Taste of home

Anyone who lives far away from the place they consider home will tell you that while you can adapt to life in a new country, a new work culture and a completely unfamiliar climate, there’s one thing that will remain stubbornly non-negotiable: the appetite.

For Malvin Soh, 49, like so many whose lives straddle two worlds, food is a gateway to childhood memories, culture and heritage.

Originally from Singapore, Soh and his family moved to Canada in 2014 and settled in Winnipeg.

The urban designer began cooking familiar favourites to combat his own cravings when studying and working in Australia, where he lived for nearly 10 years.

“From where I lived in Sydney, it was usually about a 15-minute drive to Chinatown to get Southeast Asian ingredients,” he says. “Sydney already had a good supply of fresh seafood and access to authentic Singaporean, Malaysian and Indonesian restaurants. It was during that time that I discovered my interest in cooking Singaporean food, and it helped me feel connected to the food I grew up eating.”

After moving to Winnipeg, Soh contemplated venturing into the food industry when he realized that despite the city’s diverse food culture there was nowhere to get Singaporean cuisine.

“I knew it was going to get tough for me if I didn’t figure out how I was going to access Singapore dishes here. It was a problem only I could solve — no one was going to solve it for me,” he says, adding that he even went as far as drafting out a business plan with his wife before the couple recognized the venture would be a drain on their financial resources.

He would also have to create awareness of Singaporean food in the community — at the time, not many people were familiar with the cuisine — in order to run a successful restaurant.

Newly arrived, with a young child to care for, he shelved the idea and got on with the business of establishing a career and tending to his family while continuing to cook regularly at home.

“As time went on, I would invite friends and their families over. After a while, people asked, ‘When’s the chili crab coming? When are you cooking the char koay teow?’ And then suddenly they began asking when I was going to cook for the public, why I wasn’t already,” he says with a laugh.

It was food for thought. He weighed out the pros and cons, had more discussions with his family, and in April this year, after more than a decade of cooking up a storm at home, launched Sedap Singapore Kitchen at Riverview Community Centre at 90 Ashland Ave.

He promoted the pop-up event on Facebook, Instagram and among family, friends and colleagues, and was gratified by the response.

He’s been filling up tables and plates on the regular ever since, serving classic dishes such as Hainanese chicken rice, Nonya laksa and chili crab to Winnipeggers who have developed a taste for the fragrant, sweet-and-spicy and creamy flavours and textures typical of the cuisine.

Finding the exact herb, spice or root he needed to make certain dishes was challenging at first, but Soh enjoys food shopping as much as he enjoys cooking, so it wasn’t too much of an ordeal.

“You have to ask people, but first you have to know what you’re looking for. For instance, knowing that laksa leaf is the same as Vietnamese coriander means you can go to a grocery store which has Vietnamese offerings,” he says, pointing out that he’s also learned a lot from his uncle, a chef in Minnesota who shares tips with him on their regular phone calls.

“For me it’s more like fishing for ingredients. I get very excited when I spot things like curry leaves or candlenut.”

He would spend weekends grocery store hopping on the hunt for ingredients that lie outside the realm of the international food aisle in big-box grocery stores.

He would take note of which stores stocked what, building a list of where to go to get specific ingredients. It’s an exhaustive but by no means comprehensive list, which he keeps both on his phone and as an Excel spreadsheet for longer-term food planning on his computer.

“Initially, I referred to it a lot when putting together new dishes for upcoming pop-ups. Eventually, after many trips to the Asian grocery stores, I started remembering where to find most things,” he says.

“One ingredient I haven’t been able to find locally is bunga kantan or torch ginger flower, which is used in dishes like Chinese rojak and asam laksa. Depending on what I’m preparing, I substitute it with lemongrass, calamansi or Japanese pickled ginger.”

Soh’s pop-ups at Riverview Community Centre take place once every two months and he keeps both the guest list and the menu tight; he does not want to over-extend himself or his small team of helpers — wife Florianne and their daughter.

At every pop-up, the family sets up a display of books, video clips and printed information about Singapore culture and food. Florianne enjoys organizing the events and his teenage daughter enjoys helping him cook.

“The venue can easily accommodate around 200 people but as it’s just the three of us, 40 is all we can manage. I want to let people try the food, and after serving I walk around and talk to guests and answer any questions they may have,” he says.

“This is the way I like it. The whole purpose of this is to connect and to engage. To talk about the food, to make it accessible for everyone to try. In Singapore there are a hundred ways of cooking one thing. This is my way, this is my story.”

Visit Sedap Singapore Kitchen’s Instagram (instagram.com/sedapsingaporekitchen) and Facebook page for more information about the festive pop-up lunch on Dec. 19.

av.kitching@winnipegfreepress.com