Recipes

Use beef shank. Its connective tissue melts into gelatine over a three to four hour braise, so the meat falls apart while the rendang dries down.

Blend lemongrass, turmeric, garlic and fish sauce into a paste, give the drumsticks four hours, then finish on the grill, in the oven or in the air fryer.

Pound the chop thin, coat it in crushed cream crackers, shallow fry, then pour over a brown onion gravy, exactly like the western food stall does.

Cook squid fast or slow, never in between: blanch the sotong forty seconds, cook the sambal until the oil splits, then toss them together for one minute.

Marinate mid joints in fermented prawn sauce overnight, mix in egg and starch, then fry twice: once to cook through, once hot for the zi char crunch.

Fry old ginger in sesame oil, add sweet black vinegar and blanched pork hock, then braise about two hours until the skin wobbles and the sauce turns glossy.

Fry batang bones hard and add boiling water for the milky broth, slip the thawed slices in at the end, and treat evaporated milk as a finish.

Teochew bak kut teh is blanched meaty spareribs simmered gently with whole garlic and crushed white pepper for about an hour, giving a clear soup that bites.