JENCOOKS: BABA KING NONYA DELI

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

BABA KING NONYA DELI

I have missed Baba King Peranakan fares since our church moved out of Singapore Expo beginning of this year. We used to lunch at Baba King right after church and my favourite is the Chicken Buah Keluak whilst Jencooker's favourite is XO Bubur Hitam. Philip always comes by to chat with his diners and we get to hear stories from him. We can easily banter with him while we tucked in our food and he will reveal secrets of his Peranakan food to you.

Once he dished out a concentrated Buah Keluak paste, offering a small portion just to try what they have for their family and not on the menu. I was enthralled to try it and it was definitely a powerful secret receipe.

Last Sunday we met by chance again at Peranakan Musuem when I was passing by. Again he treats you like a friend and reveals secret that he should not have done so in a corporate world. He is about to ink a big investment deal with a bigwig company and I was certainly happy that this was a bright spot over what I learned from him earlier that he actually closed the Expo Shop outside Hall 3 when both mega churches moved out. The masses were present then and when it was gone so did his business there. But I was to learn that this guy has much on his cards and he was never stopping at what he has achieved. He now went on to expand his restaurant at Changi Business Park and business is good.

There at Peranakan Musuem, he manned a food stall for the weekend occasion and it was my first encounter with rice that comes in turquoise blue and pink colour, so sweet, so colourful and so unlike plain white rice that you had all your life. I love food creativity and wonder if he offers this at his restaurant too but I did not ask. I was too eager to get two servings to bring back home and enjoy.

Basically the blue tinge come from bunga telang a type of flower which gives a natural dye whilst the pink tinge I was told comes from edible rose. The hue of colour lends excitement to the Perankan food.

For a steal, each bowl was just $5.00 and I wished I could have got more on hindsight. I could have this for dinners for days. The serving comes with very nice CHAP CHYE, CHICKEN BUAH KELUAK and a slice of thick CHINCALOK (small schrimps) EGG and with BELACHAN CHILLI and in the comfort of my home, I relished the dish.