SALT - SMOKE AND FIRE

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CONTENTS

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LIGHTLY SALTED Brief ruminations on meat skewers, hot sauces and boozy beverages to whet your appetite.

A DAY WITH: KONSTANTINO BLOKBERGEN Meet the baker behind the rustic, wood-fire baked breads at Firebake— Woodfired Bakehouse & Restaurant

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COFFEE WITH: BJORN SHEN & KIRK WESTAWAY Two chefs from very different backgrounds talk shop about fine dining and dudestronomy.

PROVENANCE: KÜHLBARRA Out in the Singapore Straits lies a barramundi farm producing sustainable fish; SALT gets the lowdown.

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COOKBOOK GETS SALTED: CRAVINGS BY CHRISSY TEIGAN We cooked our way through the supermodel’s cookbook to bring you a verdict on its recipes.

48 SEVEN DISHES: BEPPE DE VITO Dishing up tiramisu and risotto, delicate gianduiotto and wood-fire baked pizzas, the veteran restaurateur shows how he is adept both inside and outside the kitchen.

HERITAGE HEROES: WOK HEI Within the world of fire and smoke, we uncover more on the elusive yet addictive quality that is wok hei.

PHOTOGRAPHER Lim Minglong ART DIRECTION Gan ASSISTED BY Benjamin Soh

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BY SOFITEL

CONTENTS

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WHAT’S YOUR SPIRIT DRINK: GIANCARLO MANCINO The indefatigable Italian bar consultant waxes lyrical about his spirit drink: the Gibson.

SALT SESSIONS Nonya delicacies and an intimate dinner party at Indocafé—the white house.

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DECANT: CAMBODIA RUM DIARY The birth of Phnom Penh’s first and only premium rum distillery, Samai.

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ON THE GLOBAL TABLE: THE EELS OF VOLENDAM Exploring the tradition and the future of a fastvanishing Dutch delicacy: smoked eels.

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10 EDITOR’S NOTE 14 CONTRIBUTORS 16 DISTRIBUTION 18 DIGITAL SHOUTOUTS 126 SUBSCRIPTION

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FOOD SPREAD: FIRE & THE EVOLUTION OF COOKING Charting the evolution of cooking through humankind’s increasing mastery over fire.

PANTRY RAID: SIMONE HENG We take a peek into the fridge of DJ/TV host Simone Heng.

EDITOR’S NOTE

At the beginning, there was fire.

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nd what rose from it was humanity’s ability to cook.

In the two million years since its discovery, fire has paved the way for culinary evolution, rendering cuisine an integral component of human culture.

Here in Singapore, we’re currently experiencing the golden age of dining. Our restaurant and bar scene is arguably one of the most exciting and dynamic of not just the region, but the world. We recognise our unique food heritage and while our diminutive size means a lack of sustainable landbased agriculture, there’s been a movement towards sea and urban farming, and crafting our own artisanal products. Indeed, there is much happening and with it, many stories of intrepid chefs, passionate producers and tireless proponents of food and drinks to be told.

And so SALT magazine was born. In this bi-monthly magazine, you’ll find tidbits of information under the section of Lightly Salted and excerpts of our regular video segment, Coffee With, where we get a couple of chefs talking about the local dining scene over a caffeine fix. Within our long-form pieces, peruse Seven Dishes, where we chart the evolution of a chef’s culinary career through seven signature dishes; and What’s Your Spirit Drink, where we profile a prominent figure in the beverage industry by asking him to share about a drink that best personifies him. Closer to home, we spotlight our local culinary culture under Heritage Heroes. As for those with wanderlust, join us on our regional and international adventures as we tell delicious tales in our travel section, On The Global Table.

As much as we love the tactile feel of the printed matter, we cannot ignore the dynamic media landscape of today. Our website, www.saltmagazine.asia, is a complimentary extension of this magazine, with fresh restaurant news (served hot) and interactive videos to tantalise the palate. Head onto our online platform to find videos, recipes, and even more related content to supplement the stories you read here for a more holistic experience.

We hope you enjoy the magazine and the content on our website, and would love to hear any feedback you might have. ‘Til the next issue, stay hungry!

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S A LT m a g a z i n e

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@saltmagazine.asia

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WRITER

Weets Goh weets@clmedia.com.sg CONTRIBUTORS

Lim Minglong PAYNK Marisse Gabrielle Reyes Jimme Woudstra Xie Huiqun Yihmay Yap

SALT magzine is published by CL Media Pte. Ltd. MCI (P) 105/05/2017. Copyright is held by the publisher. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission of the Publisher. Although every reasonable care has been taken to ensure the accuracy and objectivity of the information contained in this publication, neither the publishers, editors, and their employees and agents can be held liable for any errors, inaccuracies, and/or omissions howsoever caused. We shall not be liable for any actions taken based on the views expressed, or information provided within this publication.

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CONTRIBUTORS

PAYNK Illustrator PAYNK was born in China but has been living in Singapore since the age of two.

Graduating from Nanyang Technological University School of Art, Design and Media with a BFA Honours in Visual Communications, PAYNK has a strong foundation in traditional drawing, and exposure to the colourful world of design and fashion. Her style is ever-changing yet distinct, cute but naughty.

You may find secret messages in her works, so keep your eyes peeled.

PAYNK is also a peanutbutter and almond addict.

MARISSE GABRIELLE REYES Based in Amsterdam and Ubud, Marisse Gabrielle Reyes explores the complexity of the world through the pen. Her food, travel, and lifestyle writing has brought her to the far-flung mountains of China to explore ancient rice growing, to the Philippines’ most secluded and luxurious private islands, and face-to-face with some of the most respected names in the culinary world. Whatever she’s reporting on, Marisse always gets to the heart of the matter. When she isn’t typing away, you can find her travelling, cooking up delicious organic meals, perusing local markets, or getting her zen on in nature.

LIM MINGLONG Lim Minglong has been taking pictures of food for the past four years, an occupation which has no doubt fuelled his already-large appetite.

With an eye for detail, he shoots with every aspect of the lighting in mind, so minimal amounts of tweaking need to be done on the image-editing software.

His keen eye also comes in useful when he’s spending his free time on leatherworking—a skill that was entirely self-taught.

www.marissereyes.com

Keep up with his appetite on Instagram at @limminglong.

Check out more of her work on Instagram at @PANYK.

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XIE HUIQUN Food writer and editor Xie Huiqun counts eating and cooking as two of the most fulfilling activities in life. While she has travelled far and wide, for both work and leisure, in search of all things delicious, there is nothing she loves more than a breakfast of scrambled eggs, oven-crisped bacon, and buttered toast accompanied with a piping hot latté, okay... maybe dim sum. Her current research interests are in the areas of traditional Chinese dishes and Chinese herbal cuisine.

Join her hunt for deliciousness on Instagram at @huiqunx.

DISTRIBUTION

Suite Rooms & Business Centres in Hotels & Resorts

The Westin Singapore Village Hotel Albert Court Village Hotel Changi WANGZ Hotel Singapore W Singapore, Sentosa Cove

Amara Sanctuary Resort Sentosa Amara Singapore Capella Singapore Carlton City Hotel Singapore Carlton Hotel Singapore Conrad Centennial Singapore Concorde Hotel Singapore Fairmont Singapore Four Seasons Hotel Singapore Furama City Centre, Singapore Furama RiverFront, Singapore Goodwood Park Hotel Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel Grand Mercure Singapore Roxy Hard Rock Cafe Sentosa Hilton Singapore Holiday Inn Singapore Orchard City Centre Hotel Indigo Singapore Katong Hotel Jen Orchard Gateway Singapore Hotel Jen Tanglin Singapore InterContinental Singapore Le Méridien Singapore, Sentosa M Hotel Singapore Mandarin Orchard Singapore Oasia Hotel Singapore One Farrer Hotel & Spa Pan Pacific Orchard, Singapore Pan Pacific Singapore PARKROYAL on Beach Road PARKROYAL on Kitchener Road PARKROYAL on Pickering Raffles Hotel Singapore Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore Regent Singapore, A Four Seasons Hotel Royal Plaza on Scotts Shangri-la Hotel, Singapore Sheraton Towers Singapore Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel Sofitel Singapore Sentosa Resort & Spa Swissôtel Merchant Court, Singapore The Elizabeth Hotel The St. Regis Hotel The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore

Recreational Clubs, Restaurants & Cafes 1919 Waterboat House Baker & Cook Blow & Bar Brunches Cafe Cedele (Rail Mail) Chye Seng Huat Hardware Coffee Club @ Raffles City Dome Café @ UOB Plaza 1 EN GROUP Hard Rock Cafe Indocafe-The White House KOHI-KOJI @ Emporium Shokuhin KUVO Singapore Lawry’s The Prime Rib Singapore M.A.D Bistro & Whisky Lounge Prive Café PS Café Paragon Riders Café Ruth’s Chris Steak House Tampopo (Liang Court) Tampopo (Takashimya) TCC – The Connoisseur Concerto The Exchange The Muffinry The Sandwhich Shop Tiffany Café & Restaurant

Car Showrooms

Audi Singapore Audi Centre Bentley Singapore BMW Chrysler Euro AutoMobile (Alfa Romeo) Hong Seh Motors (Maserati) Munich Automobiles (BMW) MINI Renault Jaguar Land Rover

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Golf, Private & Country Clubs

Jurong Country Club Laguna National Golf & Country Club Orchid Country Club Sentosa Golf Club The Keppel Club The Singapore Island Country Club Singapore Cricket Club Swiss Club, Singapore The American Club, Singapore The British Club, Singapore The Tanglin Club Tower Club, Singapore

Others

Atkins Law Corporation BRANDT ASIE Hilborne Law LLC Hitachi Home Electronics Asia (S) Pte Ltd National Museum of Singapore NUS Museum ShookLin & Bok ToTT Store True Fitness, Singapore

Indulge in Italian delicacies by Master Chef Marco Manocchio at award-winning restaurant, Dolce Vita.

DIGITAL SHOUTOUTS

Chef Instagram takeover Culinary director and co-owner of the grill-centric restaurant FYR, Micail Chepi, took over our Instagram account for a sneak peek into a meaty, smoky and fire-filled day at the restaurant.

The restaurant’s full name, FYR: CYCENE OND DRINC, is Gaelic for ‘Fire: Kitchen and Drink’, aptly describing their elemental approach to cooking: flame-kissed meats and a rugged, laid-back environment.

The restaurant uses lychee wood in their grill, which adds a subtle sweetness as well as an exotic smokiness to the food.

The calm between lunch and dinner service means the team can sit down for meetings with suppliers.

Having done stints in Michelin-starred kitchens, Chepi now slings meats from FYR’s Josper oven. The restaurant menu features plenty of European-style grilled dishes perked up with Asian spices.

Chef Chepi arrives early to plan the menu and work on the week’s logistics.

For more, please visit our Instagram page @saltmagazine.asia

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From Bites to Bytes

AT HOME WITH We hang out with the fabulous Simone Heng, presenter on Mediacorp Radio’s Class 95FM, while she shows us around her crib, rustles up an Insta-worthy cheese board, and shares the virtues of Indomie instant noodles.

Videos

We wish we could combine moving pictures with the tactile pleasures of print, but the technology just isn’t there yet.

Meanwhile, visit our website for mouthwatering video content.

29 QUESTIONS We grill Luke Armstrong, head chef at The Kitchen at Bacchanalia on how he likes his coffee, where he goes for supper, and what is his favourite karaoke song.

HOBO COCKTAILS Bartender Zachary de Git of Crackerjack shows us how to make a craft cocktail with simple ingredients bought from a convenience store.

Visit www.saltmagazine.asia for the full stories.

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LIGHTLY SALTED

Playing With Smoke Jamey Merkel, Beam Suntory’s brand ambassador for Southeast Asia, plays with the smoky notes of Bowmore 12 Year Old Single Malt to create a punchy cocktail full of layers.

TEXT JOYCE HUANG STYLING GAN

PHOTO LIM MINGLONG

T

he Bowmore 12 Year Old Single Malt is the peatiest of the Bowmore aged statements.

To highlight this smokiness, Jamey Merkel pairs it with caramelised honey, layered citrus juice and rich ice cream in the punchy cocktail, Smoke & Fire.

Instead of just using a single citrus juice, he mixes the juice of lemon, orange, and grapefruit to create more nuanced flavours. This playful cocktail is a tipple that transforms, giving the drinker hints of smoke, sweetness, and tartness before ending with a creamy concoction when the vanilla ice cream melts. We recommend mixing up a pour (or two) to enjoy while you flip through this issue. Cheers!

Smoke & Fire 30ml Bowmore 12 Year Old Single Malt 10ml scorched honey syrup 15ml citrus juice (lemon, orange, and grapefruit) dash of chocolate bitters 1 scoop vanilla ice cream

Method • To make scorched honey syrup, pour a sizeable amount of honey into a shallow pan and use a blowtorch to caramelise the top, until the honey just boils and changes colour. Mix this with the same amount of water to make a syrup.

• To get citrus juice, combine the juices of one of each fruit.

• In a shaker, combine Bowmore, syrup, juice and bitters. Shake with ice until chilled, then pour into a lantern glass. Top with ice cream and enjoy.

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5/16/17

4:03 PM

VERSUS

Skewered and grilled We can’t mention meat-on-a-stick without bringing up the shish kebab, a Turkish word that literally translates to 'sword meat'. The dish found its way around the world during the reign of the Ottoman Empire, throughout the Middle East, Europe and eventually to Southeast Asia and Japan, where it took on the form of satay and yakitori.

TEXT WEETS GOH

ILLUSTRATION PAYNK

YAKITORI

SATAY

I remember my first bite of yakitori. It was at one of the first few shopping mall kiosks. True to vaunted Japanese efficiency, they had an automated process going on: a metal contraption lowered a congo line of skewers into vats of sauce before moving them through a corridor of heating coils that grilled the meat. It was love at first sight. The dripping fat, the nose-twitching aroma of charred meat, and a machine that looked like something out of science fiction left a deep impression on my young mind. Forward to today, the wondrous possibilities of yakitori have since been opened to me—it’s not just chicken thigh chunks on a stick. Chefs dedicate their entire life to the art of yakitori, where even the skewering of one specific cut can entail eight different possibilities. And then there’re the cuts; all manners of offal and esoteric pieces of cartilage. It’s sometimes judiciously brushed with an umami-laden sauce made with chicken carcass, mirin and shoyu, sometimes grilled over binchō-tan, and always slightly charred and delicious.

