-Grandma, Mom, and the aunts,
they come down and eat
at the restaurant.
They are more scary
than the Michelin inspectors.
-[ Laughs ]
-It's true,
because they really
critique every single thing,
and sometimes the Michelin
inspectors cannot catch that,
but they are -- they are
the real experts about food.
♪♪
Hi, My name is Malcolm Lee,
and I'm the chef and owner
here at Candlenut restaurant
in Singapore.
♪♪
What we do here
is Peranakan cuisine
with a traditional
but younger approach.
♪♪
Peranakan cuisine is,
in essence, really,
a colorful fusion of Malay
and Chinese ingredients,
flavors, culture,
and so many things
that makes it very, very unique.
♪♪
We are much more family style.
We kind of work together
rather than just a top-down
approach kind of restaurant.
Oh, see?
This is what my kids do to me.
That's how much they love me.
Growing up wanting to be a chef.
You know, I wanted to do
the cool stuff, right?
The whole fine-dining
and the French
and modern type of cuisine,
and that's where I went,
but I think, as I grew up,
then I started to realize that,
hey, I still love
my rice and curry.
I think that's what really
started to divert me backwards,
to embrace my culture,
the food that I have,
and learning it.
And I went on a journey,
and then, the restaurant
happened with my mom.
It was a very interesting
kind of working relationship,
you know?
So, kind of I was running
the show
and, like, telling mom
what to do,
and like,
"Okay, I need this now.
Can we do this?
You know, we need to file this."
And Mom will follow,
but there will be sometimes
that she would be like,
"Hey, don't tell me what to do.
I'm your mother."
-[ Laughs ]
Yeah, that's right.
-Since young, going back
to Popo's house every day,
you know, Chinese New Year,
eating all the food.
-Yeah.
-I've translated it to something
so new and modern now.
-Yeah. So, we're happy.
-Mm-hmm.
-The one ingredient that is
super unique to our cuisine,
it's buah keluak,
which is a poisonous black nut.
The signature dish
is buah keluak,
which is chicken with
a black nut kind of curry.
And you need to just taste
this one dish,
and you can pretty much evaluate
the person's repertoire
of Peranakan food, really.
Of course, I taste it.
I cook many, many versions,
and I tell you,
my aunt's version
is the best I've tasted so far.
She cooks it with this pork
but soft bone.
Always look forward to it.
It's -- Oh.
It's really, really,
very, very good.
-I know he loves
my pork buah keluak,
'cause each time I have it
for the Chinese New Year,
and I can see him eating away.
-So, here, we are in the kitchen
of my aunt's house,
and why we are here is because
want to let my aunt show us
a little bit of tips and tricks,
how to cook this dish.
'Cause I still can't cook
the same flavor like yours,
so I need to learn.
-So, when I cooked it,
think of all the people
who will be eating this,
and so, therefore,
I suppose that's the secret.
♪♪
-So, we have to prep a spice
paste, curry paste,
also known as the rempah,
which is really the soul
of any Peranakan dish.
Takes so much time, but
without it, it just falls flat.
And here, we have
the basic ingredients.
Of course, it wouldn't be
a buah keluak dish
without the buah keluak itself.
It's actually poisonous.
And then, they have to boil
and ferment it.
-When you bring home the nut,
it is covered in ash
and is very dusty,
so we need to soak it in water,
rid it of all the dust.
And then,
after the water runs clear,
and that's when we start
to prepare the nuts.
-This is from Indonesia,
so they have already done
the tedious process for us,
and we have a safe-to-eat
black nut over here.
Then you will show me later
what you do,
how to get more flavor.
Maybe I'm doing something wrong.
It cannot become like yours.
So today,
I'm determined to learn,
make sure that it's right.
Grandma, Mom, the aunts,
they come down
and eat at the restaurant.
They are more scary
than the Michelin inspectors.
It's true, because they really
critique every single thing,
and sometimes the Michelin
inspectors cannot catch that,
but they are -- they are
the real experts about food.
