"singapore" news and stories

On a recent trip to Singapore I fell hopelessly in love with the unholy, neon-colored love child of a Sno-Cone and a Jell-O salad, also known as the ais kacang.

The ais kacang is wildly popular in Singapore and Malaysia (where it's sometimes called an "ABC"), served in outdoor food centers and in mall food courts countrywide. In its most basic iteration, it consists of a scoop of roughly shaved ice drizzled with varicolored sugar syrups and evaporated or condensed milk sitting on a nest of corn kernels, red beans and cubes of herb jelly or gluey sago pearls.

It's the hyperstimulating carnival of desserts, with every texture -- Crunchy! Chewy! Icy! Glutinous! Creamy! -- and dozens of flavors exploding in your mouth all at once. Some versions even include a scoop of ice cream or a pile of fresh mango or (eeek!) durian. More is more, right?

Never mind that it's still 45 degrees and raining here; I've been craving ais kacang as if it's midsummer in Southeast Asia. So I decided to make my own. I simply ground up ice in my food processor and doused it with Torani raspberry syrup (the kind you use to make Italian soda) and a milk syrup I'd made by cooking evaporated milk with brown sugar. I omitted the corn and beans, but next time I'll try adding some sago pearls or chopped fresh berries.

Flying back to the States from Singapore last month, my mind kept flitting back to my suitcase, rattling around in the cold darkness of the baggage compartment. Because in that suitcase, wrapped up in several layers of t-shirts, was a treasure - three glass jars of kaya.

Kaya, a rich coconut jam made from eggs, coconut milk and sugar, is wildly popular in Singapore and Malaysia, where it's eaten on toast with butter (the ubiquitious "kaya toast") for breakfast, stuffed into donuts, and spread between the layers of angel food cakes. My favorite type of kaya is tinged green with pandan, though there are golden non-pandan versions as well. Texture varies dependent on brand, but most kaya has a creamy yet slightly grainy mouthfeel similar to apple butter.

I've been eating kaya spooned over Greek yogurt with sliced bananas for breakfast. It's also good stirred into oatmeal or paired with peanut butter for PB&K sandwiches.

Frustratingly, I can't find new supplies of kaya in my area, despite poring over the shelves of a dozen different Asian markets. I'll be sure to look for it next time I'm in New York. Have any of you seen kaya in your neck of the woods?

No, I didn't shave a Viking's beard. That's pork floss. What? Yes, pork floss. Known as rousong in Mandarin, it's exactly what it sounds like – dried sweetened roast pork pulled to separate the fibers and spun until it has the texture of crispy cotton candy. And it's awesome. It's got the same flavor profile as teriyaki beef jerky - a little bit sweet, a little bit spicy, a lot salty and a lot meaty.

Pork floss buns - fluffy, sweetish rolls topped with pork floss and filled with mayonnaise cream - are a big thing in Singapore and Malaysia. Believe me, they're much nicer than they sound - the comforting flavors of meat and mayo, with an incredible blend of crunchy, soft and creamy textures. Chow Times has an article about the various uses of pork floss, from a topping for rice or congee to a grilled cheese sandwich filling. My personal favorite use is in a Vietnamese-style baguette sandwich, with pate (I substitute sliced turkey), lettuce, cilantro, vinaigrette and mayo.

You can find tubs or bags of pork floss at many Asian groceries. If you're really lucky, they'll have fish, chicken or shrimp floss as well.

In the Chinese communities of Singapore and Western Malaysia, the pineapple tart is the ultimate Chinese New Year dessert. The word "pineapple" in the Hokkien dialect resembles the word for prosperity, so eating the pineapple tarts is said to help bring luck and money in the coming year. For extra value, some tarts are even shaped to resemble tiny gold bars. The Malaysian port city of Malacca is considered the heart of the pineapple tart industry - in the city's colorful Chinatown dozens of bakeries are busy pumping out hot, fragrant trays of tarts every few minutes, to be placed in decorative cannisters with red lids and given as gifts. As we head closer to the Year of the Ox - New Year starts January 26 - the tarts grow increasingly expensive!

Bite into a proper pinepple tart and the ultra-flaky dough crumbles into buttery powder in your mouth. The chunk of pinepple jam inside is chewy and firm, flavored with spices - cinnamon, star anise and cloves - that reflect the influence of the spice trade on Malaysian Chinese cuisine.

If you don't happen to live near a Malaysian- or Singaporean-Chinese bakery, A Consuming Passion has a good-looking recipe for pineapple tart. These would be a great choice for a Chinese New Year party.

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"Taking the international sweet tooth by storm." Surely such a phrase could only have been penned by the a PR person for an ice-cream chain.

And so it has.

This gem comes from the press release announcing Cold Stone Creamery's expansion into Mexico and Southeast Asia. I'll admit it's a better turn of phrase than "taking the international sweet tooth by cavity." Full disclosure, I've never eaten the Creamery's ice cream, I suppose I should since there's one in a mall near my house.

The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based purveyor of fresh-made ice-cream that's blended to order with mix-ins on, you guessed it, a cold stone, started scooping up international markets back in 2005, when it opened its first overseas store in Tokyo. Since then Coldstone has opened 22 more stores throughout Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan.

Its first Mexican store will open in September. There's been no word yet as to whether the Creamery stores South of the Border will forgo the signature stone slab in favor of a gigantic molcajete y tejolote to mix the ingredients with the ice cream. The company's next international markets will be Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. I don't think it's gonna happen, but I'd love to see the Creamery's Southeast Asian stores use young coconut, jackfruit and some of the brightly colored gelatinous squiggles that are a staple of the region's frozen confections.

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