I’m one of those people who is open to the spiritual or philosophical way of viewing the world we live in – I love meditation and the “squeezing the sponge” feeling you get post-meditation leaving you with clarity, focus and an almost endorphin-like happiness free from anxiety and stress. I’m someone that likes breathing and stretching, believing completely that it can assist in well-being, flexibility and faster recovery from exercise and sports. I also have used traditional chinese medicine, like cupping, acupuncture, and electro-lymphatic therapy to alleviate issues like serratus anterior myofascial pain syndrome (if you are doing Muay Thai boxing, or heavy weights on your chest, you’ll know this one for sure).

So, when I was served the ad on Instagram for the Shakti Mat Black I was intrigued to say the least, as during lockdowns it’s been almost impossible to get to a sports massage therapist to relieve muscle pain. The name of the most popular version of the Shakti Mat, namely The Shakti Mat Black is somewhat deceiving because you immediately believe that this is their top of the line model, as typically the black or premium version is often top tier. However, this colour is just their most popular version. Actually green, black and orange versions all offer the same basic Shakit Mat model.

Being the saddist that I am, I skipped basic and went straight to Shakti Mat Advanced, and that is represented by a single colour, the purple version, which is their definitive advanced model. This one boasts more pain, more spikes, more everything!

I can lie down on the Shakti Mat for about 1-2 hours, and will often fall asleep, though I think 20-30 minutes is the optimal time range to garner relief. Typically I will just lie on my back and have that take care of me, however, sometimes I also will utilise the mat on my feet. To be fair, I haven’t been game to stand on the spikes, I have a phobia about things breaking off and being stuck in my feet (after some nasty incidents in my childhood when I kicked a deck and a huge shard of wood went into my foot), and also recently in the last couple of days I stood on some broken glass in the kitchen (I thought I had gotten all the tiny shards up but not to be) and had to go to the clinic to get a local anaesthetic and a quick scalpel removal of said shard, after it had healed over… note to self — the injection of Local Anaesthetic needle into the foot pad near your toes is excruciating, as it is a highly sensitive area… them actually taking the glass out I couldnt even feel…

So what to expect from the Shakti Advanced:

• The first 2 minutes are the hardest to get through, especially if you are tense and stressed out. Your body is holding that pain in and you are going to feel it in full force for that first 2 minutes — stay focused and just get through it
• The next 15-20 minutes can range from relaxing to a kinda of euphoric bliss, akin to endorphins after exercise, deep tissue massage or intense stretching.
• If you can last for 1 or 2 hours you may find yourself falling asleep…
• Once you remove yourself from the mat, you can get an itching sensation (it can actually be kind of pleasant); I feel this way more on my feet, but I also heavily do reflexology. This is normal as it can be the blood rushing to the punctured areas.

If you are open to relief via pain, and need something to destress yourself during these troubling times, I can highly recommend the Shakit Mat, and if you have a very high pain threshold (if you can handle myofascial ITB pressure release) then opt for the Shakti Mat Advanced Version

The product itself is a fairly simple piece of fabric with 4,140 tines (10 rows of 12 widgets with 18 spikes, alternated by 10 rows of 11 widgets with 18 spikes) whilst inside is some kind of foam block.

To wash: You can simply release the velcro straps and hand wash the fabric and spikes as needed. I personally wouldn’t tumble dry the product it is probably best to air dry.

As an application method, I put a towel down on my bed, put the Shakti Mat on my towel and then lie on the mat; I’ll line up a bunch of youtube videos or podcasts on my laptop, and then lie down on the mat and click go on the podcasts, and just lie there and listen whilst I am letting the mat do its work. You might want to put on some ocean/dolphin sounds, or burn some incense or a candle… do whatever suits you — probably the less digital the better, but i put on the podcasts that I have been putting off, because now I am a captive audience.

