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By Anna Maria New Straits Times 20 June, 2004
Anna Maria digs into the marrow at Newton Circle in Singapore. Singaporeans are passionate about food and take great pride in the wide variety of delicious local cuisine that is available in their city.
Most Singaporeans will tell you that the best place to eat would not be at fashionable, upmarket cafes or posh restaurants, but at the hawker centres.
And one of the highly recommended hawker centres that one should head to for a more satisfying dining experience in the Lion City would be none other than the Newton Circle Hawker Centre.
Looking at its wide selection of hawker delights, choosing what to eat may not be such a simple thing to do after all.
But if you are looking for something different, I would recommend newcomers to head on to Noor Muslim food stall to sample its legendary bone steak or sup tulang merah.
A taste of this fabulous dish would make one eager to return to Singapore for more — that, at least, was the effect it had on my husband.
This specially prepared mutton bone dish comes in a form of a brightn red soup that is thick enough to be mistaken for sweet and sour gravy. Don’t worry if you are not a big mutton fan as the herbs and spices used mask strong mutton odour. The main idea of eating bone steak is to enjoy the marrow, since there is very little meat left on the bones.
To enjoy this meal to the fullest, you should use your hands.
According to Abdul Jaafar Mohd Ibrahim, who has been the cook at the stall since 1972, the bone steak has always been the signature dish. The stall sells about 10 to 20kg of bone steaks every day.
"The Newton Circle hawker centre has gone through a lot of changes over the years and this stall has been relocated a few times. But this has never stopped customers from coming to our place," he said.
The bone steak is not only popular among locals, but among tourists as well. Abdul Jaafar said that quite often he receives customers from overseas, especially from Australia, the United States and Indonesia.
They love the bone steak so much that some — including restaurant operators — offered him a job to cook for them.
"I was once offered to work for a restaurant in the US and they were prepared to pay me around US$500 (RM1,900) a week. But I had to turn them down. I am old already and I don’t think I want to move around so much."
Another speciality of Noor Muslim is the murtabak — a savoury turnover filled with egg, onions and minced mutton, beef or chicken. Served with either curry or dhal, the murtabak here comes with side dishes of pickled onions and cucumber salad.
Although murtabak is not an exotic item among Malaysians, most murtabak connoisseurs are aware of the fact that the best murtabak is found in Singapore as well as the southern part of Malaysia.
It’s believed that this dish, which originated from India, was first introduced in Singapore by Indian merchants, then slowly made its way to Malaya. However, as it moved further north, the authenticity as well as the quality of murtabak began to deteriorate.
What makes the murtabak here so special? It is huge, for starters, and is easily double the size of the murtabak usually found in Malaysia.
A normal portion in Singapore is probably enough to feed at least three people. Aside from that, the filling is also more generous, with more meat than onions.
The bone steak and murtabak are among the many delicacies available in the Lion City.
Ask a Singaporean what is good to eat there and he or she will gladly give you a long list of food that you should try.
On your next trip to Singapore, make it a point to be more adventurous with food. |
