Peranakan Comfort Food at House of Peranakan Petit: Review
PUBLISHED July 15th, 2015 03:11 am | UPDATED May 17th, 2017 06:22 pm
Hidden amidst the swathe of cafes and western-styled eateries in Tiong Bahru is House of Peranakan Petit, a four-month old restaurant (owned by a Peranakan family, of course) that offers home-styled Peranakan comfort food in quaint surroundings.
Stepping inside the shop-house turned restaurant, one finds oneself transported to a different place. The ornate mirrors and vases, set against the pastels of the Peranakan colour palette are a large part of the ambience that House of Peranakan Petit offers its customers. Later, I learnt that the restaurant displays artworks of budding Peranakan artists who use art as a means to preserve and make accessible Peranakan culture and history.
Spread of food at House of Peranakan Petit
I had the restaurant’s speciality, Otak Otak ($12), to start. Cooked in an earthenware pot, one serving was more than enough for a single diner but the rich texture of mackerel fish baked with a slew of spices (apparently more than 20 ingredients!) kept my tastebuds busy and I quickly polished off the portion.
Star billing must go to the mains – the melt-in-your-mouth Babi Assam ($16) was my favourite dish of the evening. Every bite of this pork belly stewed in a chili paste of bean paste and belintung (star fruit, which is procured from the restaurant’s own shrub) was an explosion of flavours in my mouth – a delightfully well-balanced explosion of sweet, sour, and spicy. As this is (probably) the only Peranakan restaurant in Singapore that serves this dish, I guess I’ll just have to keep coming back for more. Next time, I’ll order two bowls of rice just so I can finish all the sauce.
House of Peranakan Petit’s Otak Otak
The Peranakan inspired Scallop Lemak ($28) was a good addition to the normally overly meaty options. The sauce, which smelled of coconut, lemongrass, curry and more, was smooth and flavourful but not too overpowering so that I could still taste the freshness and juicy texture of the scallops. Even the normally benign Long Beans Sambal ($12) was jazzed up with prawns. While I thought the long beans could have been a tad crunchier – which is how I like my beans done – I have no complaints about the freshness of the accompanying prawns and the special ‘titek’ sambal.
House of Peranakan Petit’s Scallop Lemak
To end off the evening, Peranakan favourites such as chendol and sago were available, albeit with a twist. The Durian Chendol ($8.50), dressed with fresh durian puree, is paired with coconut ice cream as a substitute for drizzling santan on the chendol. The effect of the ice cream – inevitably – melting into the homemade chendol strips, red beans, atap chee, and gula melaka makes for a rich soup-pudding of delicious sweetness. The Gula Melaka Sago Pudding ($6.50) was similarly was paired with coconut ice cream, but I’m particularly appreciative of the gula melaka being served separately so that one could add as much – or little – as one wished.
The menu offers more beyond these dishes. I couldn’t help but overhearing the patrons at the next table oohing and aahing over their fish head curry. When I took a peek, the curry did indeed look and smell good. When an older lady (who clearly knows her fish head curries) says repeatedly to her husband that this is ‘the best fish head curry’ she has eaten and continually spoons curry onto her dwindling pile of rice, there’s no telling how soon I will be back for seconds.
Read more at Violet Oon Singapore Continues to Shine: Restaurant Review and 8 Amazing Places in Singapore for Peranakan Food