When you think of satay, there's invariably the image of an old man in a stained wifebeater, furiously waving a straw fan while flipping about a dozen skewers.

The hawker dish is found throughout Southeast Asia—also known as sate in Indonesia, and sateh in Thailand—with meats and cuts unique to each region.

All are heavily marinated in soy, sugar, and spices like lemongrass and turmeric, which makes the meat keep better in the Southeast Asian humidity. Varieties found in Singapore are mutton, chicken, beef and sometimes pork if you’re buying from a Chinese seller, who will usually spike the peanut dipping sauce with a tangy dollop of grated pineapple. It's a dish many locals hold dear, and can run the gamut from 40 cent skewers hawked surreptitiously (to skirt food licensing laws) by the much-loved “Tiong Bahru satay man”, to $14 to $20 triumvirates at the newly-opened Violet Oon Satay Bar & Grill that will either save our culinary heritage or destroy fond memories of a once affordable, meaty treat.

VS

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QUEEN OF FARTS Heat : Taste : Sweet and sour with an immediate sharp heat. Contrary to label, farts not guaranteed.

SMACK MY ASS AND CALL ME SALLY...

Taste : Heat : Sweet, sour and a bit smoky with a building heat.

BROTHER BRU-BRU’S AFRICAN HOT PEPPER SAUCE Taste : Heat : Organic, salt and gluten free.

Also flavour-free, unfortunately.

A LITTLE NUKEY Taste : Heat : Cavalier attitude to nuclear war but strangely flavourless.

LIGHTLY SALTED

sauces. For the uninitiated, these aren’t your everyday douse-your-food sauces like Cholula or sweet Thai chilli sauce. These occupy an almost masochistic niche, where one experiences regret as often as deliciousness, and success is measured on the Scoville Heat Scale (for reference, the spiciest chilli in the world currently, the Carolina Reaper, clocks in at 1.5 million Scoville Heat Units, or SHU, while the chilli padi maxes out at 225,000 SHU). Although the collection of sauces at Philly Shack ranges from kid-friendly mildness to mind-numbingly spicy, most of them share the same juvenile, hyperbolefriendly branding that promises everything from major flatulence to death. We picked some of the most interesting bottles and tested them so you don’t have ▷

Spice Spice Baby

Presenting all the hot sauce-related pain we endured for you, dear reader.

TEXT WEETS GOH PHOTOS LIM MINGLONG ART DIRECTION BENJAMIN SOH

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ou might be heading down for their scrumptious Philly cheese steak sandwiches, but no visit to Philly Shack (#01-01B, 3A River Valley Road.

Tel: 6837 0675; www.phillyshack.com.sg) at Clarke Quay is complete without braving one of their 60 different hot

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BAYOU FIREBALLS Heat : Taste : Mild, umami and vinegary.

WIDOW NO SURVIVORS Heat : Taste : Smoky, bitter and incendiary. Made with little regard for human consumption.

FROSTBITE Taste : Heat : Overly sweet, gimmicky chilli water.

BRAVADO SPICE CO. JALAPENO & GREEN APPLE HOT SAUCE Heat : Taste : Fruity and sweet, leaving not much room for spice.

MAD DOG INFERNO Heat : Taste : Like BBQ sauce that burns, and continues burning.

HEMORRHOID HELPER Heat : Taste : Not sure they know what “help” means.

to. Scores are rated upon five.

Hot sauce is on fire. Just in America alone, the hot sauce industry has more than doubled since 2000, with companies like Tabasco, Frank’s Redhot and Huy Fong (the producer of the popular rooster-brand sriracha) leading the way in a billion-dollar industry. But what’s really booming, are the smaller, artisan brands that produce a dizzying array

of sauces from vinegary Louisiana-style to habanero and carrot-based Belizean-style sauces.

The idea of a ‘hot sauce’ seems to be a modern one that’s fairly unique to the U.S. though. While traditionally chilli-eating cultures each have their own chilli-based sauces, like the multiple salsas from Mexico, modern hot sauces seem to be largely concerned with how much heat

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DON’T F**K WITH ME I’M HOT XXX EXTRACT HOT SAUCE Heat : Taste : We have no idea what XXX Extract is but this was an all-rounded winner.

GREEN AMAZON PEPPER SAUCE, HOT Heat : Taste : Unusual heat at back of throat.

MAD DOG LIQUID FIRE Heat : Taste : Takes you to a fiery (not Fieri), garlicky flavourtown.

MAD DOG GREEN AMIGO Heat : Taste : Bright with cilantro and lime. You’ll want this on everything.

VOODOO CHILE SAUCES, PSYCHO TROPIC Heat : Taste : Pineapple-based, sweet and mild despite an allusion to hallucinogenic levels of spiciness.

HO LEE CHIT SRIRACHA HOT SAUCE Heat : Taste : Casual racism and plenty of vinegar.

they have (you’ll rarely find ‘extra spicy’ to be a selling point in a Mexican supermarket). Some of the first few hot sauces produced like Tabasco, first sold in 1868, measures at 2,500 to 5,000 SHU. These pale greatly in comparison to some of today’s varieties, whose goal seems to be topping spice levels. One such resultant sauce is the Mad Dog Inferno, which comes in at 89,900 SHU.

These days, a large portion of the market is held by artisanal producers who are pushing out bottles with ever increasing heat for fanatical ‘spiceheads’, who flock to hot sauce conventions. Some do it to look macho, others have a need for heat. But they’re all part of the cult of Scoville, chasing that endorphin rush that so conveniently comes in a tiny bottle.

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rooms are soundproofed, and come furnished with sofas made with the renowned Jim Thompson Thai silk.

There is also an extensive selection of pillows available for a restful night.

In between the day’s activities, the bathroom will provide a welcome respite—a grand bathtub, Etienne Aigner products and the scent of exotic flowers await.

It’s not just the rooms that you’ll be enjoying though. There’s no shortage of activities to partake in within the hotel itself. Unwind with a brew of rare tea and range of durian desserts in the stylish hotel lounge, or sleep in, and enjoy your breakfast in bed with the VIE Grand Breakfast, complete with fresh pastries and eggs. For those seeking rejuvenation, there’s VIE SPA and VIE FIT, the hotel’s spa and gym, where you’ll find state-of-the-art treatments and equipment. You’ll also be conveniently located within walking distance of various malls, including Siam Paragon and Platinum Mall, perfect for all your shopping needs.

Then there are the wonderful dining options. The award-winning VIE Wine & Grill offers a casual environment and sumptuous meals. From their extensive wine list of New and Old World wines, order a flight to sample various vintages paired with a globally-inspired tapas. The restaurant also serves specially-curated meals for different occasions, including a lavish breakfast, business luncheons and a family Sunday brunch. Fancy something a little more intimate? VIE Bar promises a perfect way to begin, or end your night with punchy cocktails and live jazz music.

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1. The hotel’s rooftop pool provides an oasis of calm in the city. 2. The Grand Duplex suite comes complete with two floors, a living room and a dining space. 3. VIE SPA combines traditional Thai healing with the best of modern practices. 4. The buffet dinner at VIE Wine & Grill.

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COFFEE WITH...

Bjorn Shen & Kirk Westaway SALT mulls over questions about fine dining with two chefs from very different backgrounds.

TEXT TIONG LI CHENG PHOTO LIM MINGLONG VENUE NESPRESSO BOUTIQUE RAFFLES CITY

BJORN SHEN: The opinionated and quick-witted chef-owner of Middle Eastern restaurant Artichoke has been keeping busy with new digs for his fried chicken concept Bird Bird, and a reality TV show The Ultimate BROcation on channel KIX. His claim to fame: dudestronomy or elevating comfort food with high calibre techniques and ingredients.

KIRK WESTAWAY: As chef de cuisine, Kirk Westaway heads modern European fine dining restaurant JAAN. Under his leadership, JAAN cinched a Michelin star in 2016, and celebrated its fifth consecutive appearance on the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2017. Westaway also bagged the title of S. Pellegrino Young Chef 2015 for Southeast Asia.

What is the future of fine dining?

SHEN: I tell all my students in culinary school to start their career in fine dining because it teaches you finesse and then after, when you apply those skills in a casual setting, you get a casual restaurant that isn’t sloppy. A lot of chefs cook in casual restaurants and they use the words ‘rustic’ and ‘comfort food’ as an excuse for sloppiness. The best casual restaurants these days are run by people coming out of fine dining.

WESTAWAY: I personally don’t think you learn to be a great cook in fine dining. You got to learn to cook from the basics like dealing with whole animals, and prepping ingredients from scratch. From there you can refine it, get organised and use tweezers if you want. You got to rough it before progressing to the top elegance.

There is always going to be a place for fine dining, though it has changed in the last 15 years of my career. It has become a more refined and lighter, delicate kind of style. We are moving away from the heavy sauces and whole duck breast main course sort of thing to becoming more health conscious.

For a full video of the conversation between the chefs, visit www.saltmagazine.asia

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COPYRIGHT © 2016 BY CHRISSY TEIGEN; PHOTOGRAPHS COPYRIGHT © 2016 BY AUBRIE PICK; PUBLISHED BY CLARKSON POTTER/ PUBLISHERS, AN IMPRINT OF THE CROWN PUBLISHING GROUP, A DIVISION OF PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE LLC, NEW YORK.

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COOKBOOK GETS SALTED

Supermodel Diet Forget juicing or diets. Supermodel Chrissy Teigen’s New York Times’ Bestseller cookbook, Cravings will dispel all notions of the typical anaemic, celery-munching runway model.

TEXT TIONG LI CHENG, JOYCE HUANG & WEETS GOH PHOTOS LIM MINGLONG ART DIRECTION BENJAMIN SOH SHOT ON LOCATION AT LA GALERIE DE DIETRICH SHOW KITCHEN

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n Cravings, Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Chrissy Teigen draws heavily from her mixed Thai-American heritage, as well as a “childhood spent in the kitchen” for everything from homely Thai dishes like basil chicken to oozy, heartstopping mac n’ cheese topped with garlicky, crunchy breadcrumbs. As advertised, the recipes are “all the food you want to eat”, with plenty of flavourpacked, oh-so-comforting and sinful dishes that you’ll want to prepare for a dinner party or a night in. The recipes themselves are straightforward, and won’t require much faffing about with complicated techniques or esoteric ingredients that you’d have to order off Amazon.

After all, cravings are meant to be satiated quickly and painlessly.

It is not just the recipes that are winners though, the book itself is a thoroughly entertaining read; chockfull of Teigen’s unapologetic wit and candid details about her childhood as well as her relationship with singersongwriter husband John Legend, who contributes a fair amount of his own recipes like chili and Tuscan brick chicken.

One of the few gripes we have with the book (also a common problem with many other cookbooks) are the imperial measurements: how much is a cup of broccoli florets? Should I pack the cup lightly or really stuff them in? Is a ‘cup’ a measure of volume or weight? No one should have to google an answer while already holding up a cookbook.

Teigen shows off her enviable swimsuit-clad figure in the pages next to greasy burgers and onion ring recipes, but if you think that you’ll get that body by cooking your way through the book, we can assure you that you’ll not. In fact, given the ease and tastiness of the recipes, you might just put on a few extra kilos.

The recipes for the following dishes can be found on www.saltmagazine.asia

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1. The easy recipe for Actual Drunken Noodles resulted in a hearty bowl of noodles. The flavours are immediately familiar to the Asian palate and the subtle smokiness made it even more comforting. 2. Be sure to mince your garlic very fine for the brick chicken or you’ll get large, bitter chunks of burnt garlic in your dish.

3. Teigen’s mac and cheese comes with a golden-brown crust of cheesy garlic breadcrumbs that turns the American archetypal casserole from good to great. 4. The SALT team testing out recipes at the La Galerie De Deitrich show kitchen. 5. To ensure a lump-free cheese sauce, use a large whisk and put in plenty of arm work. 6. Unless your brick just came out the kiln, we recommend you wrap it in some foil.

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Tried and tested

by SALT

ACTUAL DRUNKEN NOODLES TESTED BY JOYCE HUANG EASY

1 HOUR

TASTY

Teigan actually devotes an entire chapter in the book to Thai dishes, recipes of which were passed down to her by her Thai mum, Pepper, and some tweaked thereafter. Most of them are standard Thai fare like beef salad and papaya salad. While this recipe does not fall under that chapter, Teigen admits to its Thai-ish influences. We decided to test this out to see: a) how Teigan handles Asian flavours, and b) if the actual addition of whisky in the cooking translates in the end dish.

I was initially concerned about the liberal use of soy sauce and sugar when mixing up the noodle’s sauce but the recipe manages to counter all that with the addition of mirin and sambal, rounding up the flavour quartet of sweet, salty, sour, and spicy—quintessential elements in most Thai dishes.

Teigen further alludes to this recipe’s Southeast Asian roots with the use of sambal oelek. She makes a good proposition for utilising sambal instead of sriracha, thanks to its punchier and rounder flavours. And indeed, the version we made with sriracha was lacking the edgy hit of spiciness, perhaps overwhelmed by the other layers of flavours in the sauce.

Apart from the aforementioned gripe about imperial measurements (really, who measures broccoli florets by the cup?), the recipe was a cinch to execute and the resultant dish a hearty bowl of noodles whose flavours are immediately familiar to the Asian palate and whose subtle smokiness made it even more comforting. And yes, we could still taste the whisky.

