Personally Peranakan cuisine is one of my favourite cuisines and it is something that will definitely kill any diet plans. Peranakan are the descendants of the Chinese and Malay ethnic groups when they come together in matrimony. When it comes to cuisine, you can find that the dishes are a splendid mix between Malay and Chinese cuisine.
Peramakan has been around for many years as a full fledged restaurant serving full servings of Peranakan dishes at Keppel Club and in recent years, they developed the Tingkat Peramakan brand to offer set meals to cater to the working crowd as well as people trying the Peranakan cuisine for the first time. The outlet at Owen is pretty small with 20 over tables
There were some distinctive Peranakan decorations around the restaurant like this shelf of old porcelain ware and basket with typical Peranakan design.
You can find 2 counter fridge at the front selling their delicious sambal chilli and pastes where you can try to cook the same dishes at home with the ready made pastes.
The other counter has typical Nonya desserts and cakes like pandan chiffon cake, kueh lapis, kueh salat and more. The desserts were totally delicious with strong coconut flavours and fragrant pandan leaves.
The concept of Tingkat Peramakan is simple where you can choose any of the set from A1 to C2 which will come with a choice of 2 side dish; either the curry vegetable, tahu goreng, Chinchalok omelette or nonya cabbage and a choice of a dessert which is either the bobo cha cha or sago melaka. There are also a la carte dishes which you can order to add on to your set.
The set will come nicely placed in a tray fitting all the main and side dishes for one person although the portions are also good for sharing.
My ayam buah keluak comes with a quarter sized chicken thigh meat and sufficient gravy to go with the rice. The gravy is nutty and flavourful with the buah keluak and the chicken meat is vert tender and succulent.
The nonya cabbage is cooked till soft and flavourful and is a typical Hokkein dish which has made it’s way into the Peranakan cuisine. The cabbage is cooked together with bean curd skin as well as black fungus to give it a nice mixed texture.
The chinchalok omelette was thick and fluffy but personally I found it quite plain as I could not taste the chinchalok taste at all. Chinchalok is a mixture of fermented small shrimps with lime and might not be acceptable to every taste buds as some people might feel that it has a strong fish taste.
The babi pontei that my friend chose was smaller in comparison but still well stewed with the soy gravy.
The home made tahu has a nice Assam flavoured gravy which makes it extremely palatable and great with white rice. The tahu itself is soft with a nice textured skin which was deep fried before cooked in the assam gravy.
The sambal squid was very well done with the squid cooked just nicely so it is not rubbery at all. The squid bites off easily and is well coated with a semi dry sambal sauce. The sambal sauce itself is savoury and sour at the same time.
The most important thing in Peranakan cuisine is the sambal belachan chilli which is used to add on flavours to the dishes. This is savoury and spicy at the same time and has a strong shrimp flavour. This usually adds just the right spice kick to the dishes as most of Peranakan dishes are not as spicy as Malay dishes.
I totally missed out photos of my dessert but they were all quite good and sweet so sweet tooth folks would totally love all the desserts served here.
Overall, Peramakan serves one of the best Peranakan food in Singapore with the exception of the home cooked ones from my Peranakan friends in my view. Tingkat Peramakan managed to maintain the same standard of food from the main restaurant but kind of in a downsized affordable set meal manner which is good for one person when you have that craving for Peranakan food.
Address: 119 Owen Rd, Singapore 218924
Operating hours: 11 am to 3 pm and 6 pm to 10 pm
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