NB: All reviews on The Fake Peranakans are 100% DanDan or Dunkle’s own opinions and are not paid for in any way, shape or form. In order to be a good conduit for our audience we’ll only be publishing reviews of things that we recommend – Mum always said, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything”, so whilst there could be dozens of reviews of things we think you should avoid, we just won’t give them a voice on our website. Please don’t ask us to review your product or offer endorsements as we are not interested in being paid to provide positive reviews for products and services.

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DanDan

The Aussie Bogan at The Fake Peranakans

DanDan grew up with Asian dishes as a staple. Primarily the likes of Char Kway Teow, Prawn Laksa and Gula Melaka. With this in mind, his journey from Australia to Singapore seems like destiny!

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Some day the mountain might get ‘em but the law never will…

Whilst journeying for my second time through Cyberpunk as the ineffable V, I was pleasantly surprised to stumble upon this fantastic car the Jen Rowley. The electric orange colour didn’t get me first and it wasn’t until I saw the flag on the roof that the punny car name, Jen Rowley finally made sense.

The General Lee from the classic 80’s TV show The Dukes of Hazzard was Bo and Luke Duke’s 1969 Dodge Charger. The striking vehicle, much like KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand) in Knight Rider, became the primary protagonist of the show. In comparing the Cyberpunk 2077 model to The Dukes of Hazzard model there are some clear similarities and differences.

Similarities: Both cars share the same electric orange paint job, the number 01 along the side of the doors, and a patriotic american flag (though in Cyberpunk 2077’s case it’s a New United States of America flag – or NUSA flag – whereas in The Dukes of Hazzard it is a dixie-inspired flag).

Differences: In the TV show, the iconic car had both doors fused shut, requiring the lead characters to slide in stylishly through the open windows, whenever they were “on the run”, which was basically the premise of every single episode. In the Cyberpunk 2077 game, the car has automated wing style doors. The other key difference in The Dukes of Hazzard TV show is the car’s instantly recognisable novelty dixie horn (in my youth many cars had this novelty horn because of the show; the other variant the infamous spanish la cucaracha horn was also popular). Cyberpunk 2077’s developers have missed an amazing opportunity to include the dixie horn in the game, and instead you are greeted with a standard beefy blast horn noise.

So what exactly is the car like? Is it worth it eddies-wise? How does it handle? All great questions! For mine, the car is simply iconic and brings me back to my youth. It looks fantastic and is a joy to drive, and it brings me real immersion especially when travelling through 6th street gang territory. Cost-wise it is relatively cheap and will only set you back 58,000 eddies which is a lot less than something like the Aerondight which is almost 4x more expensive at 225K. However, that’s just where the fun begins, as much like in the TV show, the developer’s have held true to the handling as this thing fish-tails all over the place. You’ll want to have your in-game or out-of-game phone ready for all the cool burnout shots you are gonna get! (I recommend the wide blue lanes out in Rancho Coronado for maximum blue-black-orange contrast effect).

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DanDan

The Aussie Bogan at The Fake Peranakans

DanDan grew up with Asian dishes as a staple. Primarily the likes of Char Kway Teow, Prawn Laksa and Gula Melaka. With this in mind, his journey from Australia to Singapore seems like destiny!

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The Chinese love their soups. Especially the Cantonese. It is a way of life, something to look forward to when you have had a long day and you are going home to mum’s or grandma’s homemade soup.

It is not just any other soup. A lot of herbs are used in these soups. This has been a tradition, bordering on superstition, that spammed generations. The belief is that the herbs help one’s constitution.

Herbs usually consist of ‘weird’ ingredients, mostly oriental in nature. Their names are too scientific in English: Wolfberry, Angelica, Cordyceps, Ginseng, Panax Notoginseng (Tian Qi) to name just a mere few. These all give the soup a very earthy, almost medicinal taste. And they actually do give a kind of placebo effect, or a mythical effect, to curing our hangovers.

Method

1. First boil the soup, and skim the scum from the top of the boil.

Usually the method or recipe calls for soft bone pork or chicken pieces. I prefer to use a whole chicken. I soak the herbs first, and boil them in plain water. When the contents are boiling, I introduce the whole chicken in.