From the cookbook

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JOHN’S TUSCAN BRICK CHICKEN TESTED BY WEETS GOH MODERATE

2 HOURS 45 MINS

ENJOYABLE

True to Teigen’s advice, the bricks were the most difficult “ingredient” to find in this recipe, although you can easily substitute them with any sturdy, heavy object like a saucepan filled with rocks or a gold bar. Fresh sage can also be hard to find in Singapore, although you can replace it with half the amount of the dried herb. Also, be sure to mince your garlic very fine, or you’re going to have large, bitter chunks of burnt garlic sticking to your chicken.

The recipe states to, after cooking the chicken on the skin side, “remove the bricks, flip the chicken, weigh it down with the bricks again and continue to cook”.

Traditionally, brick chicken does not entail any flipping as being pressed flat allows it to cook quickly and evenly.

However, with Teigen’s recipe, we recommend that you wash the brick or wrap it in a new layer of foil after flipping the chicken to prevent cross contamination as the brick would have been exposed to the raw side of the meat— you’re essentially transferring raw chicken juices to the cooked side. If you’re still skittish about the whole rawchicken-juices thing, you can also transfer the whole pan into the oven to finish the cooking sans brick (if you’re not using a cast-iron skillet, please check that your entire pan can survive a stint in the oven).

Tried and tested

by SALT

From the cookbook

From the cookbook

CHRISSY’S MAC AND CHEESE WITH CHEESY GARLIC BREAD CRUMBS TESTED BY TIONG LI CHENG EASY

1.5 HOURS

ENJOYABLE

Good ol’ macaroni and cheese, why would you need a recipe from Chrissy Teigen when Kraft has produced a box version that you can make in minutes? Well, Teigen’s mac and cheese comes with a golden-brown crust of cheesy garlic breadcrumbs that turns the American archetypal casserole from good to great. And she uses a. lot. of. cheese. Three types, to be exact: Gruyere, cheddar, and orange American cheese (slices of Kraft square cheese).

First, I prepared the cheesy garlic breadcrumbs that’s supposed to go on top. Piece of cake. Then, like most other mac and cheeses, the recipe starts with making the roux (a basic thickening agent made by stirring flour into warmed fat like melted butter and cooking the two until a paste is formed). Add in milk and the mixture becomes a béchamel sauce. This is where you start melting grated cheese into the mixture. No problems there either. That is, until I stirred the pasta into the cheese and realised I forgot to add my slices of American cheese. So, I had to start another roux/béchamel sauce from scratch and melt the forgotten American cheese before adding it to the pasta. If you melt the cheese directly over heat, it will split or curdle the sauce.

Teigen prefaces her recipe by saying that her musician husband John Legend makes a mean mac and cheese too and everybody loves it. Just google it online and you can see his recipe. But when I tested out Legend’s more traditional version, I found it boring. Teigen’s version is creamier and saucier.

Tried and tested

by SALT

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Chef-owner of Firebake, Konstantino Blokbergen, sliding loaves of bread into the wood-fired oven.

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A DAY WITH

Konstantino Blokbergen Meet the baker behind the rustic, old fashioned, wood-fire oven breads at Firebake.

TEXT TIONG LI CHENG PHOTOS LIM MINGLONG ART DIRECTION BENJAMIN SOH

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here is something in the air at Firebake. Amidst the homey décor and soothing soundtrack of crackling embers from the brick ovens, the smoky smell of burning wood transports you to rural countryside.

You close your eyes and for a moment, you can picture a campfire at your feet, the just-ploughed fields, lush greenery, and vast mountains in the distance.

But no, you are only at Firebake. The 2,000 sq ft bakery and restaurant, ensconced in a corner shop along the sleepy East Coast Road neighborhood, opened earlier this year in March. At the heart of the restaurant are two specially constructed ovens, hand-built from 5,000 bricks. It is used to produce the star offerings here: rustic wood-fire baked sourdoughs. Around 5pm on most days, you will see rows and rows of brown crusted, slightly imperfect rye, white, wholemeal, and fruit loaves cooling on two-metre tall racks.

Chef and owner of the place, Konstantino Blokbergen, laments that no one really bakes bread the traditional way anymore—not when you can turn out a standard Gardenia-style loaf with a press of a few buttons on a shiny machine. That’s what makes the rustic woodfire sourdoughs at Firebake all the more appealing. The dough is made from all-natural ingredients and goes through a long fermentation before being slow-baked in a wood-fire oven. No two loaves turn out the same but Blokbergen says: “we like that our breads look different.

With wood-fire baking, we get incidental results and that’s the charm of it”.

For years, Blokbergen has been helping new restaurants get off their feet with Gastro-Sense, an F&B consulting company he set up with his wife Bing. As a

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Blokbergen sprinkles flour over his loaves with a flourish— like Salt Bae.

They encountered Yallingup’s breads again at the opening of a cool new restaurant at Freemantle Market when they visited Perth in 2014. That Christmas, Blokbergen received a breadmaking machine as a gift.

He only used it twice before he started experimenting with artisanal sourdoughs. Eventually, the experimentation turned serious and fuelled his desire to start a wood-fire bakery-restaurant in Singapore.

To do that, Bauer’s help and expertise was enlisted to construct the two massive wood fire ovens at Firebake.

The twin ovens (one tunnel shaped and one domeshaped) took six weeks to construct: red bricks were used for the structure, refractory bricks were used to hold fire, volcanic bricks for heat retention, and 10-million-year-old volcanic ash formed the base of the oven, on which the breads would bake.

Although Bauer has been living in Western Australia for the past 15 years, he is originally from Germany and comes from a family of bakers and flour millers— unsurprisingly his background is reflected in his style of breads. Following the same ethos, Blokbergen produces good old fashioned breads that are Germanic in style and with simple shapes. Long fermentation is key to the process. Take the rye breads for example; they are triple proofed and allowed to rise for an average of 15 to 18 hours, which not only allows more flavour to develop, but also improves the digestibility of the breads.

Unlike commercial bakeries, Blokbergen does not accelerate the proofing of breads in a retarder/proofer but simply allows nature to do its thing. After all, “time is flavour” he notes. Four simple ingredients go into the breads: organic flour, wild yeast, and fresh water from a Nordaq filtration system that was brought in especially for

veteran F&B consultant, he oversees everything from menu conceptualisation to the planning of kitchen layouts.

However, his own passion project has taken longer than expected—Firebake has been four years in the making.

It all started in 2013. Blokbergen and Bing had read about Gotthard Bauer, a hardcore rustic baker in Margaret River and decided to check out Yallingup Woodfired Bakery during one of their frequent trips to visit family in Western Australia. “It was about 4pm when we got there and there was no one around—they were all out for delivery,” remembers Bing. “On the table were a few ugly loaves and an honesty box. We grabbed a loaf and didn’t think much of it but it tasted really good.” A few days later, the couple met Bauer at a farmer’s market and exchanged business cards.

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Almost all the cooking at Firebake is done by wood fire and charcoal. In the kitchen stands two 1880’s refurbished Husqvarna cast-iron stoves.

Blokbergen giving instructions to the Firebake team.

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Firebake sits on a sleepy corner along East Coast Road.

Firebake. And in the pipeline are plans to mill their own flour, from ancient wholegrains, onsite.

Blokbergen may take his breads seriously but he is a restaurant person at the core. At Firebake, the loaves are seldom served on their own. Instead, they are a carriage for that extra creamy chicken liver pate or used to mop up the comforting garden broth with pork belly, both popular items found on Firebake’s menu.

Almost all the cooking here is done by wood fire and charcoal with two 1880s refurbished Husqvarna cast-iron stoves that look straight out of historical period drama Downtown Abbey. It’s primal, not very convenient, but utterly seductive.

“As opposed to electricity and gas, cooking with wood fire is more temperamental because it is less precise than the exacting science of modern ovens,” shares Blokbergen. “You have to remember it (the woodfire oven) is not like an electric oven that you turn on and off and adjust to 250°C. It’s more like a barbecue pit. You go where the heat is best for what you’re cooking. The idea is to train ourselves to cook like we did in the old days—by relying on intuition.”

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8.30am:

Most bakers need to start work at the crack of dawn but the mornings are quite gentle at Firebake as they have embraced an afternoon bake routine to push out loaves for their dinner service (that may change when they start opening for breakfast and lunch). Konstantino Blokbergen starts his day with a coffee at the Gastro-Sense office along Northbridge Road.

10am:

The dough has already been prepped by one of his staff at 8.30am using 1970s mixers that replicate a baker’s hand-mixing techniques. When Blokbergen arrives at Firebake, the doughs are resting gently.

10.30am: Blokbergen starts the fire by loading the

twin ovens with recycled wood chips sourced from Western Australia. As the wood burns down, he pushes the embers to the side and into the fire boxes.

Blokbergen starts the fire at 10.30am.

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Distributing the dough into triangle-shaped tins

11.30am:

The chef-owner sits down to call and confirm reservations himself. Just before lunch, he checks the fire again and pushes the burning wood towards the back of the oven to make sure everything is evenly heated.

12pm: The restaurant is closed on Monday, so Tuesday is their first day back at work. Ingredient suppliers stop by throughout the day, bringing fresh supplies of Chinese artichokes and blue mussels while the crew preps for dinner service that evening. Blokbergen checks the fire and adds more wood chips into the oven.

1pm: The shaping of the breads begins. Flour flies

and the dough is divvied up before being stretched, folded, and simply shaped into an American football-like package. Unlike French baguettes, there are no fancy slashes. After shaping, the breads go to sleep for two hours. Rye loaves are transferred to distinctive triangle shaped tins that were specially created to give more even air/heat circulation as opposed to a flat tin, which may burn the bottom of the bread.

“We like that our breads look different. With wood-fire baking, we get incidental results and that’s the charm of it,� says Blokbergen.

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2pm: Things start to heat up around this time. It takes about three hours to raise the temperature of the oven evenly to an optimal 800 to 900°C. While Blokbergen waits for the oven to heat up, he hand stamps brown paper bags to be used for taking away the breads.

2.45pm:

By mid-afternoon, the oven is hot enough for baking. Assistant baker Kelvin Lim uses a wet mop to clean the interior of the oven before loading it up with the loaves.

3pm:

Blokbergen and Lim move in synchronisation to load the breads quickly into the oven. One person reshapes the dough, peels it off the muslin cloth and settles it on the wooden paddle, while the other slides the loaves into the oven in a swift motion.

Family meal with the team

4pm:

At around 4 to 5 pm, the loaves are brought out of the oven and left to cool on the racks.

Flushed and sweaty from the heat, Blokbergen continues to load the second batch of breads into the oven. Clad in his Ducati cap and checkered pants, he looks almost like a modern day pizzaiolo.

4.30pm:

Everyone sits down to a wholesome family meal of char-grilled chicken, pasta and dip.

4.50pm:

The second batch of bread is taken out of the oven and left to cool on the racks. The twin ovens have a capacity to produce about 500 loaves a day but at the moment Firebake is just pushing out 80 to 90 loaves daily. For now, they only offer rye, wholemeal, white, and fruit loaves, but in the pipeline, are plans to include scones, brioches and panettones.

6pm:

As the sun sets and the sky darkens, the restaurant goes into full-on dinner service mode.

237 East Coast Road, Level 1 Singapore 428930. Tel: +65 6440 1228; www.firebake.sg

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Firebake’s smoked eggplant with spiced hummus, Manchego cheese, tomato and barley

Watch the video of us trailing Konstantino Blokbergen on this day at www.saltmagazine.asia

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Beppe De Vito at his intimate restaurant Braci on Boat Quay.

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SEVEN DISHES

Beppe De Vito From churning whipping cream for tiramisu to perfecting the art of char, the veteran restaurateur shows how he is adept both inside and outside the kitchen.

TEXT JOYCE HUANG PHOTOS LIM MINGLONG ART DIRECTION AND STYLING GAN AND BENJAMIN SOH

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hen Braci opened late last year, local diners were at first skeptical and then pleasantly surprised to see owner and restaurateur of the IlLido Group, Beppe De Vito donning his apron and manning the pass at the cosy restaurant. Having spent the past two decades in Singapore, first charming diners as the front of house at various Italian establishments before setting up a number of fine Italian restaurants, De Vito is most immediately recognised as ‘Beppe the restaurant manager’. “It was only in recent years that diners have come to realise that I’m more than just that; I’m Beppe the restauranteur and Beppe the chef,” he says.

At 44-years-old, De Vito has spent half his life carving out a niche in the local dining scene. For the native of Bari in South Italy, the passion for food formed when he was still a child, working at his neighbourhood cafe, and watching and helping out his mother in the kitchen. It firmly took shape when he decided to enrol in one of Italy’s top schools of hospitality.

Tiramisu from Osteria Art

Risotto with wild mushrooms and Robiola cheese

Grilled vegetable roll

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TIRAMISU, FROM OSTERIA ART

he kept over-whipping it. “Plus the mascarpone kept breaking apart and the biscuit was always too soft,” he laments. It would take De Vito months to succeed in making a tiramisu he was proud to serve to his family, but he credits the experience to disciplining himself into practising to perfect an art: “I’m never easily satisfied, I always feel like I can do better and that everything can be improved. Learning to make that one tiramisu was probably when I truly started understanding the art and dedication of cooking.”

De Vito chuckles as he reminisces about his first forays into cooking, “The tiramisu was the first dish I ever made.

I used to wake up really early everyday to get to school, hence Sunday mornings were the only time I had the opportunity to sleep in a little more. The thing was, my sisters had to go to church—I didn’t care for church—and their chores included making the beds before leaving. I didn’t want to wake up early for that so I struck a deal with my mother to let me sleep in and have her do my bed instead. In exchange for that, I would cook her something.”

“My mum is a much better cook than I am but she never made desserts, so that was my leverage. I ended up making a lot of cakes and pastries, but the tiramisu was the first thing I really trained to do well,” he notes.

At first, he had to keep buying cream because

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RISOTTO WITH WILD MUSHROOMS AND ROBIOLA CHEESE

While he did not enrol into the culinary course within his hospitality management school, the popular

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Perotti Institute in Bari, De Vito had his teacher from the operations side of the course to thank for providing him with the foundations of his culinary know-how. “My teacher would make us students in the service side go out and buy ingredients to cook on a table-top stove. From desserts to risottos, to pasta from scratch, we had to learn how to make all the basic dishes. Even though formal training in the kitchen was not in our curriculum, our teacher’s reasoning was that we had to experience budgeting, learn how to buy ingredients and practice cooking to understand the whole operation of running a restaurant.”

