Restaurant Review: Godmama Is A Testament To Peranakan Fare At Funan Mall, Singapore
PUBLISHED August 6th, 2019 06:00 am
We’ve eaten at some eight Peranakan restaurants in Singapore, which basically equates to eight different versions of popiah. Replace “popiah” with any traditional Nyonya dish, and it’s the same thing. And that’s we love about Peranakan cuisine — there are hundreds of different heirloom recipes that’s been passed down from matriarch to matriarch, and no two are exactly the same.
At Godmama, their version features a crepe wrap made with egg, then filled with small tiger prawns, crispy garlic bits, beansprouts, and caramelised, still-crunchy jicama. The jicama is stewed with fermented soybean paste for over four hours, so you can imagine how good it tastes. With their sweet garlicky chilli sauce? It’s even better.
The cosy restaurant, housed on the third floor of the newly-renovated Funan Mall, is the brainchild of three Peranakan co-owners: Christina Keilthy, Derrick Chew, and Fredric Goh. The latter is also the head chef at Godmama, where he’s returning to his roots after cooking at the likes of Forlino, inITALY and The Lokal.
While some of the recipes here are his, most come from Christina’s godmother and mother — hence the name. Things to start with include the aforementioned All Star Egg Skin Popiah (S$6.50) and Ngoh Hiang (S$11.90), a generous marriage of fresh prawns, oily minced meat, and water chestnut that’s seasoned with aromatic five spice. The filling is wrapped in beancurd sheet and fried, and the result is a crisp and robust umami roll.
Having said that, you should also start with Godmama’s Peranakan-inspired cocktails. The Peranakan Blue (S$22) is a pretty gin tonic blending the herbaceous and spicy Butterfly Pea Gin with East Imperial’s Yuzu Tonic, settling into a beautiful zesty finish. The Old Fashioned-inspired Emperor of Melaka (S$22) is better suited to pair with mains or dessert: think 5 Year Reserve Barbados stirred down with gula melaka, bitters, and smoked cinnamon. Did we mention they’re both created by Ronan Keilthy, the 2018 winner of The Bar Awards Singapore Rising Star award? Oh, he’s also Christina’s son.
If you like pork belly — and why wouldn’t you? — order the Babi Assam (S$18.90). The recipe is Fredric’s, who simmers the fatty pork in a spicy and tangy tamarind stew, before adding tau kwa (firm tofu) into the mix for better mouthfeel. It’s also available for S$13.90 as part of the executive lunch set menu alongside side dishes like Chap Chye (S$13.90 a la carte), a mixed vegetable stew with bean curd skin, vermicelli, black fungus, and mushrooms stewed in a heady prawn bisque that takes hours to make.
More classics include Ayam Buah Keluak (S$19.90 for dinner, S$15.90 for lunch set), the Nyonya stew that’s bitter, spicy, and tangy all at once with two chicken thighs. The buah keluak itself is rich and earthy, like good dark chocolate you find in speciality sweet shops, and you dig in with a teaspoon to savour it with chicken and blue pea flower-dyed rice.
Then, succulent tiger prawns are slicked with deep red sambal sauce in Sambal Udang (S$23.90, S$17.90 for lunch set). The prawns are already peeled for you, but they leave the heads so you can a satisfying slurp. The sauce is not overly spicy, and rather tangy and sweet.
There is a small dessert menu, and even though we obviously over-ordered, there’s no missing out on Fredric’s Longan Red Date Pudding ($9.90) — dense and coated with a fragrant longan tea glaze and velvety vanilla bean ice cream. The real stuff, of course. Or the Pulut Hitam Panna Cotta (S$8.90), a silky smooth coconut custard in a moat of black glutinous rice porridge: on hindsight, it does sound strange for diners not acquainted with pulut hitam. But it’s absolutely delicious, and we’ll be back for more.
Godmama is located at #04-07, FUNAN, 107 North Bridge Road, Singapore 179105 +65 6970 0828. Open Sun-Thu 10am – 10pm, Fri-Sat 10am – 12am.
