We’ve had a few people whine and nudge and prod us to do something without pork. And we have pretended not to hear for the longest time, because we love our pork belly buns and (sneaky) lard-laced desserts.
BUT.
We like a challenge, so we’ve come up with… not just a non-porky menu but a non-meaty one altogether that’s going to rock the socks off even all you meat lovers.
PLUSIXFIVE GOES FISHING!!!
STARTERS
Goz’s Surprise- Yes gozzers is backkkkkkkkk for the week.
Kueh Pie Tee- Incredibly fiddly delicate little deep-fried cups, filled with braised turnip and dried cuttlefish
Sardine Puffs- Chilli sardines wrapped in puff pastry parcels.
MAINS
Fish Head Curry- Yep, ’nuff said.
Sambal Fried Fishballs- Primary school canteen favourite.
Butter Prawns- Deep fried prawns with browned butter and curry leaves.
DESSERT/ PETIT FOURS
Sea Coconut, Sago, Guava Ice – A twist on the ice kacang stall classics
Homemade Pineapple tarts – because… WHO LIVES IN A PINEAPPLE UNDER THE SEA?
AND…We might throw in one or two more items, simply because.
Sunday 24 Mar, 7 pm
£35 suggested minimum donation, BYOB
So our last menu featured the best of plusixfive but we’re now getting a bit bored of making chwee kueh, bak kut teh and sambal eggs. (Well, for a while at least. Give us a month.) But anyway we decided to bring you a WHOLE NEW MENU to shoo in 2013! We also know half of you out there are on some kind of WHOLE NEW YOU diet plan, so we’ve brought you a lot of light veggie/steamed/ braised dishes, with a handful of er , oily porky crazy yummy ones (they say everything in moderation eh?).
Tell me you’re not tempted.
STARTERS
Soon kueh – Steamed turnip parcels
Steamed yam cakes - see? steamed, again.
Bak chor mee- Minced pork noodles and braised mushrooms tossed in black vinegar, soy sauce, shit-hot sambal, and.. lard. (sorry we try)
MAINS
Babi assam- Nyonya pork belly braised with tamarind
Hakka yong tau foo - Mixed vegetables/ tofu stuffed with fish paste minced meat ..then deep-fried.
Buddha’s delight- Mixed vegetable stirfry ie. vegetarian chap chye (pork-less but just as divine. pun intended.)
DESSERTS
Bubur cha cha- Sweet potato and assorted treasures simmered in coconut milk
Kueh dadar – Light pandan pancakes with coconut filling
In Singapore we take all our meals very seriously, and just because it’s early in the morning, doesn’t mean breakfast should be plain ol’ cereal or toast (it just means the mums and hawkers wake up earlier in the morning).
We bring to you:
CHWEE KUEH our famous rice cakes with spicy radish topping
“ECONOMY NOODLES” i.e. REAL Singapore noodles
NASI LEMAK with crispy anchovies, peanuts, and all the frills, think
Venue: In a secret rendezvous location somewhere in Angel/Islington
Cost: £35 BYOB
Let me repeat:
Sorry but we* aren’t as noble, so this breakfast feast starts at 7.30 pm. And who says breakfast has to be in the morning anyway, huh.
* This time round, I (Shu Han @mummyicancook) will be teaming up with hot new guest chef Charlene (@thedivaa_ ) , a law school-turned-(Le Cordon Bleu!) cooking school-graduate. Expect awesomeness from this crazy maroon-haired perfectionist.
Oh yah. Psst. On this very special date, if you don’t happen to be in London, you might have a chance to get your plusixfive fix in Hong Kong. (Watch this space)
Heck, they even thought it was cool and phenomenony enough to give it a name – “NOSE TO TAIL EATING“.
We in Singapore (and most of Southeast Asia.. and Japan.. and Korea.. and possibly most of India… Carribean Islands… Africa…) just call it “EATING”. Sheesh.
