Who can resist such a yummy delicacy: Yam paste

Upper Serangoon Shopping Centre, Singapore is a place that is not very known for its food until recently. I still reminisce about the time when I would go there for my school uniform supply and to get my monthly hair cut at Red Panther, a traditional haircut shop that is still surviving till this day. Naturally, this carries with it a certain sort of nostalgia as I walked back into the mall after five years to try out the Teochew restaurant, Fragrant Garden.

I am not going to talk about the general food there, no. The food I had was fantastic; authentic and sumptuous. But what really struck me was the Yam Paste there. I am Teochew, and for us Teochews, we affectionately call this Yam Paste of ours, “Orh Nee”. A simple dessert, really – yam served with ginkgo nuts and pumpkin. Many other restaurants make the faux pas of including sweet corn, an ingredient not found in traditional Orh Nee, and I’m glad this restaurant has kept the veracity of this classical dessert. The only thing missing is the lack of pork lard, which in this case isn’t a deal breaker at all as it still tastes amazing (and healthier for the health conscious).

A bowl of this costs $4.50 and it takes a good ten minutes for them to prepare one even though the restaurant was fairly empty on a weekday evening. I am a big Orh Nee fan and when it came out, all I wanted to do was eat it! But even before I could put the second spoon into my mouth, this rather curious, elderly man sauntered over to my table and spoke in Mandarin that that wasn’t the correct way to eat it. I remember being so perplexed at both the current situation and wondering how else one would eat the Orh Nee. He grabbed the spoon off my hand before I could say otherwise and proceeded to deftly stir the Orh Nee like how one would beat an egg. The stirring definitely changed the taste. The fragrant yam, the sprinkle of fried shallots, together with the smashed pumpkin and the ginkgo nuts all mixed incredibly well to form probably the best and most authentic Orh Nee I’d ever tasted in my life.

We spoke for a little and when asked whether he was the boss of the restaurant, he vehemently denied it and walked away. Curiosity took over and I googled for the owner and voila! Speak of the devil indeed! It’s always heartening to see the owner of a restaurant be so passionate about his work, that even a simple 4-5 dollars worth of dessert requires his fullest attention, down to how his customers actually eat it.

Cheap, good food is my motto and this place strikes both of the ticks. This restaurant is still rather unknown but do make a reservation for Fridays and weekend evenings as they tend to be more populated then. 9/10 would definitely patronize again.

I would love to bring my work to this restaurant and slowly enjoy this yam paste. While I am enjoying this delicacy, I am also working hard on my sideline - to generate more money for enjoyment later. You should too!

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#tripadvisor #income #yampaste #sideline