He reckons that the risotto was the first dish he learnt how to prepare professionally, “Risotto is a Northern Italian dish so my parents never made it. I began to get good at it because we kept practising it in school, and I would also make it at home whenever the family wanted to eat something different. I would start from scratch making the stock and then try out various flavours by using different ingredients like foraged mushrooms and even fruits sometimes. Of course, the seafood version was always the most popular; we would have that as a special occasion celebratory dish.”

Despite having given tips to professional chefs on how to make risotto, De Vito has stopped serving it at any of his restaurants. “Sometimes we serve risotto as a special but the problem is, you cannot cook risotto for one, it must be at least for two; or best, for a large group of people. There’s a science behind it: you need to toss

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the rice over heat so if there’s too little rice, it burns faster and turns soggy faster as well. It’s hard to control, so having a large quantity helps.”

After graduating from his hotel management school, De Vito travelled the world, first taking up a stint on a cruise ship before chalking up more operational and management experience working within the Italian restaurant group Bice’s international outlets in Spain and France. It was through his success at Bice London that the plucky Italian was eventually posted to Singapore in 1995 to help launch Bice at Goodwood Park Hotel.

3

GRILLED VEGETABLE ROLL

“To be honest, I truly started cooking and serving my food professionally in Singapore,” De Vito says. During his time at Bice, he was once left without a head chef and an inexperienced sous chef. He saw it as an opportunity to get into the kitchen and apply whatever he had learnt and gathered from his travels.

“We had a few vegetarian customers asking for grilled vegetables and I remembered Bice London had a popular grilled vegetable salad dish. I wasn’t happy just putting grilled vegetables on the plate and needed a more exciting rendition. So I put the dish together by using eggplant stuffed with peppers and basil, rolling it up like Japanese maki sushi using a Japanese bamboo rolling mat, then serving it with balsamic vinegar and pesto. It was a simple dish but diners really enjoyed it. I even had customers coming back asking for the dish. That was when I realised, there has to be a certain accommodation to what customers want, then they’ll be willing to come back.”

Bice Singapore closed in 2000 but De Vito would go on to make waves again in the contemporary Italian dining scene with the opening of Garibaldi in 2003, and then again in 2005 when he left Garibaldi to set up his own establishment, ilLido. From there, he has built a reputable restaurant empire.

As it is with any restaurateur willing to take the risk, De Vito has had his fair share of food concepts and overseas ventures not working out. But that has not deterred his recent spate of restaurant openings—&SONS Bacaro in December 2013, Southbridge rooftop oyster bar in September 2014, Osteria Art fine dining in May 2015, Aura at National Gallery Singapore in October 2015 and his intimate casual-luxe open-kitchen restaurant Braci in September 2016.

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SEA URCHIN CARBONARA, FROM &SONS BACARO

“&SONS was born out of wanting to make our own stuff,” De Vito explains. Busy Italian cafe by day and trendy bar by night, the casual and accessible joint comes complete with a salami bar where meats are cured in-house and everything from the pasta to breads and pastry are made on-site, and then sent across to the other restaurants in the group.

This sea urchin carbonara dish is a spin on a classic carbonara by replacing the traditional sauce with a sea urchin sabayon that tops the spaghetti. The sabayon contains sea urchin, fresh eggs and creamy butter, while guanciale (cured pork jowl or cheek) bits have been lightly toasted to add a crispy texture to the dish. “I saw diners’ increased appetite for sea urchin and that prices for it were becoming more competitive. Hence I decided to have this dish to encourage more diners to embrace more artisanal produce, like our housemade guanciale,” De Vito notes.

Like a proud father, he shares, “I see &SONS as a test kitchen of artisans, a laboratory of sorts where we experiment with making our own products. The idea is to pass on this knowledge to the next generation, the future. It wasn’t about my own family or my own name; the emphasis is on the next generation, hence the name &SONS. I was able to put together quite a young team of able people to work on this.” This team has since produced talented chefs who have moved on to head restaurants like Aura and Braci.

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Sea urchin carbonara from &SONS Bacaro

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In the few months that the aged duck dish has been on the menu at Braci, De Vito has tweaked it several few times. Minor variations include plating the duck skin vertical so that diners can pick them up easily to enjoy it on its own and appreciate its crispiness.

Aged duck with apple and cripsy skin, from Braci

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“You can’t hide with wood-fire cooking; there’s no fixed steps to follow,” De Vito notes. Dry-aged in-house for four days, the duck for this dish is sous vide to 62°C for exactly 40 minutes. But the precision ends there. The grilling of the duck is where De Vito’s understanding of the meat and of the fire comes into play. “The oven’s fire intensity at 7pm is different from that at 9pm so can I say for sure that the duck needs to be cooked on the grill for 50 seconds each side? No I can’t. I’ve got to be there to look at the meat. Sometimes the heat of the oven is not strong and the charring is slower so we got to be careful not to dry the meat inside.”

“I didn’t want to just serve the duck sous vide, I wanted to add more flavour and character by taking the risk of grilling it. Sometimes there’s more char, sometimes there’s less; it’s a calculated risk that keeps one interested in making the dish,” he says. The execution of this dish taught him the importance of adapting: adapting to ingredients, to equipment, to customers, and to circumstances. “Technique is a combination of culinary knowledge and understanding when to take a second more or less.”

He further shares, “I don’t like to stick to a recipe 100% of the time, I’m always upgrading my dishes.” In the few months that the aged duck dish has been on the menu at Braci, De Vito has tweaked it several times. Minor variations include plating the duck skin vertical so that diners can pick them up easily to enjoy it on its own and appreciate its crispiness.

AGED DUCK WITH APPLE AND CRISPY SKIN, FROM BRACI

“The idea for Braci first came about more than five years ago when I got a bit fed up with the restaurant scene and the constant unreliability (of staff and partners),” De Vito reveals. To solve the problem, he took a cue from Japanese izakayas that serve only a dozen diners and required less manpower operationally. The idea to go back to the basics and cook over wood fire was gradually picking up as a global culinary trend, so when De Vito chanced upon the Boat Quay shophouse space where Braci is now located, he decided to strike when the iron was hot.

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GIANDUIOTTO WITH FRANGELICO CREAM AND GOLDEN HAZELNUTS, FROM BRACI

“I think the best dish to show how much I’ve grown since that very first tiramisu I made is the Gianduiotto with Frangelico cream and golden hazelnuts,” De Vito decides after some deliberation. This signature dessert at Braci took months of research and testing to put together.

Wanting to put an original take on a traditional Italian dessert—beyond the tiramisu or panna cotta—on the menu, De Vito turned to the history books and uncovered gianduiotto. Originated in Turin 160 years ago, this chocolate-hazelnut paste is shaped like an upturned boat and usually covered in gold foil. The practice of mixing hazelnuts into chocolate came about during a time when the import of cocoa was banned and its price exorbitant.

To create his gianduiotto, De Vito mixed hazelnut paste, with dark, white and milk chocolate, before adding chocolate glaze to provide five different types of cocoa consistencies. Cream made with hazelnut liquor and hazelnuts wrapped in gold flakes complete the decadent dessert. “I like how none of the flavours stand out; all the chocolates are melded together to created a rich balance in taste and sweetness. It was difficult to get the consistencies of the chocolate right,” he reveals. But like how when he finally mastered the tiramisu, the resultant dish was worth all the effort.

“I like how none of the flavours stand out; all the chocolates are melded together to created a rich balance in taste and sweetness,” he revealed.

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Gianduiotto with Frangelico cream and golden hazelnuts

Bone marrow, wild garlic pesto and anchovy salsa verde pizza, from Amò

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BONE MARROW, WILD GARLIC PESTO AND ANCHOVY SALSA VERDE PIZZA, FROM AMÒ

“It can be the location or the concept that comes up first but most of the times it’s a combination of the two at the right timing,” De Vito answers when asked how he grows his restaurant empire. “Sometimes we have staff who are looking to grow, so it’s about taking stock of our capabilities and matching them to the location and target market.”

This June 2017, De Vito adds another concept to his growing stable of restaurants. Amò on Hong Kong Street will focus on pizzas using dough made from a mother yeast starter he spent the past two years cultivating. There will be four classic flavours— Margherita, Marinara, Bianca, and Romano; but diners know better by now to expect more from De Vito.

“Knowing that we’ll be offering the classic pizza flavours, we decided to go a bit crazy on our other pizza offerings,” De Vito delights in sharing. Playing with colours and texture, Amò’s menu comprises a truffle based pizza; a tomato based pizza with burrata and prosciutto; a pumpkin based pizza with pancetta, friarielli, smoked mozzarella, and calabrian chilli; and a wild garlic pesto based pizza with bone marrow, mascarpone, and salsa verde, topped with a garden of herbs and fresh radish. “Our menu was created before we even tried making the pizzas; we just imagined building layers of flavour that meld together.”

“Inspiration is a study of all the data you have in your head together with all the experiences you’ve gone through in life,” De Vito shares somewhat philosophically as he looks back on his career in Singapore. “I was always very bullheaded and wanted to rise fast, but I still clocked in my hours. I guess that’s how I gained my longevity as well.”

Any lessons he has learnt throughout his 22 years in Singapore? De Vito replies: “Patience, and to be independent. Without somebody to rely on, you have to work even harder. I still feel like I have to prove myself.”

Which is just as well, as De Vito is not slowing down.

“I’m sure there will still be some growth in the next five years, but it’ll be in Singapore. Having tried one or more ventures overseas, I’m not so keen on that anymore. My kids and wife are here. With overseas concepts, I’ll have to be away from home a lot more and I’m not willing to sacrifice that. Here in Singapore, I want to help my people grow. I might not have any fixed plans for new restaurant concepts at present, but you never know. Ask me again tomorrow.”

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Once harvested, the barramundis go into an ice and water slurry that puts them into hibernation.

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PROVENANCE

Fish(es) Out Of Water Out in the middle of the Singapore Straits is an aquaculture operation determined to bring sustainable, fresh and great-tasting barramundi to the region.

TEXT WEETS GOH PHOTOS LIM MINGLONG ART DIRECTION BENJAMIN SOH

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t’s 8.30am, and we’re at West Coast pier, waiting for our boat to arrive. I’ve already spilled coffee on my shirt while attempting to assuage the morning by drinking it a little too enthusiastically. Or maybe I was just excited for the upcoming boat ride—we’re about to visit Kühlbarra, a barramundi farm off the southern coast of Singapore that’s been around since 2007 under the name Barramundi Asia. Overcoming a lack of aquaculture infrastructure in Singapore, they rebranded themselves as Kühlbarra in 2015 in an effort to draw more attention to the high-quality, sustainably-farmed barramundi that they’re offering.

From a fiscal point of view, it makes sense to be farming barramundi. It’s a fish familiar to many Singaporeans—you might have eaten it, steamed whole, as kim bak lor (“golden-eyed bass”) at a zi char (homestyle Chinese dishes) spot, or pan-fried in a Western restaurant. It’s a hardy breed that can survive in both fresh and saltwater, although freshwater barramundi is often associated with a ‘muddy’ taste that’s caused by the freshwater algae that releases geosmin in the water.

Geosmin is an organic compound that’s incidentally responsible for the earthy taste of beets.

Although barramundi farming might sound lucrative on paper, Kühlbarra still has got their work cut out for them. The fact that aquaculture isn’t a big industry in Singapore means that many of the equipment they use like nets and ropes, as well as services like boat repair are not easily available.

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Also, unlike most of the other fish farm kelongs (offshore platforms built onto wooden stilts) that are situated in the more-accessible northern and eastern parts of the island, Kühlbarra’s fishes are reared in the waters of the Singapore Straits, far off the southern coast of Singapore. But as Themis Lin, Kühlbarra farm ambassador, informs us, the southern waters’ strong currents and oxygen-rich environment results in healthier fishes.

DOWN SOUTH The journey to the farm was a sun-drenched 30-minute boat ride, and it’s a rather disconcerting one. We first had to navigate past the chugging machinery of Singapore’s industrial complex—the sprawling container yards of Pasir Panjang terminal and the silo fields of Jurong and Bukom islands—before arriving at a contrasting picture of calm.

Just off the shores of Pulau Semakua, the Kühlbarra farm seems idyllic in comparison to the chaos we had passed.

Situated right next to Pulau Semakau, the 7.5ha farm consists of a barge where Kühlbarra stores the fish feed, and several sea cages. Despite being so close to an island that’s used as a landfill, the waters here are amazingly clear, thanks to a special membrane surrounding Pulau Semakau that prevents waste from leaching into the sea.

It’s a strange sight for a landlubber like myself that the farm has no platforms grounded into the seabed.

Everything is built onto floating platforms, and all the farm work like harvesting and feeding are done from boats.

Maintaining the farm is an all-day, seven-days-a-week kind of job; the well-being of the fishes is of vital importance so a diver enters each cage daily to check in on them. Apart

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Each sea cage holds between 30, 000 to 40, 000 fishes.

The living quarters for the farm workers come complete with modern comforts and even an outdoor gym.

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from the daily feeding and twice-a-week harvesting, the workers’ time is filled up with maintenance of the farm, repairing cage nets and the like.

The workers themselves live on the farm in containers that have been converted into living quarters, only going back to shore once a month to shop or remit money back to their families—they’re mostly migrant workers from South Asia who used to be fishermen, and prefer to live out at sea. It’s easy to see why too; there’s a very attractive calm about living out in the middle of the ocean with the constant company of the sea breeze.

Meanwhile, modern comforts like television and internet are still available, and supplies like potable water and groceries are brought in weekly from the mainland.

SIZING UP THE FISHES Barramundis grow relatively quickly, taking anywhere from six to 24 months to reach harvestable size. The fishes first arrive as tiny fingerlings from an Australian hatchery to

Purchased at an auction for confiscated vehicles, the Barrabum (left, named because it’s a bum boat, and not for any posterior-related reasons) was once used to smuggle contraband into Singapore. It has since been repurposed for fishier business.

