ペンキンさん: SMRT Makan Session with Ieatishootipost!!!(Farrer Road MRT)

Saturday, November 5, 2011

SMRT Makan Session with Ieatishootipost!!!(Farrer Road MRT)

Thanks for Nuffnang(sg) for given a chance for attend SMRT Makan Session with the famous food blogger in Singapore Dr.Leslie Tay (http://ieatishootipost.sg/) last Saturday 29^th October 2011 at Farrer Road (Farrer Road Circle Line MRT Station). This event is held by SMRT and Nuffnang for celebration of the Circle Line network completion. This time Dr.Leslie introduce us the main dish of this event is the famous Kong Bak Pau at Singapore. Here the simple introduce of this dish from Dr.Leslie blog . This Kong Bak Pau is still very much the same deal as it was when it was first introduced by Westlake in 1976. Three families are involved in making this one dish and they have been doing it together for the last 30 years or so. The first family are of course the Lims who are the owners of the restaurant. Its founder, Mr Lim Tong Law started Westlake in the early 70's because of his love for cooking. He was a PE teacher at Chinese High School at the time and was in his fifties when he dreamt of running a restaurant so that he can give the public a chance to try his dishes. When he started Westlake, he was still teaching at Chinese High and had to shuttle between two jobs! Business began to really pick up when the Kong Bak Pau was introduced which eventually became the iconic dish for Westlake.

It was during those early days when Mr Lim was sourcing for ingredients for his Kong Bak Pau that he met with our second family, the Loos. The Loos play a very important role in the Kong Bak Pau because they produce the most important ingredient that gives the braised pork its characteristic flavour -- premium Dark Soy Sauce. Over the years, the Loos have been constantly supplying the Lims with Dark Soy Sauce, preserving the same recipe as before.

Braised Pork Belly

Now we come to the third family, the Ohs. The Ohs are a 3rd generation master baker of Pau Skin. When you eat Kong Bak Pau at Westlake, you know that there is something very special about the Pau Skin that you can't find anywhere else. That is because the Ohs have been supplying Westlake with the same Pau Skin that is made with the traditional method of adding lye water (kee zhui) and using yeast instead of baking powder as the raising agent. Lye water makes the dough alkaline and when flour is subjected to alkaline conditions, it becomes more springy. Incidentally, lye water is the ingredient that differentiates Chinese noodles from Italian pasta. Whereas Chinese noodles are springy because of the addition of lye water, Italian pasta tends to be more toothy. Nowadays, not many bakers use lye water in their recipes, but they continue to make the Pau Skin the same way just for Westlake.

Now when it comes to braised pork, there are many methods of cooking it. The easiest way is simply to simmer the pork belly in braising sauce. However, if you want to make an exceptional braised pork that has that soft fat layer and a skin which is tender, then it needs to go through several steps. At Westlake, the pork is first boiled, then dipped in braising sauce before being deep fried, after which it is cut into bun sized slices before being marinated in braising sauce. Then when you order the braised pork, one serving portion is freshly steamed and served with the buns. The whole process of making the braised pork takes 6 to 8 hours!