http://tnp.sg/news/story/0,4136,214303,00.html?
FIGHT FOR FOOD RIGHTS
NO SHAME say popular S'pore food stalls
By Hedy Khoo, Zaihan Mohamed Yusof and Crystal Chan
September 20, 2009
CHICKEN RICE
CHICKEN rice is truly Singaporean.
Never mind that its origins are unclear, the Hainanese here declare the dish ours simply because it was Singapore which propelled it to fame.
They say it was the founder of the Swee Kee Chicken Rice Restaurant, which operated from 1947 to 1997, Mr Moh Lee Twee, who made the dish famous.
Former Malaysian Lee Chin Soo, 54, owner of Pow Sing Restaurant, also well-known for its Hainanese chicken rice, said nobody knew about chicken rice until Swee Kee made it famous.
'We didn't have chicken rice in Malaysia back then, or at least not in Johor, where I was from,' he said in Mandarin.
'People from my village who visited Singapore came back saying that if you go to Singapore and didn't eat Swee Kee's famous chicken rice there, it is as good as not having been there.'
Mr Wee Jee Seng, 69, the executive secretary of the Hainanese Kheng Keow Coffee Merchants Restaurant And Bar Owners Association and who used to work at Swee Kee as a cashier in the 1950s, said there were many foreign visitors from neighbouring countries among its patrons.
'There were customers from Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia who came for the chicken rice, as well as many film stars from Hong Kong,' he said.
'Until today, even my friends and relatives from Hong Kong still associate chicken rice with Singapore.
'It is insulting to say we hijacked the dish from them, especially since its origins are Hainanese,' he said.
Mr Wee and Mr Lee agreed it was plausible that the idea of chicken rice was brought over by early Hainanese migrants.
But both pointed out that the dish has evolved and been reinvented such that it has a distinctly Singaporean stamp on it.
'The chicken rice in Hainan is totally different, both in the method of preparation and in taste,' said Mr Wee.
Mr Lee, who has also visited Hainan island, added: 'They don't have the garlic chilli sauce and it is very oily.'
Mr Lee, who migrated here at the age of 14, started working at Swee Kee in 1969.
No secret recipe
'There were already workers who had been working for the boss for 20 years. The shop was well-established.
'The boss did not hide any secret recipe... if you worked there and observed the process, anyone could learn how to prepare chicken rice,' he said.
Mr Lee said he had heard about the Hainanese chicken rice balls in Malacca and has even travelled there to sample that version, but disagrees that chicken rice is a Malaysian dish.
'I heard about Malaysia having chicken rice only about 10 years ago.
'How can they be the pioneers? SweeKee was around long before even television was invented,' he said.
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LAKSA
LAKSA a Malaysian dish?
Incredible.
That's how three popular laksa sellers and two food consultants reacted to the Malaysian government's plan to claim the dish as their own.
Local food consultant K F Seetoh said local laksa originated in the Peranakan area of Katong, hence the name KatongLaksa.
Mr Seetoh said laksa was first sold in Singapore by Mr Ng Juat Swee, who was known as Janggut (Malay for 'the bearded one').
He added that Mr Ng, who died in 1986, used to hawk laksa in Katong in the 1950s, carrying the dish in metal buckets balanced on his shoulder.
In 1963, Mr Ng and his younger brother, Chwee Seng, opened the stall at 49 East Coast Road and called it Marine Parade Laksa.
When the landlady, Mrs May Teo, 51, wanted to increase the rent, the Ngs moved to 57 East Coast Road, in 1998.
Today, the Ngs operate outlets in Bedok North Street 2, Roxy Square and Queensway Shopping Centre.
Madam Huang Xiaofeng, 52, Mr Ng's niece, said: 'Before my uncle started selling laksa, the dish was prepared by nonyas at home.
'My uncle had the recipe as my family also lived in Katong.'
Mr Nelson Li, a Peranakan culinary expert, said laksa is a local dish, created in colonial days by the Straits Chinese here.
He said: 'There are Malaysian versions of laksa, but these are noodle dishes cooked in curry or assam gravy.'
Of the Malaysian claim, Mr Li said: 'Anyone can make claims. It's up to people to believe them.
'(What you think of) food is subjective, but the basic ingredients must be there.'
Mr Li added that laksa originally consisted of rich coconut gravy, laksa leaves and fish cakes.
New versions
Over the years and with growing affluence, the different Chinese dialect groups here created their own versions of the spicy noodle dish.
Said Mrs Nancy Lim, 45, owner of 328Laksa at 51 and 53 East Coast Road: 'The Hokkiens included cockles and hard-boiled eggs and some Peranakans threw in prawns.'
Although Katong is rich in Peranakan heritage, Katong Laksa is served differently.
The Katong Laksa stalls serve the dish with the noodles cut into small pieces.
Mrs Lim said: 'Originally, laksa was meant to be eaten with chopsticks, but we decided to cut the noodles into small pieces so the gravy wouldn't splatter onto customers' clothes.