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Sea grape seaweed, or Caulerpa Lentillifera, which grows in large quantities on Kühlbarra’s sea cages. We tried some fresh out of the sea and it was just like greencoloured caviar, with each orb bursting in our mouths with a briny pop.

The fishes are reared in cages only 10m across, although they go 30m deep, with each enclosure holding up to a whopping 40,000 barramundis that come trashing to the surface during feeding time. The fishes are fed from a boat equipped with a leafblower-like contraption that fires the feed pellets into the air so that it’s evenly scattered over the surface of the cage. Barramundi generally feed during dawn and dusk, when the air is cooler and the sunlight scant, so they took some time to warm up to our specially-arranged feeding time of 10am.

The fishes eat specially-formulated pellets made with plant-based protein, sustainable fish meal and a salmon oil additive that greatly increases the level of omega fatty acids in their bodies. Kühlbarra is trying to gradually phase out the less environmentally-friendly animal proteins in the feed, although it’s been an uphill task as barramundi are carnivorous.

It’s this carnivorous nature that makes farmed barramundi preferable for some. Wild-caught barramundi tend to have higher levels of mercury when they’re further up on the food chain. Farming barramundi means that you can monitor and control their diet and environment to produce the best results.

Freshness is paramount when dealing with seafood, so all of Kühlbarra’s fishes are harvested to order. When the time comes, their harvesting boat, christened the Barrambum, scoops up fish from the cages with a crane.

The fishes are then dropped into an ice-water slurry that rapidly cools the fish, causing them to enter a hibernative state. From there, the barramundi enters an unbroken cold chain before reaching the consumer—the fishes are filleted in a cold room, and arrive at your doorstep within 48 hours vacuum-packed and chilled. Besides Singapore, Kühlbarra also supply the fish to places in Sydney, Hong Kong and a few states in the U.S.

spend 100 days in Kühlbarra’s nursery on Pulau Semakau before being transferred to the sea cages at around 50 to 100g. In its previous incarnation as Barramundi Asia, the company used to sell the whole fishes, which weighed between 800g to 1kg and took about six months to reach that weight. After rebranding as Kühlbarra, they’ve since refocused on growing larger fish—four kilogram creatures that take around 21 months to grow, but yield succulent and thick fillets that perfectly showcase the quality of the meat. Barramundi is a species that’s been known to grow up to almost two meters and weigh 60kg, although the four-kilogram specimen that I got to hold already had a noble heft to it. Even though the fish was already rendered docile in icy water, I could feel its strength through its minute twitches—it’s no wonder that the barramundi is favoured by anglers for their ability to put up a good fight.

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Handling the barramundi requires gloves as the fishes are extremely strong and have sharp, bony scales.

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FULL CIRCLE

selecting the right genetic stock for optimum breeding results, including a high feed conversion ratio.

At the end of the day, ‘sustainability’ isn’t just another restaurant-world buzzword. Fish populations have been dwindling over the years, and according to a study done in 2006, most of the commonly-fished seafood might disappear by 2048 if we keep eating the same wild-caught fishes that we do. Kühlbarra’s mix of quality fish and sustainable practices means that other than the general consumer, many renowned local restaurants also source their barramundis from Kühlbarra as a move towards more eco-friendly practices. One such place is modern Australian joint Cheek by Jowl, where they serve a beautiful, unfussy rendition with crispy skin and incredibly moist, clean-tasting flesh, dressed with prawn floss, charred lettuce and thin rings of pickled onion—good eats for both our stomachs and conscience.

Even though the company primarily offers barramundi fillets, no part of the fish goes to waste. Consumers can also buy the bones to make their own stock at home, or the meaty fish heads for curry. And although they’re not available to the general consumer, the large barramundi swim bladders, which can be dried and made into fish maws, are highly sought-after by Chinese restaurants.

Even the liver of the fish, while not commonly eaten, can taste like foie gras with the right preparation. Kühlbarra is still looking for a company who’d want the fish scales, which can be turned into contact lenses and cosmetics.

As part of their long term plans, the company is hoping to close the circle, and reduce their carbon footprint by introducing their own hatchery instead of bringing in the fingerlings from Australia. The main challenge they’re facing now is the animal husbandry—

For a video of our day at the farm, visit our website at www.saltmagazine.asia

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From June to August 2017, four Unlisted Collection restaurants will be serving up special Kühlbarra Barramundi dishes. Here is the recipe for Cheek By Jowl’s creation. For recipes of the dishes from Pollen, Salted & Hung, and The Market Grill, visit www.saltmagazine.asia

Braised Leek 500g leek, cut into 1-inch pieces 500ml chicken stock • Cook leeks in chicken stock until soft and set aside.

Pickled Onion 200g sherry vinegar 200g sugar 1 white onion; cut into wedges

Pan-fried Barramundi with Leek, Bonito Butter & Caramelised Onions

• Bring sherry vinegar and sugar to boil in a pot.

• Take it off the heat, add onion and let it steep overnight.

SERVES: 1 | LEVEL: DIFFICULT | PREPARATION: 60 MINS

Puffed Rice 100g rice 200ml cooking oil salt and pepper, to taste

Bonito Butter 100ml water 10g katsuoboshi or bonito flakes 25g soy 250g butter, cubed

• Cook rice before dehydrating it.

• Heat oil up to 135°C. Place rice inside and fry until puffed. Remove puffed rice out of the oil and drain.

• Season straight away with salt and pepper.

• In a pot bring water, bonito and soy to a boil.

• Once boiled, transfer to a blender and blend together.

Slowly add butter while blending to emulsify. Set aside.

Fish 160g Kühlbarra Barramundi

Caramelised Onion Purée 1kg brown onion, cut into wedges sherry vinegar, to taste salt, to taste

• Over medium heat, pan fry fish on skin side until skin becomes nice and crispy. Cook 90% of it on this side, turn the fish over and finish off on the other side.

• To assemble, spread some caramelised onion purée on the plate, then arrange braised leek on top with the bonito butter poured over them. Finally, place fish flesh side down on the purée, and garnish with the pickled onions, puffed rice and some ice plants.

• Sauté onions in a pan over low heat until they become soft and caramelised.

• In a blender, blend onions into a purée and season with sherry vinegar and salt. Set aside.

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Flaming wok at Lucky8.

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HERITAGE HEROES

A Race Against The Flames Explore the world of fire and smoke to uncover the elusive yet addictive quality that is wok hei.

TEXT XIE HUIQUN PHOTOS LIM MINGLONG ART DIRECTION BENJAMIN SOH

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ire. It is all about the fire, the chefs tell us when we quiz them about wok hei. Wok hei, or (镬气) in Chinese characters, literally means wok (镬)— awkwardly described as a deep frying pan (more accurately a skillet; note that a skillet has sloping sides while a sauté pan does not) with a round-bottom—and energy (气), which has also been described as breath.

There is nothing quite as satisfying as a stir-fry. Think: wok-kissed morsels of succulent meat or seafood, crisp yet moist vegetables or flavoursome fried rice and hor fun (flat rice noodles). Author Grace Young thinks of wok hei “as a breath of a wok—when a wok breathes energy into a stirfry, giving foods a unique concentrated flavour and aroma.”

In her book The Breath of a Wok, she points out that the stir-fry is a culinary art form in Hong Kong and Guangzhou.

The word wok (镬) itself is a Cantonese expression, the vessel is called guo (锅) in Mandarin.

Indeed, while researching through old Chinese cookbooks and encyclopedias, I found that the concept of wok hei is not considered a major element in the world of Chinese cuisine. In fact, it is hardly mentioned, and where there is reference (one such tome is the 中国食经 published by the Shanghai Culture Publishing House), it is often associated with stir-frying and the handling of the Chinese ladle or Chinese spatula.

Chinese cuisine dates back thousands of years, and over time, various regional styles of cuisine have emerged.

Globally, Cantonese cuisine from Guangdong, a coastal province in Southern China, is the most widely recognised, largely due to the wave of Guangdong emigrants, who moved to the United States and parts of Europe in the 1800s. And within the Cantonese cuisine repertoire, which include soups, stews and roasts, stir-fries gained popularity for the alluring aroma that is wok hei.

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Fire power

OF FIRE AND OIL

a fragrance that lingers in the mouth,” says executive chef Charlie Tham of York Hotel, who is renowned for his repertoire of scrumptious wok-fried local delights served at the hotel’s White Rose Café.

More specifically, chef Eric Low expresses wok hei as “smoky aromas from combustion of oil droplets in mid air”.

The chef-owner of Lush Epicurean Culinary Consultancy, and former R&D chef for food and beverage conglomerate Nestlé, adds that in addition to high heat and oil, “water (whether moisture from the ingredients or added sauces) causes oil to splatter into droplets and catch fire to create that smoky effect captured by the ingredients during the tossing process”.

In other words, as written in the masterpiece that is Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, a cookbook by Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young and Maxime Bilet, wok hei is “the almost indescribable flavour that is the defining quality of great wok cooking. Intense Maillard reactions on food surfaces combine with the partial breakdown of cooking oil at extremely high temperatures to produce this potent melange of flavour compounds”. It explains that the chemistry only works “if the burner has enough power to bring the surface of the wok to peak temperatures well above the boiling point of water”.

“Wok hei is the soul of Cantonese cuisine,” says Cheung Siu Kong, the Chinese executive chef of one-Michelinstarred Summer Pavilion at The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore. “The key lies in the relationship between fire and oil. You have to control the power of fire, what we Cantonese call fo hao (火候), to get the oil to optimum temperature within a specific time frame to achieve wok hei.” Cheung, who hails from Hong Kong and whose culinary career spans 28 years, puts achieving wok hei down to experience and practice.

Chef and culinary researcher David Yip shares that wok hei is about “capturing the smoke”. “There are three main layers of smoke to take note of,” he says. “First, there is the smoke from the wok: when you heat up a well-used wok (which has developed a patina), you will see smoke emitting from it. Then there is the smoke from the oil: this smoke is denser and is the main contributing factor to wok hei. Lastly, you have the smoke from seasoning such as alcohol, but this gives the dish a mellow fragrance we call chun xiang (醇香): this is highly aromatic, but not exactly wok hei, though many have mistaken this as such.”

Wok hei is also not to be confused with flavours from caramelisation or charred food. “It should yield

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Getting the wok smoking hot

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A dance with the flames— tossing fried rice to capture wok hei.

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“It is a race against the flames: during that short span of time it takes to develop the complex flavours, the ingredients also have to be cooked appropriately.”

Wok-fried beef hor fun by chef Tse Kit of Lucky8

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE

imagine this: the chef uses the curved side of the wok to fling the ingredients into the air away from himself, and the food should, in a circular motion, fall back towards the chef into the wok, like a boomerang of sorts. Tse tosses his ingredients also possibly a good 50 times in 30 seconds.

It is a race against the flames: during that short span of time it takes to develop the complex flavours, the ingredients also have to be cooked appropriately. In that intense heat, it is a matter of seconds between being perfectly cooked and being burnt to a crisp. Curious, we requested Tse to dish out a hor fun before he cranked up the heat, and true enough, it was seasoned and tasted fine, but it did not have that extra spark. Whereas the finished product, having gone through the blazing flames, had layers of smokiness and marvelous intensity of flavour.

For budding chefs, he offers this tip: “Do a visual check, if the smoke is white, you are good. If the smoke turns yellow, then something is burning.”

Tse Kit, chef-owner of Lucky8 at Shaw Centre, who does a mean stir-fried beef hor fun, emphasises that the fire has to be big. “You have to brave the fire and not be afraid of the flames. It is not just about getting food cooked. You also have to note when you should turn up the fire, when you should cease the fire. For good wok hei, the wok has to be screaming hot and you have to move extremely fast, especially in the last 20 to 30 seconds of cooking when you raise the temperature.” And by temperature, we are talking about the heat going as high as 300°C. Tse, who has been in the industry for over 26 years, explains that the bulk of cooking happens at the stir-fry (or chao, 炒) stage, when the heat is medium-high. This is when most of the seasoning takes place. It is only during the last 20 to 30 seconds, when he would increase the temperature and do intense stir-frying (or bao 爆) to capture the wok hei. For him, this is also when the “tossing of the wok” (pao guo, 抛锅) occurs. More accurately,

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“The tool acts as an extension of the chef ’s hand: the strength is concentrated at the tip of the ladle or spatula, allowing the chef to, seemingly, handle his ingredients with ease.”

It is all in the wrist. chef Charlie Tham working the wok at White Rose Café.

Chef Wayne Liew of Keng Eng Kee Seafood in action with leaping flames.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

(typically 18 to 20 inches across, or more), so having a Chinese metal ladle or Chinese metal spatula is essential with cooking.

For chefs who specialise in Chinese cuisine, the control of fire is a fundamental skill. It is the handling of the Chinese metal ladle or spatula that differentiates the novice from the master. With that one tool, the master executes the pushing, pulling, lifting, flipping, turning and tossing of the ingredients within the wok. The magic is all in the wrist, enabling the chef and his tool of choice to become one. The tool acts as an extension of the chef’s hand: the strength is concentrated at the tip of the ladle or spatula, allowing the chef to, seemingly, handle his ingredients with ease. A veteran with precise wok and spatula control can even coax the ingredients into performing front somersaults, backflips, pike jumps and cartwheels. Technically, when executed with skill, using these tools can yield the same wok hei effect even when the chef chooses not to move the wok.

“The way you handle the wok is also important. The wok on average weighs 3kg. So you should not use brute strength as, over time, it takes toil on the hands and the body. There is technique and grace in the motion, one should ‘borrow strength’ from the momentum,” Tse adds.

Chef Wayne Liew of local zi char joint Keng Eng Kee Seafood shares the same sentiments. “Every chef has his own way of handling the wok, so you have to find your own groove. The chef also has to know his stove well and realise where the flames are the most intense and target those hotspots,” says the third generation chef-owner, who picked up his wok skills from his father and uncle.