The first boil removes the impurities from the chicken, and the herbal mixture seeps into the raw chicken creating that intense flavour. There will be a layer of scum formed when the impurities are bring boiled away. They are then removed.

2. Boil the Chinese chicken with the herbs until the chicken breaks down.

The most important technique that I learnt is to let the soup cool off first, before boiling it again. Temperature reduction lets the ingredients set into the liquid, thus they will break further apart when I boil them again. Furthermore, the chicken flavour intensifies when this is done.

3. Allow the chicken soup to cool off, before bringing back to the boil again for the final time.

When restaurants offer their ‘Triple Boiled Soups’, this is what I think they are serving. The soup should look opaque white, and taste like a heavy chicken consommé. It almost tastes like a dish by itself and the meat can be served with soy-sauce on the side. White rice is served as a staple together with this dish.

Recipe

Preparation time: 2-3 hours

Ingredients: (for 8 pax)

1. A packet of Pasar Herbs for Chicken soup (there are various kinds for different ailments/ enhancing effects)
2. 300-500 kg whole chicken or pork (optional)
3. Salt and sugar to taste

Method is as per stage 1, 2 and 3 above.

There you have the Chinese Herbal Chicken Soup! Enjoy!

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Dunkle

Local Singaporean Shifu at The Fake Peranakans

The Dunkle's passion for authentic Asian cooking is derived from a fusion between his years spent in Adelaide, where he was unable to find the South East Asian food of his youth & his Grandma's Rempah recipes growing up in Singapore.

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The Covid-19 Pandemic has caused so much drama. One of them is that McDonald’s had to shut down for 2 weeks. Toddlers and young ones crying over not having their McNuggets, and then crying that they finally had their McNuggets AFTER the reopening of McDonald’s.

I had a huge craving for cheeseburgers! Not anything else. But I was not going to brave the social distancing crowd just for some small cheeseburger that’s over-priced. Yeah, being shut at home I’ve come to realise that most fast food, if not all, are over-priced.

I asked Poofy to make some Brioche Burger Buns. They turned out spectacular! As you can see below. The recipe is in the link above.

From there, everything is easy. All I need is to prepare my meat patties!

Recipe

Preparation time: 15-20 mins

Ingredients (for 4 pax):

• 500g Beef mince
• 500g Pork mince
• Salt to taste
• Pepper

Method

It is easy enough. Just mix both beef and pork mince in a bowl and season to your liking.

Shape your patties into baseball sized balls and slap them around to form palm-sized meat patties. And in they go on a cast iron skillet!

Line your burger! You can top up with some dill pickles if you have some. Or you can ask Poofy how to make them!

There you have it! Our very own Brioche Double Cheeseburger! Nomz!

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Dunkle

Local Singaporean Shifu at The Fake Peranakans

The Dunkle's passion for authentic Asian cooking is derived from a fusion between his years spent in Adelaide, where he was unable to find the South East Asian food of his youth & his Grandma's Rempah recipes growing up in Singapore.

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I. still. hate. twisties!

And now we can add skipping to that list!

I’ve been coming to Inspire Fitness now since September 2019, multiple days per week, to get my Muay Thai fix (and ensure I maintain my rage). Check out my introductory Inspire Fitness review on Yelp.

The classes have undergone a subtle change in the wake of Covid-19 with the Inspire team offering online classes (via Zoom) which can be done at home and are actually quite challenging and fun.

The in-gym classes have also evolved into shorter bursts of activity with more classes available, and different challenges and skills required – the first morning session being a body sculpt type which is cardio and strength, whilst the second session is more like traditional muay thai focusing on technique, footwork and sparring.

Class sizes range from 5-10 pax (5 during this Covid-19 period; 10-ish during normal times) and the circuits provide the opportunity to experience a range of different physical activities:

• Strength and co-ordination via weight and resistance training (including ab exercises, controlled weight lifting, movement like exercises such as the infamous burpee).
• Bag work with a new punch/kick/fake/switch combo on each bag every lesson which allows improvement via repetition of technique.
• Pad work with a 1-on-1 session with the trainer calling out combinations (see image above). These are both challenging and fun, and help improve co-ordination, technique, reflexes and dexterity.

