Sinfully Singaporean

This blog has seen just about everything: the blues, attempts at literary and cultural criticism, frustrated rants, ecstatic verbal experiments, nasty comments, and even ruder rebuttals, flurries of readership, no readership, strange ideas, funky pictures, and even songs about dogs. But nothing will prepare you for what is about to be unveiled.

Since John is visiting from Chapel Hill, where he hasn't had much of an opportunity to eat Singaporean food (and faces half a year more of meal-plan fare when he goes back), I became obsessed with the idea that we should make something sinfully Singaporean. While he's been here, we've done Hainanese Chicken Rice, regular Chinese stir fry stuff, Assam fish curry, herbal chicken soup, and a range of different noodles .... So it only seemed natural that we cook the ultimate male-Singaporean fantasy: Kong Bak Pau.

The run up to the Kong Bak Pau. Under Edna's directions (and a phone call home to her mom), I decided to stew the thing overnight. So the Kong Bak project became strangely tied into the Bak Kut Teh he had the night before. I cooked both simultaneously, but the photos really concentrate on the Kong Bak.

The Bak Kut Teh:
Easy and yumy. Just tossed in lots of garlic with the packaged mixes and spare ribs. We tossed in chicken (for Edna, who was thoroughly disgusted with all the pork being processed for consumption ...)and some taupok squares. We managed to find Yu Teow (which were packaged as "chinese doughnuts") at the Oriental Mart and though they were a little dense, they worked nicely with the Bak Kut Teh.









The Kong Bak.
So, the pictures pretty much speak for themselves. I had a great time cooking it, especially grossing everyone out with how much fat there is on belly pork. I managed to hew away quite chunk, and also scooped away lots of fat that coagulated on the stew. The seasoning was easy -- some dark soy sauce, cloves of garlic, two cinnamon sticks, and a splash of five-space powder. And the thing just stewed ...



















Preparing the sum jium bak. And soaking the dried mushrooms.
Sourdough swooning over the possibilities ...










The Kong Bak after several hours of stewing and refrigeration. The white stuff is all coagulated lard that needed scooping up. I think it looks like Chai Dao Kway.













Scraping away yet more fat. John getting ready to dig in -- or is it really a look of apprehension and fear of clogged arteries? Kong Bak Pau!