It is interesting to note that, unlike the Northerenstyle Chinese wok that has a long handle and is usually 12 to 14 inches in size, the Cantonese wok has no handles (instead, it has two “ears”) and is larger in size

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Bamboo clams stir-fried with bean sprouts and qing long vegetables from Summer Pavilion at The Ritz-Carlton Singapore

Stir-fried mushrooms with kailan stems by Cheung Siu Kong, Chinese executive chef of Summer Pavilion

SMOKY GOODNESS ON A PLATE Can every dish be fragrant with wok hei? Most dishes can be, the chefs tell me, as long as the fire is hot enough, the oil is brought to the right temperature, and there is not too much water. As the preferred cast iron woks gain and dissipate heat relatively quickly, too much water will lower the temperature in the wok and if the heat is not high enough to evaporate the water, the ingredients will simply boil in the wok, instead of gaining that lovely brown colour and almost crispy texture. As such, making sure the ingredients are drained properly is essential.

In his kitchen, Cheung applies both wok-tossing and the use of tools depending on the ingredients he is working with. The Chinese metal spatula, which is shaped like a shallow shovel, works well to ensure small bits of food are evenly seasoned, as in the case of fried rice or vegetables. Once the chef has nurtured a strong relationship with his wok and stove, and understands his ingredients well, the technique of capturing wok hei can be applied to most ingredients. Even dishes such as stirfried mushrooms with kailan stems, and bamboo clams stir-fried with bean sprouts and qing long vegetables can have the intoxicating perfume of wok hei as aptly demonstrated by Cheung.

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Wok-fried seafood hor fun by executive chef Charlie Tham of York Hotel

For Liew, his delicious wok hei-infused fried rice is achieved through stir-frying the rice with its condiments at constant high heat to infuse every plump grain of rice with the smoky flavour.

When it comes to savouring a wok-fried hor fun with gravy, Tham shares that the secret to good wok hei for this dish lies in “locking” the flavours during the stir-frying of the hor fun. Then, when the luscious savoury gravy is ladled over the smooth smoky flat rice noodles, the gravy is infused with the smoky goodness.

Why does the “capturing of the wok’s breath” only happen at the last seconds of cooking, you may ask. Tze puts it succinctly, “It is like perfume, you would apply it just before you leave the house. If you capture the wok hei too early in the cooking process, the fragrance would have dissipated long before it reaches the table. So you should always aim for it only at the very last moments of cooking.”

This also explains why it is essential for the dish to reach the diner’s table as fast as possible, still piping hot and imbued with wok hei. Diners, in turn, should consume the dish almost immediately to relish the fragrant stir-fry at its finest.

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Chef Wayne Liew dishing out the popular Keng Eng Kee signature of wok heiinfused fried rice.

THE EVOLUTION OF COOKING

TEXT TIONG LI CHENG PHOTOS LIM MINGLONG ART DIRECTION GAN SHOT ON LOCATION AT CAMP KILO CHARCOAL CLUB

MAN FIRST COOKED OVER AN OPEN FLAME AND HIS TAMING AND CONTROL OF FIRE GAVE BIRTH TO CUISINE.

H

umans are the only animals who cook their food with heat or fire. In his 2009 book Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, Harvard biological anthropologist Richard Wrangham theorises that cooked food helped us evolve as a species because it took less time to digest and enabled larger brain growth.

Two million years ago, tossing a hunk of meat into the flames was the sole culinary technique. That is until the Palaeolithic Period, when people started building primitive hearths and using crude cooking procedures like wrapping their food in leaves and steaming it over hot embers, or toasting wild grains on flat rocks. No further culinary advances were made until the introduction of pottery during the Neolithic Period. With the industrial revolution and the discovery of gas, fire was made commonplace in every household, forming the basis of the modern kitchen.

Our ancestors uncovered the transformative effects of heat and smoke on meat: flavouring, tenderising and preserving it, but smoking food is experiencing a resurgence. The elemental scent of meats being cooked over fire remains part of our culinary DNA. According to Charles Spence, professor of experimental psychology at Oxford University, it may be that “evolutionarily speaking, fire and smoke signal meat roasting, so we may have been programmed to find them desirable in expectation of what is to come�.

With the discovery of fire two million years ago, humans started roasting spitted meats directly over flames.

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At Camp Kilo Charcoal Club— rows of chickens marinated with jerk spices roast over an open fire (left); every weekend the eatery roasts a whole pig on the spit (on this page).

Camp Kilo Charcoal Club’s burnt carrots with sateh , plums, ricotta cheese and fried garlic.

Find the recipe for this dish online at www.saltmagazine.asia

Humans have been cooking since prehistoric times, but cuisine as we know it today only developed when earthenware vessels were created. Cooking techniques such as boiling, stewing, and braising came about with the invention of pots and pans.

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Smoking is the process of flavouring, cooking, or preserving food by exposing it to smoke from burning wood.

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Modern fire techniques in the kitchen include flambÊing and torching, as seen here in the charred marshmallows of Camp Kilo Charcoal Club’s smores cheesecake with nutella and graham cracker crust.

WHAT’S YOUR SPIRIT DRINK

Giancarlo Mancino’s Gibson The classic cocktail of dry gin and strong aromatic vermouth, with a kick from special herb-pickled onions, is the drink most representative of the indefatigable Italian bar consultant.

TEXT JOYCE HUANG

PHOTOS LIM MINGLONG

ART DIRECTION BENJAMIN SOH SHOT ON LOCATION AT ATLAS BAR

G

iancarlo Mancino meticulously lines up the tools and ingredients for making his representative drink—the Gibson—on the bar counter at the imposing ATLAS Bar: a classic London dry gin, his very own Mancino Secco vermouth, a curvy Gallone mixing glass and an exquisite Astoria cocktail glass from his gorgeous Wormood glassware collection, and a jar of pickled onions.

He then proceeds, with precise and purposeful movements, to build his cocktail.

tending to the bar in a local pub at the age of 16, the young and ambitious Mancino began experimenting mixing up his own concoctions: sangria with frozen fruits, cocktails with a bit of beer and soda. When people started noticing him and his drinks, Mancino realised that bartending was his ticket out into the world.

After finishing his studies in the U.S, Mancino began his career behind the bar at the St. Regis, New York. Gregarious, passionate and full of intrepid energy, the plucky Italian bartender would go on to impress the world with his cocktail mixing skills, working in the U.K. and bagging countless honours in international bartending competitions. Mancino then went on to establish his own bar consultancy company in London and has since spent a good decade opening up bars for leading hotel groups across Asia—particularly in India, Maldives, Mauritius, Thailand and Hong Kong. Today, he is based in Hong Kong and remains the official bar and beverage consultant with Rosewood Hotels.

Step 1: Prepare the Gallone glass by chilling it with nice, clean ice cubes.

Born in Pignola, a small village in the South of Italy an hour away from the Amalfi coast, Mancino always had his sights outside the tiny town. “I come from a big family with 15 uncles and aunties, and 30 cousins—they basically make up the whole village; an uncle is the policeman, another uncle is the butcher, and an aunt runs the local laundromat,” he notes, “I was so full of that and needed to get out.” While

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Mancino serves his Gibson in the exquisite Astoria glass from his Wormwood collection.

Gin should always be in the classic London dry style.

For his Gibson, Mancino uses his dryest vermouth in the Mancino range.

Mancino pickles his onions in a special mix of spices, including coriander and peppers.

The entire collection of Mancino vermouths and Rinomato

Serving up the Gibson

For such a detail-orientated person as Mancino, creating bar concepts and opening up bars comes naturally.

He’s as fussy about the ice—“water for the ice should be nice and clean, ice machine cleaned regularly and the ice always at optimal temperature”—as he is about the music the bar plays and the materials used to make the bar menu.

The devil is in the details and it all “plays a part in the customer’s bar experience”. The makings of a good drink and a great bar similarly starts from the foundations.

producer in Italy and took two to three years crafting the perfect formula for his Mancino vermouths.

Today, the Mancino collection consists of five vermouths—Secco (dry), Bianco Ambrato (white vermouth with significant cinchona and gentian components), Rosso Amaranto (red vermouth where 10 out of the 38 botanicals are used specifically for Amaro), Vecchio (limited edition red vermouth aged one year in Italian oak), and Chinato (Secco, Bianco Ambrato, and Rosso Amaranto combined with Barbera D’Asti DOCG wine and quinine bark calissaja); as well as a special edition sakura vermouth launched earlier this year in conjunction with Mandarin Oriental Tokyo.

“Quality,” Mancino replies when asked what sets his vermouths apart from the others on the market. “And the fact that it has been made with a bartender’s palate.”

What that translates to, are vermouths with incredibly rich yet balanced flavours; they work beautifully in building up cocktails yet can easily be enjoyed on their own.

The first secret to good vermouth is to use good quality wine, Mancino shares. While Mancino vermouths have the lowest sugar levels amongst the vermouths found on the market (all have below 200g of sugar; the dry vermouth has only 90g of sugar), Mancino notes that “more sugar doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad vermouth; you just need to balance the bitterness of the spices and the flavours of the botanicals” in relation to the sugar content.

For vermouth’s essential ingredient, Mancino uses wormwood from three different regions of Italy, with each providing a different layer of bitterness. On top of that are 40 other botanicals sourced from around the world.

Step 2: Pour 45ml of Mancino Secco vermouth and 90ml of gin into the Gallone.

Not one to cut corners, Mancino’s next big venture came about as early as 2008, when his consultancy moved to Hong Kong and he grew increasingly dissatisfied with the quality of vermouths available. He explains: “It came to a point where I felt that the big commercial brands of vermouth in Italy were just destroying the category. They were using cheap and poor quality wine, poor extracts and no fresh botanicals; the vermouths were very weak. And I was not happy making my signature Martinis, Manhattans and Negronis.

“I resorted to concocting my own substitute by mixing Cinzano, Tio Pepe, Fernet Branca, Angostura bitters and the like. Then I started cooking my own wine and experimenting making vermouth myself, making it a bit richer and spicier.” After receiving compliments and good feedback on samples of his home-made vermouth that he had given out, Mancino was encouraged to go ahead and produce his own brand of vermouth. He sourced for a small

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Step 3: Give the Gallone a whirl to open up the aromatics of the vermouth.

Since its launch in 2012, Mancino vermouth can now be found in major bars internationally. Thanks to the cocktail boom in recent years, the demand for quality fortified and aromatised wines has been on the rise. The age-old tradition of drinking vermouth as an aperitif has also been revived. Apart from his bar consultation work, Mancino now regularly travels the globe, representing his brands.

Having worked in many different countries sparked an entrepreneurial spirit in Mancino. “I take all the experiences I’ve gone through in my whole life while travelling—all the different bars and ideas I’ve come across—to improve my customers’ drinking experience. I’ll get ideas from a country and when I see these gaps in other countries, I would want to fill those gaps,” he explains.

When he saw the lack of quality bar glassware, he took to designing his own. Teaming up with Italesse and renowned designer Luca Trazzi, Mancino released a series of Wormwood glassware. Made with resistant, high-grade Italian crystalline glass, the collection consists of seven cocktail glasses and a mixing glass.

To complement his vermouth, Mancino also launched Rinomato, a beautiful orange bitter aperitivo that’s “in between a Campari and Aperol; not too sweet, not too bitter”. Rinomato means “renewed”, and with it Mancino is trying to create another category of aperitif that can be drunk on its own.

The Mancino claypot is also born out of Mancino’s determination to enhance a drinker’s experience. He shares, “My grandmother used to carry a small claypot full of cold water when she went to the farm and the water kept cool the whole day. Using the same concept, the Mancino amphora claypot, which is made in South Italy, is used to preserve a cocktail. I’ve kept a huge amount of Manhattan cocktail in one of them for over a year and it stayed outstanding.” Many bars are now preserving cocktails like the Negroni in these four-litre claypots. Its porous nature removes impurities and sucks out sugars, hence mellowing and rounding out the drink within.

Mancino’s various products: Rinomato, amphora claypot, vermouth and Wormwood glass

Still, Mancino is not resting on his laurels. On the pipeline now is a café in London that he is opening up with his brother and nephew. Called Pompi, this high-end grab-and-go café was inspired by his visits to Japan, and will just serve coffee and tiramisu that incorporates Mancino vermouth instead of coffee liquor.

Step 4: Strain the drink into the Astoria cocktail glass and serve with a couple of pickled onions.

“I’m a ‘classics’ kind of guy,” Mancino notes, “but always with a twist,” much like the aformentioned Italian dessert he is going to serve at his cafe concept. Even the Gibson cocktail that Mancino mixes up for us is more than meets the eye. “I make my own pickled onions by first cooking them in the vermouth, and then pickling them together with a host of spices like coriander, black and pink peppers, as well as apple vinegar,” he reveals.

“If there is one drink that best personifies myself, I would say it is the Gibson, because you have the punch of the alcohol, which fits my strong personality; you have the smoothness of the vermouth, and then the nice pickled onions to finish—and that represents my international and entrepreneurial side. In fact, I like the Gibson so much that I even named my dog after it.”

For a video of Giancarlo Mancino mixing up his Gibson, visit www.saltmagazine.asia.

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Mancino gives the Gallone a whirl to open up the aromatics of the vermouth.

The two founders of Samai Distillery: Daniel Pachelo (left) and Antonio Lopez De Haro (right).

DECANT

Cambodia Rum Diary Phnom Penh is one of the most unlikely places to be producing artisanal rum, but one boutique distillery is setting out to change mindsets with its exceptional taste.

TEXT TIONG LI CHENG

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PHOTOS SAM JAM

hen it comes to Cambodian food culture, one can think of little else except for Angelina Jolie eating tarantulas (a tradition left over from the country’s tragic communist past and the murderous reign of Pol Pot). The general poverty of the country also means that Khmer booze typically consists of backyard moonshine made from palm or rice, and cheap Angkor beers. So when two Venezuelan guys, Antonio Lopez De Haro and Daniel Pacheco opened Samai Distillery in Phnom Penh to produce artisanal rum four years ago, it was an anomaly.