Below the gym floor is a breakout area to prepare, grab a refreshment or use the amenities, or just simply talk cok!

Located on Joo Chiat Road between East Coast Road and Fowlie Road this hidden gym can be tricky to find. When walking down Joo Chiat Road from East Coast Road if you reach Club 36 you’ve gone too far.

So, to make sure you don’t miss the gym, when you reach Hock Sin Hin Bicycle Shop you should see a black vending machine to your right, just past the shop. This belongs to Inspire. To your left is a staircase. Take that to the top and you’ve reached your destination and remember when you feel like giving up, remember why you started!

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DanDan

The Aussie Bogan at The Fake Peranakans

DanDan grew up with Asian dishes as a staple. Primarily the likes of Char Kway Teow, Prawn Laksa and Gula Melaka. With this in mind, his journey from Australia to Singapore seems like destiny!

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Located on the corner of Mountbatten Road and Tanjong Katong Road this large nursery is an absolute gem, hiding in plain sight!

I love coming to this nursery to check out their huge selection of plants. I recently visited during Chinese New Year (農曆新年) and the nursery was blooming, literally, with all manner of greenery – Pussy Willows and Money Trees were abounding as were the lucky Calamondin Orange Trees adorned with Red Ang Bao Envelopes (紅包) – signifying a fruitful and abundant year ahead. (apparently the word “orange” sounds like the word for “luck” in mandarin… who knew?). The orange hue of the fruit is also said to symbolise “gold”, which makes it a very auspicious fruit.

I have also visited the nursery to get some advice on a white bug that had appeared on my Papaya trees (I grew them from the seeds of the fruit myself, and now have only 1 of the initial 6 left – and it is heavily infested with white bug). My application of white oil was incorrect, and the nursery staff corrected me by explaining the best time of day to do it, which parts of the tree/soil need it, and also how my watering may be affecting the performance of the pesticide. Hopefully I can save my final Papaya plant – and a new one that seems to have grown all by itself.

My most recent visit to the nursery was to purchase inter-connectable plastic flooring squares, to provide a foundation for my artificial grass, as well as allowing drainage for the consistent Singapore downpours – as my balcony is large and I do not want to propagate the dreaded Dengue!

The nursery itself is a large space occupying the corner block, surrounded by a sandstone wall. They use shading on plants that can’t handle direct sunlight, and leave the rest out in the elements to soak up the Singapore sun in all its glory.

I haven’t bought a poor plant from here yet, every one has been fine – the Crotons are spectacular. I generally come here for fertilisers as I am growing my own plants & fruit trees (Ginger, Galangal, Papaya, Pineapple). However, I’ve also purchased soils, pesticides, pots and interlocking plastic flooring.

The staff are always friendly and helpful with advice, and will package items for transport. If you have heavier items they’ll load the car/grab/taxi for you, and consult with the driver to ensure it’s all good.

Overall – I just love coming here. I find it uplifting and serene. Haven’t had a reason to try another nursery yet. This one is for me

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DanDan

The Aussie Bogan at The Fake Peranakans

DanDan grew up with Asian dishes as a staple. Primarily the likes of Char Kway Teow, Prawn Laksa and Gula Melaka. With this in mind, his journey from Australia to Singapore seems like destiny!

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Sin Hoi Sai Eating House on East Coast Road (not to be confused with it’s cousin Sin Hoi Sai Seafood Restaurant which is located in Tiong Bahru), is a typical Tze Char 煮炒 style restaurant and is not exactly a “hidden gem”.

However, one of their secret menu items absolutely is a hidden gem. The red wine pork ribs! These are so delectably tender you can cut them with a spoon! They also do not appear on the standard menu’s at Sin Hoi Sai – though they do appear on their banner hanging on the back wall.

