I just finished reading Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan's memoir, "A Tiger In The Kitchen," and it made me think longingly of the trip The Husband and I took to Singapore last autumn. Really, a few days are not enough to get through all the childhood dishes I love. And the list does not include the famous Fish Head Curry nor Chili Crab, dishes we did not eat often during my childhood. I think it would take a few weeks to cover it all. I know I would need a few repeat meals. We gave all a good try, though.
The things I used to take for granted when I was growing up... Bright, warm, sunny days... Amazing food (almost anywhere I went)... Sigh...
Towards the end of the book, Tan writes about the Teochew noodle dish, Meepok. She even goes and eats the dish in Shantou, China - it is not the same as the one you eat in Singapore. On the last day of our trip, we were taken to have Meepok for brunch. It was one of those dishes I had not yet managed during the trip and really, really craved. Not having lived in Singapore for a lot of years, I had no idea where to go. Our friends D and P came to the rescue and took us to the MacPherson Mince Meat Noodle Stand. The Husband was thrilled - this was really not a part of Singapore a tourist would normally go to. He was the only Caucasian. My sister, and all the other people in the hawker centre, found great amusement watching him gamely order all our noodle dishes, mimicking as best as he could my sister's Chinese. He did well. The dishes arrived as asked for.
I opted for the flat thin noodles, not too spicy. What can I say, other than that it was perfection? Light, springy noodles, a salty, sour and mildly spicy sauce, topped with minced pork, tender liver slices, earthy mushroom slices and springy (again) fishcake slices. All the tastes and textures were calibrated flawlessly. The dish is really much, much greater than the sum of its parts. I would have been tempted to eat another bowl, but we had to go eat another dish at another hawker centre down the street.