I reckon its borne outta necessity really. Singapore was never a rich country those very many eons ago when we were just a teeny little fishing village and being surrounded by water and a heck of a lotta fishing boats, it seemed natural that we tend to eat a lotta fish, according to the History of Singapore According to Goz, recalls my poor recollection of history class (not helped by the incredibly fugly history teacher we had in skool). Most of our grandparents / great grandparents came over from various provinces of China on a junk, landed in Singapore and tried to look for a better life and had to work super hard to eke a living, send money home to the missus/ family, feed themselves or their family in Singapore. So accordingly, food wastage was never on the agenda. In fact, there probably wasnt even a word in the language at that time for it. You had to be a real pompous brat with no friends to be flagrantly throwing away pork bones or chicken wings because they had bones in it.
O-M-G sidetrack: (Whilst we are talking about all things nautical, on a little sidenote (although nautical related i guess), did anyone see Turkey’s entry in Eurovision 2012? PLEASE tell me someone else thought it was a Sacha Baron Cohen stunt as well? ITS A HUMAN FRIGGIN BOAT FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!! LOOK!!!!! A HUMAN BOAT MADE WITH CAPES! AND THEIR HEADS ARE BOPPING! AAAAAAaaaAAAAaaaAAAaaaAAAaaAAAH! THE LUDICROUSNESS METER OF THE WORLD EXPLODES!!!!!)
And my grandparents stayed in a tiny little room with their three kids. All huddled in one little rented room together with mattresses on the floor which they rolled up in the day and convert that room into a little study area. (God knows how they managed the creation of three kids in the confines of zero privacy) In the rare occasion, my grand dad could afford to bring home a fresh whole fish, grandma will steam or fry it up good and tasty. And when everyone sat down to dinner, unless someone wanted a real OG style grandaddy high five to the face, no way in hell anyone was gonna go, “OMG! THE HEAD IS STILL ATTACHED! AAAAH!!! EWW! Im only going to eat it IF SOMEONE FILLETS IT FOR ME OK! I dont like BONES! EWW! AAURGH! UUERGH! BONES!AND OMG! THE HEAD IS STILL ATTACHED! WWWWAAARRGRH!” In fact, from what mom tells me, they used to fight over the fish belly and the cheeks because those were the most tender and silky parts of the fish.
And also with every supperclub, ever since the start, I’ve always wanted to generally challenge the way people perceive Singaporean food like how we dont actually eat Singapore Fried Noodles. And beyond that to featuring Peranakan Food and traditional home cooked meals and generally food you will NOT be able to obtain easily here – well maybe you can but it sure wont be as awe-bloody-some as this. And also challenge their notions of what can and cannot be eaten and what is or is not delicious.
So we came up with a menu which served everything fish related, including:
Deep fried fish crackling and fish bones (this must win all awards for zero food waste. These were the bones left over after a fish was filleted, the bones then salted and sundried and then deep fried and served with a zesty kaffir lime leave creme fraiche)
Sardine Puffs (little filo pastry puffs of mashed sardines, chilli and tomato sauce)
Overnight stewed fish head curry with skate (this was the Main Event. What everyone came for. And how it was advertised. I was pleasantly stunned by the crowd that turned up, I was thinking it might predominantly be Singaporeans or Southeast Asians (and looks like I wasnt the only one who expected so) but nope, in fact most of them were adventurous Brits who showed up ready for anything! Good on you kids! For this, I stewed it overnight so that the salmon fish head dissolved and disintegrated into the curry, infusing the curry with a much deeper and intense flavour. And i threw in skate meat as well for bite and also because skate meat soaks up the curry juices really well. Also because I didnt want to serve the whole head for fear of freaking some if y’all out)
Fish Otak (a Peranakan steamed fish paste, creamy from the rich coconut cream and perfumed with the galanggal lemongrass and spices blended into the fish. Served on toast.)