'Doing so also means you eat with just a spoon and you can eat the noodles with the gravy.'
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BAK KUT TEH
BAK kut teh a Malaysian invention?
Not quite.
They have their own, we have ours. The taste is different, the recipes are different. So why say we stole theirs?
That's the view of Mr Ng Siak Hai, 73, who runs the famous Ng Ah Sio Pork Ribs Soup Eating House on Rangoon Road. He finds it ridiculous that Malaysia wants to stake a claim on the pork rib soup.
Mr Ng's restaurant made headlines last year when he refused to open on a Sunday for Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang who was on a visit here.
'How can they say we copied their bak kut teh? There are at least three versions of bak kut teh here and even more in Malaysia, ' he said in Mandarin.
'If anybody can claim to have invented bak kut teh, it is the Hokkien migrants.'
Not from China
Mr Ng said bak kut teh did not originate in China either.
'I don't know if the Hokkiens who first made bak kut teh were those in Singapore or Malaysia, but Malaysia shouldn't make such sweeping statements and claim so many dishes as being theirs.'
Mr Ng said Hokkien bak kut teh soup has a very dark hue which comes from the medicinal herbs used in the recipe.
The tradition of eating bak kut teh in Singapore started with the Chinese who worked as coolies by the dock.
Bak kut teh in Hokkien is literally translated as pork rib tea.
'The coolies worked very hard and they started their day by having meat and rice to have energy. The meal came with free Chinese tea, therefore the word 'teh' in bak kut teh,' explained Mr Ng.
He said some foreign patrons who came to his shop are sometimes confused about the Chinese tea served on the side.
'Some of them, including those from China, pour the tea into the bak kut teh soup,' he said with a laugh.
'In the old days, the bak kut teh seller would boil a whole rack of ribs and leave it by the side. He would only chop it up into individual ribs when customers ordered.
'The ribs were reheated in the soup before being served with rice on the side.'
Mr Ng said his recipe was from his father who had learnt it from a Singaporean chef. His father had been selling bak kut teh since the 1950s.
He explained that his Teochew bak kut teh soup is lighter in taste and colour.
'I am very sure the bak kut teh recipe I use is Singaporean because I have been to Swatow and even the Fujian province in China and they do not have bak kut teh there,' said Mr Ng.
He pointed out that one common characteristic of any version of Singapore's bak kut teh is the strong taste of pepper.
'Malaysian bak kut teh uses much less pepper and is generally known for its strong medicinal taste, dark colour and it is usually served in a claypot,' he said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FIGHT FOR FOOD RIGHTS
NO SHAME say popular S'pore food stalls
By Hedy Khoo, Zaihan Mohamed Yusof and Crystal Chan
September 20, 2009
CHICKEN RICE
CHICKEN rice is truly Singaporean.
Never mind that its origins are unclear, the Hainanese here declare the dish ours simply because it was Singapore which propelled it to fame.
They say it was the founder of the Swee Kee Chicken Rice Restaurant, which operated from 1947 to 1997, Mr Moh Lee Twee, who made the dish famous.
Former Malaysian Lee Chin Soo, 54, owner of Pow Sing Restaurant, also well-known for its Hainanese chicken rice, said nobody knew about chicken rice until Swee Kee made it famous.
'We didn't have chicken rice in Malaysia back then, or at least not in Johor, where I was from,' he said in Mandarin.
'People from my village who visited Singapore came back saying that if you go to Singapore and didn't eat Swee Kee's famous chicken rice there, it is as good as not having been there.'
Mr Wee Jee Seng, 69, the executive secretary of the Hainanese Kheng Keow Coffee Merchants Restaurant And Bar Owners Association and who used to work at Swee Kee as a cashier in the 1950s, said there were many foreign visitors from neighbouring countries among its patrons.
'There were customers from Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia who came for the chicken rice, as well as many film stars from Hong Kong,' he said.
'Until today, even my friends and relatives from Hong Kong still associate chicken rice with Singapore.
'It is insulting to say we hijacked the dish from them, especially since its origins are Hainanese,' he said.
Mr Wee and Mr Lee agreed it was plausible that the idea of chicken rice was brought over by early Hainanese migrants.
But both pointed out that the dish has evolved and been reinvented such that it has a distinctly Singaporean stamp on it.
'The chicken rice in Hainan is totally different, both in the method of preparation and in taste,' said Mr Wee.
Mr Lee, who has also visited Hainan island, added: 'They don't have the garlic chilli sauce and it is very oily.'
Mr Lee, who migrated here at the age of 14, started working at Swee Kee in 1969.
No secret recipe
'There were already workers who had been working for the boss for 20 years. The shop was well-established.
'The boss did not hide any secret recipe... if you worked there and observed the process, anyone could learn how to prepare chicken rice,' he said.
Mr Lee said he had heard about the Hainanese chicken rice balls in Malacca and has even travelled there to sample that version, but disagrees that chicken rice is a Malaysian dish.