It does make perfect sense though, when you think about it. Cambodia enjoys a tropical climate and grows an abundance of sugarcane—the same factors that make the Caribbean and Central America rum powerhouses. With top quality molasses from sugarcane grown in the eastern regions of Koh Kong forming the backbone of Samai rums and the addition of other indigenous ingredients like Kampot pepper and Ratanakiri honey, the duo have managed to create a distinctive line of spirits that shine the spotlight on all that Cambodia has to offer. The distillery currently produces three different rums: the standard Samai Gold, Samai PX Limited Edition, and Kampot pepper rum Across Cambodia, Samai’s rums are carried in close to 50 bars and restaurants, and 12 small retail shops. Here in Singapore, Native (a cocktail bar known for its collection of Southeast Asian spirits) has been trying to get their hands on their rums with little luck because the distillery’s production is currently not enough to meet demand from outside the country. It is a good problem for Samai and one they plan to solve with expansion backed by a crowd funding exercise in Singapore this June 2017. I promised Leon Tan, co-bartender at Native that I will try to smuggle back a few bottles of Samai rum after my trip to Phnom Penh.

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“Don’t be shy, put your finger there and taste it—its 86% alcohol/ ethanol,” he says motioning to the spout where what looked like mineral water is trickling out.”

their prime location, which happens to be just a hop and skip away from the bustling Bassac Lane—a street with a flourishing bar scene.

Just to give you an idea of how small the production is at Samai Distillery: the fermentation room, no bigger than a HDB room, is filled with just six stainless steel tanks. I was hit with a whiff of funky, though not altogether unpleasant, smell the moment I walked in. A single air conditioner keeps the place at a cool 27°C, a contrast to the sweaty heat outside. This is where sugarcane is transformed into alcohol.

Molasses, or the byproduct of sugarcane is put into the tanks together with yeast and water. And that’s it. The yeast organisms eat the sugars and convert it into alcohol and carbon dioxide. It takes five days for the mixture to reach the maximum of 10% alcohol. “Touch the tanks”, urged Lopez De Haro. It is slightly warm—a sign that the yeast is working hard to transform the sugar into booze. “If it becomes too warm the yeast dies,” he added, which is why the airconditioner is kept running 24/7.

After fermentation comes distillation. In the openair backyard, a copper gourd-shaped pot still toiled and bubbled. Since alcohol has a lower boiling point than water, the temperature is raised to 78°C to evaporate the alcohol and turn it into vapour that will rise up into the head of the still, into an arm and then into a coil. The coil is submerged in cool water, which condenses the alcohol back into liquid. The liquid alcohol then runs out of the coil and into a collection vessel.

“Don’t be shy, put your finger there and taste it—its 86% alcohol/ethanol,” he says motioning to the spout where what looked like mineral water is trickling out. A mixture of intense caramel and vanilla flavours exploded in my mouth, but it is still some ways from becoming the final product.

6 April 2017, 4pm

UNDERSTANDING THE PROCESS

It’s my first time in Phnom Penh. The tropical heat, colonial era structures and tuk tuk-filled streets remind me of Bangkok eight years ago. After a quick and healthy salad lunch at Backyard Café, I made my way down to Samai Distillery. It is a Thursday afternoon, the one day in the week where Samai opens to the public for the curious who wants a full immersive experience to understand the inner workings of a rum distillery. High wooden doors open up to warehouse-like interiors with a corrugated metal roof and concrete flooring, while wood barrels flanked the entrance.

As Lopez De Haro walked me through the 280 sq ft space, he explained that Samai Distillery occupies a space that used to be a parking lot for the neighbourhood. “People were paying $50 a month to park here,” he explained of

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The copper pot stills used for distilling the fermented mash. The smaller pot still on the left is used for experimenting with different styles of rum.

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The fermentation room at Samai Distillery

The warehouse-like distillery turns into a bustling bar on Thursday nights.

Kampot pepper rum in a Daiquiri cocktail

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place transforms into a bar that showcases their standard Samai Gold rum (with notes of vanilla, dark chocolate and caramelised honey) in different altercations of cocktails like the popular 21 Points, a rum and cola concoction complete with a fresh sugarcane stick for stirring.

The party was in full swing when I arrived, with a mix of expats and locals moving to popular music blaring over the speakers. A friend joined me and ordered the rum flight to sample all three rums they have on offer; the Samai Gold PX Limited Edition stands out with its delicious notes of figs and raisins, and an intoxicatingly long finish tinged with chocolate and coffee. Only 388 bottles of this are made from a single American oak sherry cask of rum, so this liquid gold is meant to be savoured slowly.

With a cocktail in hand, Lopez De Haro gave another group of folks a tour of the space, explaining the finer details of the rum production that takes place everyday from 8am to midnight. “It’s great man, what you’re doing” said a 20-something-year-old native Cambodian yuppie who highfived Lopez De Haro not once, but twice throughout the conversation. His pride is palpable and it’s easy to see why: Samai is a first of its kind premium rum distillery in Phnom Penh.

The idea for Samai Distillery was born out of a night of debauchery out on the town drinking (what else). Being a national liquor of choice in Venezuela, rum is something that is close to the hearts of Lopez De Haro and Pacheco—it was a quaff that they grew up imbibing. Due to their background, the style of rum Samai Distillery produces is añejo rum,

What I was tasting is the ‘heart’, the precious middle distillation cut that is considered the best. The ‘head’ or first alcohol that comes out is lethal and often used for cleaning furniture, while the ‘tails’ or end dribbles of alcohol contains undesirable flavours.

This ‘heart’ elixir is then put into American and French oak barrels, where it lies waiting, breathing and aging quietly for at least a year before it is ready to be blended. “It’s not a law or anything but in Venezuela, it is not considered rum unless it’s been aged for at least two years,” shared Lopez De Haro. And while they are currently bottling Samai rums only after one and a half years, the ultimate aim is to allow their rums to hit the two-year aging period in the barrels to allow the nectar to develop more flavour characteristics and layers of complexity.

Together with Moang Darachampich, Samai’s production manager and master distiller, the team tastes each barrel carefully after the nectar’s been aged. Only rum from selected barrels are expertly combined to create the distinct flavour profiles of Samai’s rums. This is then brought down to 40% alcohol/volume and allowed to rest sufficiently before being bottled by hand at the distillery itself.

6 April 2017, 10pm

IT’S A PARTY AT SAMAI DISTILLERY

With nightfall, the city turned tranquil after the mad traffic congestion that happens daily around dinnertime. I returned to Samai Distillery for my second wind but almost missed it in the dim unlit streets. Every Thursday night, the

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Pepper berries start out as green before turning a bright red when ripe.

a molasses based elixir with a fairly smooth taste; typical of Spanish-speaking islands like Cuba, Guatemala, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, and Colombia.

This differs from rhum agricole, a “more grassy and earthy” French style rum made with freshly squeezed sugarcane juice instead of sugarcane molasses.

Longtime friends since before they moved to Cambodia, Lopez De Haro and Pacheco, both in their early 30’s, have been living in Phnom Penh for the last seven years.

While they have no prior experience in rum production, (Lopez De Haro is an engineer by training and Pacheco used to work in the solar energy industry), it is not Lopez De Haro’s first brush with F&B business. He started Chinese House (a stylish east-meets-west restaurant) and Bar Sito, a well-hidden speakeasy style bar—both in Phnom Penh. He was also one of the founders of RAW kitchen in Singapore, which later evolved to become the highly successful Kilo kitchen.

8 April 2017, 2pm

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PHOTOS ON THIS PAGE SRABANI ROY

KAMPOT PEPPER FARM VISIT

After a bumpy two-and-a-half-hour drive from the heart of Phnom Penh, I finally reached Kampot, the place where the world-famous peppers are grown. Kampot peppers, like Champagne from France or Stilton blue cheese from United Kingdom, are recognised as PGI (protected geographical indication). And while there are more than a few farms in the vicinity, La Plantation stands out for being top quality and certified organic. It’s little wonder that when it came to picking a pepper to be infused into Samai rums, Lopez De Haro chose this one.

Together with Lopez De Haro and Pacheco, we veered off the main road onto a dusty dirt path and into the rural landscape. Ten minutes after passing the tranquil Secret Lake, we arrived at the entrance of La Plantation and were met by the owners of the farm—Nathalie Chaboche, a Frenchwoman and her Belgian husband, Guy Porre.

At La Plantation farm, coconut leaves act as a shade to the pepper plants during the early stages of their growth.

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Samai is the only distillery in the world to produce rum infused with Kampot pepper.

Samai is the only distillery in the world to produce a rum infused with Kampot pepper. The spice gives the rum a crispy sweet aroma with overtones of guava and eucalyptus, and a tinge of initial heat followed by a slow smooth sweetness.

They started La Plantation back in 2013, and are finally seeing some substantial returns on their long-term investment as pepper plants require three to four years to mature before they can be properly harvested. This year they are expecting 12 to 15 tonnes of pepper.

As I swatted away mosquitos, Chaboche explained that a combination of quartz-rich soil, proximity to sea and flanking mountains create a unique terroir that contributes to the distinct taste of the Kampot pepper. A holistic and natural approach is taken with everything they do on the 20 ha farm. Coconut leaves shade the plants from intense sunlight in the early growing stages while strips of tree bark are used to tie climbing stems to supports; cow manure nurtures the soil and a natural pesticide (a bitter brew made from five local herbs) keeps the insects at bay. To combat the dry season, they simply dug a pond to collect rainwater and shower the plants twice a week.

As it happens, we are right in the middle of dry season or harvest season (usually from February to May) so the plantation is more crowded than usual, with about 1,000 workers hand-sorting, boiling, and drying each precious pepper seed. From the black, white and red peppers offered at La Plantation, Samai only uses the red peppers for its

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aromatic, honey notes and punchy spice factor. Pushing the boundaries in the world of rum, Samai is the only distillery in the world to produce a rum infused with Kampot pepper. The spice gives the rum a crispy sweet aroma with overtones of guava and eucalyptus, and a tinge of initial heat followed by a slow smooth sweetness. It is best enjoyed neat or on the rocks.

Just as well that their distillery is named Samai, a Khmer word loosely translated to mean “looking towards the future” or “modern”, which describes their next-generation quaff perfectly. Besides offering limited edition rums, they’ve even got French-born pop artist Chifumi Krohom to hand paint limited edition bottles. Indeed, what Samai is offering is not just a drink, it is a lifestyle. From crazy parties celebrating their artisanal tipple to out-of-the-box rum flavours and creative crowdfunding campaigns conducted via Pozible (happening now until 18 June 2017), Samai Distillery is a pioneer in its category, but hopefully it won’t be the last.

Samai Distillery #9b-Street, 830 Sothearos Boulevard Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Tel: +855 23 224 143 www.samaidistillery.com

Limited edition Samai rum bottles with artwork hand painted by Frenchborn pop artist Chifumi Krohom

Contact: Grace@MatakanaWines.com | Jacinta@MatakanaWines.com

The traditional houses of Volendam

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ON THE GLOBAL TABLE

The Eels Of Volendam Smoked eels used to be a staple food in the Netherlands but scarcity of the fish and the subsequent increase in its price has rendered smoked eels a treasured delicacy. Marisse Gabrielle Reyes travels to the once-bustling fishing town of Volendam to uncover what’s in store for this generations-old industry and traditional Dutch delicacy.

TEXT MARISSE GABRIELLE REYES PHOTOS YIHMAY YAP AND JIMME WOUDSTRA

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our bus by tour bus, curious and hungry travellers from all corners of the globe pour out of their packed vehicles and sprawl out onto Volendam’s harbour. Less than a half hour drive from Amsterdam, the quaint fishing town of Volendam is an enticing day trip for the millions of visitors to the Dutch capital as well as locals across the Netherlands, all searching for a taste of something rich: a fresh meal from the country’s biggest lake, the IJsselmeer.

This now tourist-friendly town, however, isn’t what it used to be. Volendam’s story is unique and traces of its former life can still be found. Before 1932, this predominantly Catholic seaside fishing town was relatively poor and the people lived simply. The harbour, which has now transformed into a boardwalk for tourists, was

once lined with ragged wooden shacks that served as the homes of the sea-worn fishermen and their families. These fishermen went out in the hundreds into the Zuiderzee, a shallow bay that was part of the North Sea, to bring back spoils like herring, flounder, eel, and mackerel—just like their fathers, grandfathers, and the men before them.

Much of the fish was sold fresh to neighbouring towns and villages, but some were cured and smoked in the humble beach shacks.

In 1932, the massive Afsluitdijk was completed and the levee completely closed off the Zuiderzee to towns and cities like Hoorn, Amsterdam, Almere, and Voldendam. The new body of water that was created was called the IJsselmeer, which continues to be fed by the rivers IJssel, Amstel, Rhine, and Vecht. To say that this changed the fishing game in Volendam is an understatement. The pickings were initially slimmer in this new body of sweet water, but in the years that followed, the lake began to fill with an abundance of European eel.

This slippery creature has always been a staple in the Dutch diet and cuisine, some say just as integral as herring and cheese.

At its peak, there were up to 300 Volendam fishing boats that brought in eels by the ton. Eel fishing season used to run for eight months. Now, it’s only four. Today, there are only three fishing boats docked in Volendam, and the large majority of boats at the harbour are leisure boats, mostly owned by the descendants of Volendam’s fishermen. During the eel boom, Volendam’s fishing folk made their pennies fast and furious, allowing the town to shape up. The wooden beach shacks still stand, but the walls are now replaced with beautiful brick. These

refurbished houses scream nouveau riche, and can now sell for more than half a million Euros each.

It was during the seventies when Volendam’s fishing and smoking industry went from feast to famine. Over the last fifty years in the Netherlands, the wild eel population dropped by 95% and the European eel was labeled as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Fingers were pointed—some said the drastic decline in population of the European eel was due to overfishing, while others said it was because of parasites, invasive bird species, pollution, overly sanitised water, and barriers to the eels’ migration.

