Plusixfive is a story of Muhammad and the mountain: when homesick and hungry Goz Lee craved authentic Singaporean food (something we take for granted everyday) that was lacking in London’s dining scene, he learned how to cook and started his own supper club. The Plusixfive Cookbook is the culmination of that noisy, tasty supperclub experience.
When we laid our hands on this velvety red tome, it sure didn’t look (or feel) like a cookbook to us. In fact, Plusixfive has all the trappings of a coffee table book (nice photos and great illustrations!) on Singaporean food culture, which makes a perfect gift for any expats leaving Singapore for home, local foodies – it’s sooo difficult to find good mui choy kong bak (braised pork belly with preserved mustard greens) now – or for people like Goz (Singaporeans living overseas).
We also liked that this book wasn’t a one-man-show (sorry Jamie Oliver) but filled with contributions from some famous foodies like Tan Hsueh Yun (Food Editor of the Straits Times), James Lowe (ex head chef of East London institution St. John Bread and Wine), and of course, food blogger Shu Han, who’s been contributing her recipes to Honeycombers.
In all honesty, it’s impossible to review a cookbook without stepping into the kitchen and wielding a wok (instead of a frying pan, in this case) – and that’s just what we did – and we are quite the undomestic goddess!
We tried our hand at the char kway teow (or messy oily sweet fried noodles in Plusixfive-speak), which came out surprisingly well despite not following the recipe strictly (we’re not fond of bean sprouts). The only thing lacking was the intense wok hei that only uncles at the hawker centre seem to be able to deliver, so we didn’t feel too bad about it.
We also attempted making sago gula melaka (tapioca pearls with coconut milk and palm sugar) for dessert, which was a bit of a disaster because the sago pearls clumped together by the time they turned transparent, so it ended up tapioca pudding dressed with a copious amount of gula melaka instead (but hey, it was still good!).
In a nutshell, we think this is a great investment for the future, especially since we’re losing hawkers at a faster rate than they’re being replaced. This book is a salute that our Singaporean wok warriors sorely need.
Get your copy of Plusixfive from Epigram Books here.