-Right.
-Okay, let's go.
So, here we have
a mortar and pestle
that we are going
to pound, right?
-Yes.
-So I'm gonna start to prep.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
Okay.
So now we have a paste here.
You have to pass me here.
Will it pass or not?
-Okay.
Another -- Another few rounds.
-Okay, a few rounds.
-Then it'll be better.
-See? It's so hard to pass
a Peranakan standard.
The trick is to try and find
all the big pieces of, like...
-Right.
-...maybe garlic or shallot.
♪♪
Now the spice paste
is nice and fine.
We have one more
very tedious step to go.
It's not the end yet, right?
-It's not the end yet.
-The buah keluak nut.
-Right.
-Yeah, okay.
Why don't you show me the secret
of, like, making this?
-So, what you do is,
you crack the nut,
and I always use a hammer.
-Mm.
-So, I rest an angle...
-Okay.
-...right on the board,
and I just tap,
tap until they pop.
-Hmm. There you go.
-Hmm.
Can't wait to have it cooked.
-So, we're gonna take out
all the filling.
-Yes, all the --
-Yeah, transfer it.
Look at that.
This is really one of the best
things on Earth, man.
Mmm.
So, we have the rempah.
The spice paste for the buah
keluak, and we're done.
We start cooking
after all the pounding.
-The best part, really.
-Right.
We'll heat the oil first.
I think the trick
is to have enough oil,
and the oil must be hot.
-Hot, okay.
-And boiling right
before you put your rempah in.
-Okay.
♪♪
-Now, you're going to put
the spice paste in...
-Yes, okay.
-...over the heat.
-Okay.
[ Wok sizzles ]
-Stir this now.
-Whoa, that's intense, man.
This is the secret right here.
[ Laughs ]
♪♪
Okay, so,
now it's already fragrant.
-Yes.
-Okay, okay, okay.
So, pork goes in now.
-Right.
-Smells so delicious.
-Wow.
-The smell.
-Look at that.
-Some buah keluak paste.
-Buah keluak, okay.
All right, let's go.
-You're going to put in lots.
-More?
-More.
-Okay, I love more.
-More. More. More.
-More? Okay. Alright.
Let's go.
♪♪
Oh, the smell coming is crazy.
I wish you all can smell this,
but it's really -- yeah.
[ Laughter ]
So, add some water in?
-Yes.
All.
-All?
-Yeah, all.
♪♪
-Don't you want to, like,
maybe add some aromatics?
Lemongrass?
-Yes, you can add
Lemongrass
and the kaffir lime leaves.
-Be like how many?
-Three.
-Three? Okay.
-Now you can
smell the fragrance.
-Oh.
♪♪
-So, what have you learned?
-Oh, I've learned
how you fry the paste.
I've never actually
done it this way.
-How do you do it?
-We actually do it slightly
slower, but this is the quick,
almost like a deep-frying
of the curry paste.
-Okay.
So, let it simmer.
-And we're just gonna wait for,
I think, an hour.
It seems like an eternity
for this to be done,
but I'm sure it's gonna
be really, really good.
-Nice.
-Mmm.
♪♪
-Good.
-Good.
-Good.
Fast, excellent.
-Wow, very good.
-Yeah.
-I think this bowl
is not enough.
-[ Laughs ]
-Not enough at all.
-See?
I'm helping myself to more.
[ Laughs ]
-Best food on Earth.
Peranakan food.
-Yeah.
-This moment where you eat
something so delicious
and you don't know
what to do with your life.
You just sit here, amazed.
-Yeah.
-Ahh.
♪♪
You know, sometimes food is
not just about the dish itself.
It's about the story
that it brings along,
and through that, you bring
forward the memories, as well.
And then you pass it on
to different people,
and it just means a lot
when you have that dish.
So that's what I learned.
I'm very, very happy to eat
this kind of food.
♪♪
♪♪
