Teochew style lunch!

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Today, I had the most bountiful lunch that is served in Teochew style. It’s a Chinese cuisine where most of the dishes have a lighter flavour and the preparation each dish is either steaming, poaching, and braising. I would say that it’s a healthier option in such a way that there is very little oil has been used to cooked each dish.

For this meal, I had it at the Long Teochew Mui - one of the stalls at a local food center in Tampines (Singapore). The place is an open area where it host a different variety of food stalls that are sharing a common dining space. This kind of places are locally known as Kopitiam or Hawker’s center which I have also mentioned in my previous tasteem posts.

Now, for my lunch I had a variety of pork and vegetable dishes in smaller quantities. It’s for a simple reason that I wanted to have more of every dishes that I like.

On the table are…

Braised pork belly

Sauteed pork meat

Steamed egg with minced pork

Steamed pumpkin

Sauteed eggplant in dark sauce

Obviously, the star for this set is the braised pork belly which is perfectly cooked as it maintains the tenderness of the meat and its fat. It has a subtle soy sauce flavour and a hint of herb flavour.

For this kind of meal, I usually have a dipping sauce which is made of light soy sauce with lime juice on it. It is for a simple reason that it adds extra flavour to every mouthful of the dishes.

If you have noticed, my rice is “soupy” - it’s locally known as a “porridge rice”. Although it looks like a watery version of a steamed rice, it’s actually much softer than the regular rice. Since most of the teochew dishes are dry, I prefered my rice to be the porridge type which I find to be a good pair with the dishes as well.

Among all of the vegetable dishes, I liked the sauteed eggplant since it’s the one that has the most flavor. It was cooked well and perfectly soft without getting too mushy. The dark went really well with the blandness of an unseasoned eggplant.

Another dish that I also find to be soothing is the steamed pumpkin, which is a bit mushy. I still find it ok though. They also poured a thick sauce to it with dried anchovies flavor which I think really complements its lack of flavour.

Before I end this post, let me share you some photos showing the place and the other dishes that are being offered by this food stall in Teochew style.