'I heard about Malaysia having chicken rice only about 10 years ago.
'How can they be the pioneers? SweeKee was around long before even television was invented,' he said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LAKSA
LAKSA a Malaysian dish?
Incredible.
That's how three popular laksa sellers and two food consultants reacted to the Malaysian government's plan to claim the dish as their own.
Local food consultant K F Seetoh said local laksa originated in the Peranakan area of Katong, hence the name KatongLaksa.
Mr Seetoh said laksa was first sold in Singapore by Mr Ng Juat Swee, who was known as Janggut (Malay for 'the bearded one').
He added that Mr Ng, who died in 1986, used to hawk laksa in Katong in the 1950s, carrying the dish in metal buckets balanced on his shoulder.
In 1963, Mr Ng and his younger brother, Chwee Seng, opened the stall at 49 East Coast Road and called it Marine Parade Laksa.
When the landlady, Mrs May Teo, 51, wanted to increase the rent, the Ngs moved to 57 East Coast Road, in 1998.
Today, the Ngs operate outlets in Bedok North Street 2, Roxy Square and Queensway Shopping Centre.
Madam Huang Xiaofeng, 52, Mr Ng's niece, said: 'Before my uncle started selling laksa, the dish was prepared by nonyas at home.
'My uncle had the recipe as my family also lived in Katong.'
Mr Nelson Li, a Peranakan culinary expert, said laksa is a local dish, created in colonial days by the Straits Chinese here.
He said: 'There are Malaysian versions of laksa, but these are noodle dishes cooked in curry or assam gravy.'
Of the Malaysian claim, Mr Li said: 'Anyone can make claims. It's up to people to believe them.
'(What you think of) food is subjective, but the basic ingredients must be there.'
Mr Li added that laksa originally consisted of rich coconut gravy, laksa leaves and fish cakes.
New versions
Over the years and with growing affluence, the different Chinese dialect groups here created their own versions of the spicy noodle dish.
Said Mrs Nancy Lim, 45, owner of 328Laksa at 51 and 53 East Coast Road: 'The Hokkiens included cockles and hard-boiled eggs and some Peranakans threw in prawns.'
Although Katong is rich in Peranakan heritage, Katong Laksa is served differently.
The Katong Laksa stalls serve the dish with the noodles cut into small pieces.
Mrs Lim said: 'Originally, laksa was meant to be eaten with chopsticks, but we decided to cut the noodles into small pieces so the gravy wouldn't splatter onto customers' clothes.
'Doing so also means you eat with just a spoon and you can eat the noodles with the gravy.'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BAK KUT TEH
BAK kut teh a Malaysian invention?
Not quite.
They have their own, we have ours. The taste is different, the recipes are different. So why say we stole theirs?
That's the view of Mr Ng Siak Hai, 73, who runs the famous Ng Ah Sio Pork Ribs Soup Eating House on Rangoon Road. He finds it ridiculous that Malaysia wants to stake a claim on the pork rib soup.
Mr Ng's restaurant made headlines last year when he refused to open on a Sunday for Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang who was on a visit here.
'How can they say we copied their bak kut teh? There are at least three versions of bak kut teh here and even more in Malaysia, ' he said in Mandarin.
'If anybody can claim to have invented bak kut teh, it is the Hokkien migrants.'
Not from China
Mr Ng said bak kut teh did not originate in China either.
'I don't know if the Hokkiens who first made bak kut teh were those in Singapore or Malaysia, but Malaysia shouldn't make such sweeping statements and claim so many dishes as being theirs.'
Mr Ng said Hokkien bak kut teh soup has a very dark hue which comes from the medicinal herbs used in the recipe.
The tradition of eating bak kut teh in Singapore started with the Chinese who worked as coolies by the dock.
Bak kut teh in Hokkien is literally translated as pork rib tea.
'The coolies worked very hard and they started their day by having meat and rice to have energy. The meal came with free Chinese tea, therefore the word 'teh' in bak kut teh,' explained Mr Ng.
He said some foreign patrons who came to his shop are sometimes confused about the Chinese tea served on the side.
'Some of them, including those from China, pour the tea into the bak kut teh soup,' he said with a laugh.
'In the old days, the bak kut teh seller would boil a whole rack of ribs and leave it by the side. He would only chop it up into individual ribs when customers ordered.
'The ribs were reheated in the soup before being served with rice on the side.'
Mr Ng said his recipe was from his father who had learnt it from a Singaporean chef. His father had been selling bak kut teh since the 1950s.
He explained that his Teochew bak kut teh soup is lighter in taste and colour.
'I am very sure the bak kut teh recipe I use is Singaporean because I have been to Swatow and even the Fujian province in China and they do not have bak kut teh there,' said Mr Ng.
He pointed out that one common characteristic of any version of Singapore's bak kut teh is the strong taste of pepper.
'Malaysian bak kut teh uses much less pepper and is generally known for its strong medicinal taste, dark colour and it is usually served in a claypot,' he said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
