. Yeah. Yeah. We're almost there. Wipe it in. Wipe it over. Come on. Bye. Little bell. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's the bite right there. Delicious right there. Ultimate by the POKEY Hokkien noodles. Oh, man. Two men signing away. Two men signing away. Oh, wow. Gooey. Wow. So, have I changed your mind about, uh, what a good, uh, okay, me should be like? Yes. This is the best I've had. He's on point, ain't he? On point. It's not easy, you know. All the other process, you can't cheat. You just got to go through the whole thing to get all these flavors out. Man, it's tasty, and yet so, it's like so warm and comforting and hearty. Very hearty. Oh, man. I actually, I actually, I had actually almost forgotten about the eggs. So many eggs in there. That was the first thing that he fried. So, even the eggs are really giving it this kind of caramelized, kind of like richness, almost forming the the sauce along with that prawn stock. A little texture hangs onto the sauce. Last thing you think about is the egg when you eat this. The whole symphony comes together in your mouth. Oh, man. Oh, man. Something truly spectacular. Something Mark likes. Excuse me. Exactly. Cheers. Thank you. So good. I was just holding the light. Wow. There we go. Man, you can have the prawn. I wonder. Don't wait. So good. Scraping up good to the last noodle. Let no noodles go to waste. There we go. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Let's do this last bite then. Cheers. Cheers. Welcome to Singapore.
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It just hijacks your mouth, right? The, um, to the next place. Can you smell the prawns? I smell something in the mirror. I love some of the street. Oh, here it is. That's what we're smelling. So, this is a Prawn Vadai. It's got, I mean, it's original version. It's from Sri Lanka, which they use a lot of, uh, Guarant beans and nuts and lentils. But here, it's strictly flour. It's like a donut, a savory prawn doughnut.
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Nice to meet you. The magic batter. My mother used to do the dough, and then like rotate the salt. From a humble half stall that was almost illegal, we got evicted by the authorities. Came back, got a new stall. Today, he has seven stalls. Gonna open one at the airport Jewel. Congratulations, brother. It's all about the one dish wonder. The one dish wonder. So, you got the dough, the batter. We top it off with what type of? This is that particular type of prawn, right? It must be the gray shell hybrid of fresh and saltwater. But it's crispy. The shell is edible when you do it. You see that little hole? Oh, you see that little hole? Backflip. Flip into the oil. That's something I learned today. My mother, if you see her hand, you need to come with the. Won't get there, man. Jake, watch. He doesn't even know he's doing it. Meanwhile, snacking. Let me, let me do a Mark. Vanessa. Nice. It's, uh, crispy head to tail. And, uh, you gotta eat this with the green chili. Hang on. Let me get a green chili. Stay there. Okay. Wow. Help yourself. So, where to eat this? So, you take a bite here. Get the spice in before it kicks in. And that batter is remarkably kind of wet. It's like almost liquid, but almost sticky at the same time. He grabs a handful of it in his fingertips, into the palm, gets a whole full prawn, smashes that into the batter, just cementing it into that batter. The backflip into the oil, and that just immediately floats and bobs around until gold. Man, Sachs tender. Yeah. Just hold up. Then once he does that, back. Oh, they're just beautiful. Oh, thank you for the green chili. It's not too hot. It's too hot. That's too hot, huh? Is it all right? You gonna get a colder one? That's okay. I think the hot is good. It is. Wow. Okay. It is remarkably light. When I, when I saw them, I thought they were going to be denser and heavier, but it's remarkably light and airy and fluffy. The green chili bite first, let that marinate in your mouth until the fumes start coming out, and then the bite. Oh, wow. We need another bite of chili. Exactly. Now you know what the chili does to it, huh? It just, just bites the mouth. Yeah. You got the freshness of the chili, crunch the chili too. That vada, it's just incredibly spongy and fluffy and gooey and crispy on the outside. The flavor of the prawn, just the light spice. Oh, it's unbelievable. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Steam is coming out of my mouth. Unbelievable. It's so good. How many does your outlet sell per day? All seven outlets. It's close to how many? Ten thousand. My god. Ten thousand a day. Yeah. These guys providing jobs, uh, for people working. Seven outlets is also protecting and preserving Singapore culinary legacy. Bless you, brother. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So, what it does is just the mild flavor of the curry leaves in there, the coriander seed. The spices are not overpowering, but you just taste the mild flavor of the curry leaves, the coriander seed in there. And like you said, one person can easily eat five or six. So, we better move on to our next one. Little floating inner tubes of dough, crispy dough studded with curry leaves and spices, topped with a prawn. Always with the green chili. Oh, and the green chili. Oh, it was so unbelievably tasty. Born and bred in Singapore. Yes. I'm gonna go ahead and say that's one of the best bites of snack I've ever had in Singapore. It's not just me, is it? Not just you. We're not joking around. You were not joking around. That is the real deal. That was extraordinary. And we are continuing on with one last final meeting, made and born in Singapore snack bite, like just down the road from here, right? That one. That one. Shiny.
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So, this is a whole bakery, but they're famous for these giant curry puffs. It's actually a curry puff factory. It smells so good in here. Potato, beef, chicken, potato. Thank you very much. And one mutton. Oh-ho-ho. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you. An amazing ending to this incredible day. These massive curry puffs. Oh, look, it even opens up. Here we go. Okay. Oh, yes. The drizzle. Oh, and, uh, the layers. How are there that many layers? I wasn't expecting it because it, when I think they fold and roll and fold and roll, that's like unbelievable. It's like a giant baklava, but savory. But I mean, you've got every layer of the dough. I don't know about you, but when you put mutton, I love the gaminess they put to this nice crispy layered pilot pastry. It's an envelope of potato and meat and just wrapped up in that in like 50 layers of pastry. Oh, that that crunch. It's not oily. No, not at all. It's baked. Now, this, this from what I've studied, and this dish came from the Indian Muslim community in this area. There are a lot of Muslims in this area. So, apparently, this was what I was told back in the day, um, you know, the British folks that were here, they wanted to hold a little party, and they wanted curry puffs from a very famous joint who did not have time to make that many for them, nor, um, um, did they fit their budget. So, they came here. You know, the Indians were making samosas, and they asked them, could you do something like that curry puff? And, you know, like being entrepreneurial, you say yes first, and you figure out how you're gonna do it. And he came up with this totally different, absolutely iconic, well-loved. It's so, so tasty. And this is almost a, it's so big, it's almost a light meal in one. The things we do to bring out all this, uh, deliciousness to you. We have to mount this camera on, been, you know, so, so, you know, we will go to extremes to bring stories to you. Thanks to the Singapore, uh, garbage cans. Nice tripod height garbage cans. Oh, oh, and this is like a mess. This is the messiest curry puff I've ever had. You're just, you're just covered in flakes. This is like a bib. So, the [Laughter]
And so, that brings us to the end of this street food tour in Singapore, but focusing on dishes that are truly Singaporean with the one and only KFCTO. I love how he has such respect for the people, for the stories behind the amazing food of Singapore. He is an advocate for for the continuation of the amazing hawker culture of Singapore. So, again, thank you, KFCTO. I'll have his links in the description box below. And again, if you're in New York City, check out the hawker center in New York City that he's opening. And I want to say a big thank you to you for watching this video. Please remember to give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it. Leave a comment below, I'd love to hear from you. And if you're not already subscribed, make sure you subscribe now for lots more food and travel videos. Goodbye from Singapore, and I will see you on the next video.