These mouth-watering fall-off-the-bone ribs are easily the tastiest and most luxurious thing on the menu (and probably the most expensive) – and they come in 3 sizes – small, medium & large (the video and image both show the large portion of the ribs).

Being a Katong local, living in close proximity to Joo Chiat Road I tend to visit Sin Hoi Sai several times a year – usually when visitors are in town or as a treat because it can be spendy-per-pax when compared to other local fare in the area – especially if you choose the better dishes and larger portion sizes.

Aside from the above stunning ribs dish I’d recommend sticking to what Sin Hoi Sai is known for if you want some additional food to try. The Grilled Baby Kailan, Sambal Stingray & Marmite Chicken are all must tries – and are better washed down with an ice cold long neck of Heineken or Tiger.

You may be tempted to smash up the Guinness Pork Ribs but once you’ve had the red wine variety, these aren’t nearly as spectacular so I’d suggested skipping these.

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DanDan

The Aussie Bogan at The Fake Peranakans

DanDan grew up with Asian dishes as a staple. Primarily the likes of Char Kway Teow, Prawn Laksa and Gula Melaka. With this in mind, his journey from Australia to Singapore seems like destiny!

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WLE! Is damn good laksa lah!

Multiple local people have recommended this Nyonya Peranakan laksa to me, as the best in the East, and after visiting here I can see why. They’ve also told me that the other chain-variety in this area is “over-rated”, “not as good as it was” and the never good to have “oily” – despite the one-and-only Gordon Ramsay spruiking it!

This soup-spoon laksa is souper satisfying all the way to the final slurp! They kindly add the chili down the side, so you can control the spice to your hearts content (I pushed the whole lot in and mixed it up). The 2 times I’ve had this lately were both post training, so I was already dripping before I started eating, so you can imagine what I looked like with the sambal sweats!

There isn’t much else to say except it’s absolutely delicious with thick juicy prawns, slurpy noodles & that amazing creamy coconut broth that defeats chopsticks!

This is an easy 5-out-of-5 stars – 100% recommended, I now do training just so I can come here to eat guilt-free.

P.S. You can get cockles, but I believe you have to ask for them – I usually include them as they add a sweet burst of flavour to your broth, and cut through the richness.

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DanDan

The Aussie Bogan at The Fake Peranakans

DanDan grew up with Asian dishes as a staple. Primarily the likes of Char Kway Teow, Prawn Laksa and Gula Melaka. With this in mind, his journey from Australia to Singapore seems like destiny!

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Introduction: Growing Pineapples

I’ve been living in Singapore for just over 5 years now and growing pineapples for 3 of those years; taking 3 all the way through to harvest (2 from tops one from a slip).

I currently have 7 Golden Pineapples and 2 Honey Pineapples growing with harvests all due later this year or early 2021.

There are two clear methods that are used to grow pineapples – Method 1 involves growing the pineapple plant from the top. Method 2 involves using the smaller slips and suckers that grow from a plant. Whilst the ratoon plants generally grow quicker, they produce much smaller fruit upon harvest.

Method 1: Growing the Pineapple from the Top

Once the top of the pineapple is cut from the fruit, set it to one side and allow it to dry. Remove excess leaves from the base to reveal the roots.

Choose a well-draining soil and fill either a medium-sized or large-sized planter pot and fill almost to the top with the soil. Ensure also that the pot is not enclosed so that water can escape.

Dig a suitably sized hole the matches the base of the pineapple root and plant the top firmly within. Ensure a solid watering through the very top of the pineapple, so that the leaves are holding the water – it will take care of itself at this point.

Place the plant in a sunny spot, where it will capture a good degree of direct sunlight as this helps with the plants growth

Revisit within a couple of days to see if the plant needs water and once again water down the centre as pineapples are bromyliads and will retain water in their central cup.

Method 2: Growing the Pineapple from Slips & Suckers

There’s two options here – you can let the sucker grow from the existing plant roots (if you’ve already harvested the pineapple) or you can harvest the slip or sucker and plant it by itself.