Cereal prawns (Classic Singaporean dish you find at any half decent seafood restaurant. Prawns fried in an instant cereal mix of curry leaves and chilli. Crunchy, savoury, spicy prawns. How could this ever go wrong. By the way, for all those who thought there was actual OATS in cereal prawns. Sorry. I though that too. Until James Lowe came along and read the ingredients of the packet out loud…)
We also featured the lovely ShuHan of the equally lovely blog mummyicancook and she made her classic Sambal Egg Dish which went down such a storm that a guest asked if she could give lessons!
Well enough rambling from me, if you wanna read more and hear from these kind folks who actually took the time to write up a review, go check them out:
So finally, Wen, the dudette who you probably speak to when you email us, runs our reservation system, creates strange spreadsheets to track our guests and mailing list, generally kick goz’s butt to get this whole supperclub going, takes a lot of unnecessary yelping from goz and together with ms plusixfive, generally keeping goz’s head sane and dreams realistic, she has kicked some programmer (read: her longsuffering hubby) butt and www.edibleexperiences.com is now live jive and ready to rock your weekends. Questions?
Q: Whats EdibleExperiences and who are you to tell me you monster! YOU ARE BIASED AND EVIL!
A: Its a website which “helps you discover food & drink experiences in London, in cooking schools, homes and outdoors alike.“
Its like a compendium of just about every single possible food experience your brain can think of (within reason… so don’t go moaning that there are no whale filleting classes or unicorn butchery lessons) in London.
You are perfectly entitled to think I’m biased but when she told me it finally went live, I went in and had a wander and goodness gracious.. I remembered I couldnt stop clicking and scrolling through the site in disbelief. You mean there were SO MANY classes/ courses/ walks/ tours based on food in London?!?!
It lists everything from knife skills, to how to fillet fish, to mushroom forays and supperclubs. You wished your kid could cook you some chinese food? well, theres a cooking class for 4-8 year olds. You want to learn how to make a dessert to go along with your kid’s chinese meal? Well theres a talk by David Lebowitz coming up soon. And if you wanted to know how to taste the wine your kid used in the stir fry? well… theres a course called just that too. Or if you have always secretly wanted to have BBQ on the roof of a car park eating Grouse Sausages. Well, you’re in luck cos lookey here!
Q: How will it change my life?
A: Well. Now, if you wanted a night out and wanted to book a resto, there;s a gazillion restos out there, listing what cuisine u want, what area and what your budget is.
If you wanted to learn how to fillet fish or carve a cow or simply cant decide but know you want to pick up a new skill or go for a foodie outing, whatcha gonna do? Well. Now u know. And its all here. In one helpful single location. Its like the CEREBRO of the foodie experience world – you can use it to reach out to other likeminded foodie people/events out there (not saying that Wen is a bald mutant in a wheel chair).
Q: So. What do I do now?
A: Well, dont take my word for it. If you didnt know me, why should you (unless you are one of those kids who are so loving and trusting and constantly sending money via Western Union to your “friends” in need)?
So go on. Go have a click round. I can almost guarantee that you’ll find something you’ll have no idea existed and wouldnt mind trying.
Riding on the dusty coattails from the immensely blockbustering Oprah Winfrey post of the week post on How to Set Up a SupperClub, we “completely” “accidentally” “stumbled” on this link a “friend” sent to us and realised that it does sound remarkably like this wikihow site on how to make an amateur pr0rn0 - except maybe […]
That picture pretty much sums up how I felt a good whole year ago. When hours before the first supperclub, I went into pure crystal clear panic overdrive, cursed profusely and wondered why the hell i decided to do this in the first place. So now one year later, maybe its just me (or my ability to […]
but I loved meeting all the other guests too. So much to eat and such interesting dishes that were clearly made with a love of Singapore and a desire to share that love with us! I highly recommend you try to get yourself a place at the next one.” [kitchen conversations] 
