I got my start in a little 9sqm stall at Maxwell Food Centre selling Nasi Lemak – Madam Tan’s Nasi Lemak. The learning curve was so steep, I often joke that it was practically a vertical line! 

It was then that I learned how to cook commercially – where to buy 50kg sacks of rice, tins of cooking oil and how to lift a boiling hot steamer full of nasi lemak rice to replenish with water.

This dinner pays homage to the amazing food that has its roots in hawker dishes, including my twice steamed Nasi Lemak…..also these are the dishes that I love to eat and to which I have put a little mod sin spin.

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Ba kut teh EXTRA
Slow roasted kurobuta pork ribs cooked with the best of kampot peppers, with a secret ingredient (guess!) that gives this Singaporean hawker dish a surprising flavour twist

Carrot cake 
The quintessential hawker staple is hand made and given a little cantonese twist with inclusion of yun cheong (goose liver sausage), lup cheong, fresh scallops and prawns with freshly grated and poached daikon radish. This Ownselfmake carrot cake is then pan fried with eggs, chye por and drizzled with dark caramel sauce from Nanyang Sauce. The white version is fried with vietnamese phu quoc premium fish sauce and eggs, chye por. Both served with my Ownselfmake zingy zesty sambal belachan.

Tau kwa pau
Firm tofu stuffed with braise duck, prawn fritters, tofu, drizzled with a soy master stock and served with a zingy garlic chilli sauce

Fish soup with tofu and greens
Super fresh sliced barramundi from Ah Hua kelong poached in a collagen rich fish broth made with fresh fish bones, hand made tofu, and greens   

Beef Noodles  
Rich spiced beef broth made with beef shin, roasted carrots, ginger and onions, spiced with cloves, cinnamon and star anise. Served with Handpicked Ramen Noodles, grilled wagyu short rib and A3 wagyu

Roast Me NOW! Char Siew, Siew Yoke
Kurobuta pork neck marinated in Ownselfmake char siew sauce, roastedKurobuta pork belly with Ownselfmake 5 spice powder with puffy crispy crackling

Ba Chor Mee
Singapore’s famous noodle dish and my favourite hawker food. My humble rendition of it, served with minced pork, sliced pork confit in a chilli vinegar and lard sauce. Topped with crispy lardons and fried shallots

Madam Tan’s Nasi Lemak
The dish I started my cooking career with at Maxwell Food Centre in 2009, twice steamed Nasi Lemak, fried chicken wing, omelette, coffee sambal, lard sambal and sambal belachan

Ham Jim Pang
Red Bean Doughnut, coconut ice cream, gula melaka butterscotch