Option 1: Using the Existing Root Base

This is the simplest of the 2 methods as it allows you to basically just use a harvested pineapple plant to grow a sucker that is already attached to the plant roots.

There isn’t much to do here but cut back the leaves of the harvested plant, and give the sucker room to catch sunlight and spread it’s sword leaves to boost growth.

What you need to be careful of is the space in the pot. As sometimes you’ll have the sucker plant pushed out by its growth and it can end up dying if it gets too big and is fully pushed out of the pot.

Eventually the existing plant should die back and allow the new plant growth to envelop it, and continue the circle of life.

Option 2: Harvesting the Ratoon to Grow in a Pot

Firstly you’ll need to harvest a slip or a sucker from an existing pineapple plant. You can simply twist these from the plant, and once again expose the roots by removing the base leaves.

A pineapple slip is a smaller plant that will grow from the base of the fruit stem. Whereas a pineapple sucker (also known as ratoons or pups) is a smaller plant that grows in between the leaves of a growing pineapple or from the base itself.

Because these ratoons are much smaller than a pineapple top, they will in effect grow a much smaller pineapple. As a result I suggest planting them in either a small-sized or medium-sized pot. Whilst it is still quite fun to grow the pups they really do produce a much smaller pineapple than from a top – so they can be disappointing in the end.

The only real upside of growing the slips & suckers is that they tend to grow about 3-months faster than the top, but only when you deploy option 1. So I personally suggest growing from the top, as in method 1.

Pineapple Plant Care: General Growing Tips

Once the plant is established, ensure that it is getting a lot of water, and direct sunlight. The plants thrive in tropical climates, which is why they grow so well in Singapore.

Tip: It is important that the soil is well drained as pineapples do not like soggy soil, despite liking plenty of water – yellow leaves indicate over-watering and can lead to root rot, which could prevent flowering or kill a flowering pineapple.

As the plant grows, you will notice smaller ratoon plantlets growing either from the base of the pineapple fruit (if the pineapple has been produced) or from the base of the plant itself. The first type is known as a slip whilst the second is called a sucker.

Tip: When you see a slip or sucker growing from the plant, before a pineapple is produced, or whilst a pineapple is growing, it is best to remove the slip/sucker with a twist, as they will feed on the plant and absorb some of the nutrients that would otherwise have gone into the pineapple.

Once the pineapple has grown, and is ripening, it is OK to leave any slips and suckers that grow, as once you harvest the pineapple, these ratoon plantlets can grow from the established root base.

Pineapples are known for the vibrant dark-green sword-like leaves they produce. These can expand out from the plant wider than your arm wing-span, so it is important for pineapple plants to have plenty of space and to be planted away from walls and other plants. The leaves also have burrs on them, so if they come into contact with other plant leaves (or human skin) they can injure (both you and the other plants).

Tip: The bigger the pot you plant the pineapple in, and the more sunlight and water it is fed, the bigger the plant will become. Whilst this might not have a direct effect on the size of the pineapple produced, my biggest plant to date produced the largest pineapple by far – it’s bigger than the original whose top it grew from.

The health of the pineapple plant itself can be determined by the vibrancy of the green leaves, they should also be firm and strong. As stated before yellow leaves indicate that you have over-watered or that the soil is not draining as it should.

Tip: If you want to boost growth – It’s good to use a flower/leaves fertiliser mix around once every 2-3 months, around the base of the main plant, and then water in well to ensure absorption into the roots.

As Pineapples belong to the Bromelia family, they are adept at capturing and storing water in the central cup of the plant – The wide wingspan of their leaves ensures they collect a lot of water when it rains. However, I still find it best to ensure that the centre cup has water, in times of consecutive hot sunny days, as this ensures the flower is supple when it produces its crown in the centre cup. I’ve had one pineapple flower die as it grew the plant out side ways, and the cup constantly drained water instead of holding it – and thus dried out and died as a result.