European eels are a curious animal. Adult European eels make the harrowing 6,500 km swim to the warm Sargasso Sea to breed, spawn and eventually die. The baby eels (also known as glass eels) swim all the way back to Europe. Till today, no research facility has been able to successfully replicate the reproductive cycle of the eels, so European eel farms are still dependent on a supply of wild glass eels.

With fishing quotas and seasonal restrictions, the majority of glass eels are caught in France, and others in Spain and Portugal. Some are consumed as is, but an estimated 15 to 17 tonnes are taken into farms across Europe to cultivate until they are adults and ready to be sold for consumption. Although there are restrictions in place that make it illegal to export European-caught eels outside of the European Union (EU), glass eels still arrive by the ton to Asia. Countries like China, where this unctuous animal is considered a delicacy, purchase their stock on the black market. This only drives up the price; European eels are said to fetch up to €1,200 per kg.

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A rare antique fishing boat

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Harbour views from Paviljoen Smit-Bokkum’s restaurant Farmed eels being gutted

Jan Smit tends to his fire.

Fat dripping from freshlysmoked eels

Smit keeps the fire blazing in order to produce the ideal smoke.

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KEEPING THE FLAMES ALIVE Back in Volendam, a town that has had to reinvent itself and the ways in which it subsists, there are fewer and fewer authentic fish stalls and smoke houses to be found.

Jan Smit, a 60-something business owner and fish smoker, is one of the few in the Netherlands who is keeping traditional smoking alive. His family business, Paviljoen Smit-Bokkum, which was founded in 1856, is a hit with Volendammers and tourists alike. Their specialty? Eel. This statuesque, hardy Dutchman has over 40 years of experience in smoking and comes from a long lineage of fish smokers. His father used to hawk his catch on a wooden trolley, which he’d tow around the streets of Volendam. But like a true Volendammer, Smit has reinvented the wheel. With the help of his son Evert, a trained lawyer who returned to the family business as it had more “soul”, the Smits’ business expanded into a shop, restaurant, and small museum.

I was invited to watch Smit at work. He asked me to arrive at 6.30am in the morning, just as the night’s frost was starting to melt. Inside the smoke house, Smit soaks buckets full of gutted eels, brought in alive just the night before. The eels that are too small and lean for smoking go to the restaurant where they are turned into simple but delicious dishes such as the Volendam-style eel stew of local mustard, butter, vinegar, salt, and black pepper.

Larger eels fat enough for smoking are transferred to a large bucket that’s been perforated with holes. “Here comes the fun part,” Smit smiles. He changes out of his clogs and into rubber boots, steps into the bucket and proceeds to stomp on the fish. The eels start to expel slime and foam—it’s not the prettiest sight first thing in the morning. When this is done, the eels have softened.

They are then rinsed and strung through the head on long metal rods in preparation for smoking.

The entire supply of eels at Paviljoen Smit-Bokkum used to come from the IJsselmeer. But because of the low population, Smit now mainly buys farmed eels. The farmed eels are darker in colour, have thicker skin and a firmer musculature. It’s generally agreed that farmed eels

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are inferior in taste and quality when compared to wildcaught eels. But Smit is in a very good mood today; he’s just got his first batch of wild-caught eels of the season.

These eels are slightly smaller and double the price of farmed eels. The resultant smoked wild eels are only made available to smoked eel aficionados who Smit knows.

The farmed and wild-caught eels as well as fillets of salmon, whole dorado, and whole sea bass are loaded into the smoker, which is nothing but a ventilated brick room no larger than six square metres. The room’s entire floor is lined with pinewood chips, a wood that Smit says won’t overwhelm the fishes. There are no gadgets used here, not even a thermometer. The only tools Smit is armed with is a pole, a 50-year-old shovel from his father, a lighter, a bucket of water, and his sharp instincts. As the fire starts growing with a roaring hum, Smit contains it with a few splashes of water and distributes the heat with a few prods of the pole. The entire process takes two hours and the whole time Smit is on his feet, tending to his precious stash.

There’s something beautiful, simple, and romantically archaic about watching a man tend to a fire.

Especially if it’s the same fire that his paternal lineage tended to. Throughout the process, Smit is at ease, almost in a meditative state. “I feel relaxed when I see fire,” he says with his eyes sparkling, transfixed on the dancing flames.

An hour and a half later, Smit steps into the smoky room, walks across the burning embers with nothing to protect his feet but clogs and emerges with the salmon, seabass, and dorado that will be sold in the shop and

served in the restaurant. He hands me one of each to try— the fish is oily and fatty in all the right places and lightly caressed with enough heat for the moisture to lock in.

The smokiness almost tastes herbaceous, perhaps from the pine. Thirty minutes later, the eels come out, dripping with fat and with an almost rose-gold hue to them. Staff have started to gather; it’s apparent that they’ve been waiting for these wild eels all year. Smit lets them cool for a few minutes and then rips them off the metal rods with his bare hands and passes a few around. He shows me how to eat it: tear off the head, extract the spine and suck off the meat, and then suck the remaining meat and fat off the skin. As I’m still working my way through my first eel, Smit is already on his third. The taste is unbelievable: salty and umami-rich with a delicate sweetness coming from the white juicy flesh. The smokiness is beautifully balanced and deep. By the time I’m done with my second eel, Smit has finished his sixth.

Smit’s passion and love for smoked eel is immediately and enduringly palpable. Smit said that it’s a taste and an art form that he’ll never tire of. This winter he’ll teach his son, Evert, how to smoke fish. Evert’s two-year-old son is already familiar with the going-ons in the smokehouse, sometimes stopping in to throw some water on the embers. The child isn’t afraid of the fire, perhaps it’s in his blood. Smoking eels is a tradition that Volendammers are proud of; it’s part of their heritage and part of what’s helped to uplift their community. But looking at the dwindling population of European eel, what’s in store for the Smits and what’s the fate of this beautiful Dutch tradition?

There are no gadgets used here, not even a thermometer. The only tools Smit is armed with is a pole, a 50-year-old shovel from his father, a lighter, a bucket of water, and his sharp instincts.

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Smit removes a batch of farmed eels from the smoker.

Testing to see if the eel has been smoked to perfection

The simple tools used during smoking

Lining up the smoked eels

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Preta van Dijk checks on Glassal Volendam’s eels.

SAVING THE FUTURE OF EELS

Under a ten-minute drive from Paviljoen Smit-Bokkum is the crowd-funded Glasaal Volendam, an eel breeding research facility. This isn’t the only one of its kind, but this one in particular received most of its funding from wealthy Volendammers who possess a love and pride for eel, and an unwillingness to see the animal go extinct.

Glasaal Volendam’s research has yet to prove successful, and the stakes are high. The organisation’s Aquaculture Biologist, Petra van Dijk, says that there is a worldwide demand of about 350,000 kg of eel each year and the demand has surpassed the supply for the last 40 years.

If the farming of European eel can be done on a commercial level then eventually its prices will go down and the EU may lift the export ban—and that equates to big money. It might also allow wild eels to flourish, which will not only mean good business for Jan Smit and his descendants, but also present a means for the beautiful and culturally rich tradition of eel smoking to continue for generations to come. In a fast-changing world and in an European climate that’s toeing the line between tradition and change, the cultural impacts of the success of the European eels’ survival are perhaps more than what lies on the surface.

Regardless of how important eels are to Dutch culinary culture, it’s now almost impossible to speak about European eels without digging into sustainability and ethics. There are several government and nongovernmental organisations across the European Union that are working towards making the European eel industry a more sustainable one. But it’s not only for the sake of the environment, there’s also a significant amount of money at stake.

The Sustainable Eel Group, based in London and Brussels, have created a set of sustainability standards that define best practices for fishing, restocking, and traceability. They have also created programs that support conservation, policy change, advocacy, and halt the illegal trafficking of European eel. In the Netherlands, the DUPAN foundation—consisting of the Dutch Association of Eel Traders, the Dutch Association of Fish Farmers, and the Organisation of Professional Fishermen—aims to strengthen the population of eels in the Dutch inland waterways, where over 15,000 barriers are said to cause deaths and obstruct the migration and reproductive cycle of the eel.

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For dinner reservations, kindly email: Reservations.Binchotan@gmail.Com

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SALT SESSIONS

A Nonya Soirée We gathered friends and guests for an intimate evening of drinks, banter, and refined Peranakan cuisine at the beautiful colonial bungalow of Indocafé—the white house.

TEXT WEETS GOH

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eated on the outskirts of the city’s shopping district is a row of refurbished colonial bungalows, each bearing all the hallmarks of a time when their designs were more necessity; raised platforms that once served to circumvent flood waters and wooden blinds that kept its inhabitants cool in the tropical heat now give an old-world charm to these buildings. One of these hosts Peranakan restaurant Indocafé—the white house. Set amid lush verdence in this discreet part of town, the restaurant

PHOTOS LIM MINGLONG

presents itself as one of the few Penang-style Peranakan finedining spots in Singapore. Step inside to be greeted by elegant hardwood flooring and ornate Peranakan motifs around every corner. While presenting all the trimmings of fine-dining, the food still stays true to its Asian roots, albeit with a more refined edge. Signature dishes like their meltingly-tender Wagyu beef

rendang and organic ayam buah keluak are served family-style for sharing, accompained by fluffy steamed rice and a fiery belachan, both mandatory at any Peranakan dining table.

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Otak Klasik Signature Kueh Pie Tee •

MAIN COURSE

Organic Ayam Buah Keluak Wagyu Beef Rendang Kari Kepala Ikan Chap Chye Steamed Rice •

DESSERTS Pulot Hitam Bubur Cha Cha

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1. Elegant tableware for a Peranakan fine dining experience 2. Sharel Tan Ho 3. Wicker-caged lights add to the restaurant’s understated elegance. 4. Burbur Cha Cha with yam, bananas and sweet potato 5. Jean Choi 6. Angelina Xiong 7. Libations for the night include La Tunella Sauvignon Blanc and lemongrass tea.

8. Loh Jiayi and Leong Kaiyan

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• Overheard: “Love the curry fish head (kari kepala ikan)! The gravy had just the right about of spice and lemak, while the fish was super tender and moist.” - Leong Kaiyan •

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16 9. Daniel Sia 10. Organic ayam buah keluak 11. Paul Stocker 12. Kari kepala ikan 13. Jessica Yoon Golden Phoenix 14. A little token from Indocafé 15. Carlos Loh 16. Wagyu beef rendang

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Resident chef Heng Eng Ho draws inspiration from his birthplace, Penang, to present elegantly spiced and authentic Peranakan dishes with a luxurious twist; the beef rendang uses Wagyu while their signature kueh pie tee comes with fresh crabmeat.

To watch a video of the evening’s revelry, visit www.saltmagazine.asia

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SUBSCRIPTION

THREE ETTE TEA C O M PA N Y T E A H A M P E R S WO RT H $ 3 6 0 TO B E WO N W H E N YO U S U B S C R I B E TO S A LT M A G A Z I N E .

ETTE TEA Company is a contemporary tea shop nestled in a quiet stretch of Kreta Ayer. The boutique producer of gourmet tea blends weaves Singaporean and Southeast Asian nuances into an expressive archive of harmonious tea flavours. ETTE TEA blends and fine single-origin teas combine the heritage and tradition of tea with modern and classic design.

In this tea basket you’ll find: 1x Mini Mix - Local Set (Pandan Chiffon 18g, Nasi Lemak 30g & Mango Sticky Rice 30g) 1x Mini Mix - Movie Set (The Moon Represents My Heart 30g, Peach Perfect 30g & Kris Grey 30g) 1x Tea infuser with charms Paris edition

SINGAPORE

MALAYSIA

ASIAN COUNTRIES

OTHER COUNTRIES

□ 1 year (6 issues) - $58 □ 2 years (12 issues) - $108

□ 1 year (6 issues) - $128 □ 2 years (12 issues) - $228

□ 1 year (6 issues) - $148 □ 2 years (12 issues) - $288

□ 1 year (6 issues) - $388

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Please mail your cheque to CL Media Pte Ltd, 26 Sin Ming Lane, #02-118 Mid View City, Singapore 573971. For enquiries, please call +65 6570 0101.

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PANTRY RAID

Simone Heng You might have heard her on local radio station Class 95 FM’s afternoon show, or seen her on reality cooking show Eat List Star, but how well do you really know Simone Heng? We take a peek into the fridge of the always-immaculately-done-up host/ DJ/major foodie in a search for goodies and gossip. Forget skeletons in the closet; we’re going to look in the fridge.

TEXT WEETS GOH PHOTOS LIM MINGLONG ART DIRECTION GAN & BENJAMIN SOH

CHEESE AND SALAMI Although she rarely cooks, Simone regularly has wine and cheese nights with friends—and prepares an Insta-worthy cheese board that she’s christened the “gout board”. Her favourite cheeses include blue cheese and Emmental.

UHT MILK The self-professed workaholic admits that she’s had milk expire on her more than once due to her busy schedule.

The solution? Buy packets of longlasting UHT milk.

EYECREAM/ NAIL POLISH Various cosmetics go into the fridge to extend their shelf life. Heng’s tip: cold eye cream also helps to reduce puffy eyebags.

WINE “If it’s white, then it’s alright.” It should be emphasised that she’s talking about wine here.

SPREADS Breakfast is usually toast with some sort of spread.

PB&J sandwiches are her “hunger busters”, although she sometimes craves vegemite for a savoury twist.

“I always buy chunky peanut butter, in fact I think this one is extra chunky. Do people even eat the smooth ones?”

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Dine Exquisite Chef Armando Aristarco, Chef de Cuisine at LaBrezza, presents a selection of exquisite Ă la carte and degustation offerings, showcasing his unique contemporary take on traditional Italian cuisine.

With a strong focus on simplicity with an element of surprise, we invite you to discover a host of exceptional dining experiences at LaBrezza, the destination dining establishment of The St. Regis Singapore.

Š2017 Marriott International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Preferred Guest, SPG, St. Regis and their logos are the trademarks of Marriott International, Inc., or its affiliates.

29 Tanglin Road t. +65 6506 6888 stregis.com/singapore

For reservations and enquiries, please visit labrezzarestaurant.com or call +65 6506 6884