Flowering: Ruby Red & Deep Purple Pineapple Flowers

When the pineapple plant has reached maturity (in 12-15 months) it will produce a flowering crown from the centre of the plant. Over the coming weeks this crown will emerge from the plant transforming into a vibrant purple flower that closely resembles the shape of a pineapple.

As it continues to bloom, the flower becomes a vibrant ruby red or deep purple (or a mixture of both), and begins to form the shell that will become the actual pineapple. It slowly darkens and begins to resemble the tortoise shell colour and shape that pineapples are known for.

From here the pineapple is in growth mode, and will continue to absorb nutrients through the stem of the plant, some gentle fertilising and daily watering is vital for a healthy, large pineapple to grow.

Harvesting: Method to Harvest the Pineapple

When the pineapple begins to gain a golden hue it is ready to remove from the plant. Although it can be cut from the plant using a sharp knife, I’ve found it easiest to use a simple twisting method to release the pineapple from the plant.

By grabbing the pineapple around the middle firmly and twisting in one clear direction, you’ll separate the stem from the base of the pineapple and it will pull clear.

If you’ve harvested early enough, then there will be 1-2 weeks of additional ripening time available OFF the vine. It is important to leave the pineapple on till it reaches the golden hue, and is as close to ripe as possible, because the stem will have been providing the nutrients that make the pineapple sweet this entire time.

Once you’ve decided to use the pineapple it’s best to slice up the entire pineapple, and use within the next couple of days. Be sure to seal and refrigerate any unused fruit. It makes for a tasty sweet treat on a hot day straight from the fridge.

Remember to set aside the top, so you can grow another pineapple!

Post Harvest: Cut Back The Pineapple Plant

Once the pineapple has been harvested from the plant, it won’t produce another pineapple, so it is best to do a hard cut back all of the sword-like leaves – keeping the established root base intact.

If there is already a slip or sucker established this will grow using the existing root-base and will save much growth time as it will tap into the established nutrients and continue to grow.

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DanDan

The Aussie Bogan at The Fake Peranakans

DanDan grew up with Asian dishes as a staple. Primarily the likes of Char Kway Teow, Prawn Laksa and Gula Melaka. With this in mind, his journey from Australia to Singapore seems like destiny!

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Chicken Curry always taste better the day after. The flavours are more intense, the spiciness is less sharp, and somehow it tastes sweeter. And, we more often than not, cook too much curry. Eating it with rice or bread again the next morning seems a little too much, or it is just plain boring.

Following my post on My Elusive Grandma’s Singapore Chicken Curry, I would extrapolate the use, or the prevention of wastage, of leftover chicken curry. Therefore I will introduce my very own ‘Hock Hai’-styled Curry Noodle.

Remember the long queues back at the Hong Lim building for this infamous curry noodle? I’m so surprised that they have since moved to the Bedok Central Hawker Centre from those days. And the queues are still as long. But somehow, I feel that their standards have dropped.

Now they also offer satay bee hoon. It kinda makes me feel that they have lost their spark from their own Hong Lim Building days.

Preparing this noodle with leftover chicken curry is easy enough. You just gotta buy the extra noodles.

Preparation time: 20 mins

Ingredients (for 2 pax):

• Fresh egg noodles
• Fresh white rice vermicelli
• Bean sprouts
• Tau Pok or Tau Kua
• Fish cake slices

Method

The method is simple:

1. Par-boil the noodles and vermicelli together with the bean sprouts. Just slightly as they may get soggy.
2. Drain and leave them in the serving bowl.
3. Add Tau Pok, Tau Kwa and fish cake.
4. Pour in the hot left-over chicken curry.

And there you have it! You can make your very own ‘Hock Hai’ Curry Noodles – The best solution to leftover chicken curry.

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Dunkle

Local Singaporean Shifu at The Fake Peranakans

The Dunkle's passion for authentic Asian cooking is derived from a fusion between his years spent in Adelaide, where he was unable to find the South East Asian food of his youth & his Grandma's Rempah recipes growing up in Singapore.

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