Food Stories from Singapore - Christine Lee
Introducing a new section to capture and collect stories and recipes from home cooks.
For the first interview, I tapped on one of the best cooks I know, and someone whom I have had the pleasure of being friends with. We met 8 years ago through our kids, who attended the same pre-school. In the last 8 years, we have shared travelled together, shared countless meals and cooked together in different cooking clubs. Christine is an outstanding baker and cook, and is the ultimate host. Parties and celebrations at her house are an outstanding display of her creativity and resourcefulness. When I visited her house for this interview in early October, her dining table was already decked out for Halloween with a jar full of eyeballs and spiders creeping up her living room wall. What I love and appreciate most about Christine is that we share the same love language - food.
I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with Christine about food. We spent more than an hour going down rabbit holes on food, and the conversation also brought up some food memories that she had forgotten about. We traded stories about our mother's cooking trends in the 80s and 90s and laughed about her "flea soup" (more on that in the transcript).
In this interview, Christine walked me through how she makes her family’s Soupy Pasta. It was a delicious bowl of food and incredibly comforting. Since the interview - I have made this for my children who were feeling a little under the weather and it delivered on instant comfort and nourishment.
In Christine’s family version of the recipe, she is particular about using San Remo’s Tri-Coloured Vegeroni pasta, as it was what her mum used growing up. You can, of course, use different kinds of pasta for this dish.
The following interview is an edited transcript of our conversation. I am working on turning this into a podcast - but that will probably take a bit more time while I learn how to make that happen.
What dish are you sharing with us today?
There is no official name for it, but I've just called it soupy pasta since I was young.
What is your earliest memory of this dish?
It was probably when I was in high school. My mum didn't do a lot of cooking before then as we had a maid and she was working. She quit her job when I was 12, so from the ages of 13 onwards, this is a dish that I used to eat at home for lunch, as it was fast and easy to prepare. I could smell this the minute I got back home from school and knew it was soupy pasta day. I would always have two bowls of this, as compared to other things that my mum cooked.
Talk me through what is in this dish?
My mum does it with minced chicken or minced pork and she puts sliced sausages in it, with cubed carrots and celery. When I make it, I sometimes put bacon in, and if my son is eating it, I would add in some frozen corn for him. You can make this with any sort of vegetable or meat.
So, you mentioned that your mum stopped working when you were 12, and it was only then when she started cooking at home. Could you talk about what you ate growing up? What was a typical family meal?
We were exposed to a lot of different foods growing up, and I did not realise how lucky I had it until I spoke to Bern (husband). I think the food we ate as children revolved around what my father liked - because he was the man of the house, and in our parent's generation, you cooked for the man of the house.  We had a lot of crab - at least once a week. We had a lot of duck; because my sister was crazy about duck at the time. We had a lot of different kinds of meat - chicken and even venison!
It sounds like your mother was a really good cook - who taught her how to cook?
Oh, I don't know - I never asked her that actually. But I do know that when it comes to baking - she did tell me that it was all self-taught.  I know she bought herself a Kenwood cake mixer with her first paycheck , which was top of the range at the time, and she probably self-taught from the book of recipes that came with the mixer. As for cooking - I am not sure how she learnt. I do remember her sitting and cutting out recipes from newspapers.
Is there a recipe from your childhood that may have been lost or hasn't been passed down?
I never had my maternal grandmother cook for us because she passed away when I was quite young. I remember going to her house as a young child and just having ice-cream.Â
My paternal side of the family lived in Klang - and I remember this one dish that I didn't enjoy - so I don't need the recipe. My father came from a big family of 13 children - so there was always a lot of people to cook for. When we visited, there was always ONE big giant dish that you would just eat with rice. It was always the same - it was chicken or pork with dried mushrooms and glass noodles.
Penelope: Kind of like Chap Chye?
Yes! It's like chap chye! It's just a huge dish that they made that would feed the entire family and their offspring for lunch and dinner. I don't have very fond memories of it.
The food that you ate growing up, experienced and enjoyed seems to be from your Mum's cooking. If you could choose one thing you want to preserve from your Mum's cooking, what would it be?
There are a few dishes that I would want to preserve. The first one is this soupy pasta dish that I am sharing. There are also a couple of soups on this list.Â
There is this fish soup that my Mum used to make - but I don't know what fish it is (after research and conversations with Christine's Mum - we found out that it is a kind of silver carp that is rarely available these days). It is not sold in the market all the time. The soup is just water and lots of coriander.
There is also "flea soup" [look of surprise on my face]. It is actually a soup made with some kind of pea, but the peas would pop out of the pod and turn black in the soup and looked like fleas - so we called it "flea soup".
There is another dish that I have the recipe for and do cook for the kids - which is another one of my Mum's dishes. It's a pork omelette made with minced pork, beaten egg, sesame oil and soya sauce. She shallow fries the omelette and tops it with this tomato onion sauce - which is quite similar to a sweet and sour sauce made with tomato ketchup, sugar, water and yellow onions. The egg would have crispy edges, and the rest of the omelette would soak up all the sauce. In my house, we call this Po Po's omelette.
When my mum makes it, and I don't know if it's something that's in my imagination, but I feel the edges are just crispier than mine. It just tastes better. When my Mum made it when Lexi [daughter] was really small - she would pull out a stool and stand next to my mother and pluck bits of it as she cooked.
Is there one dish from your childhood that you disliked?
Yes. That steamed minced pork dish. It's this steamed mince pork patty that has fatty pork lard bits in it. The pork fat is kind of chewy - I did not like the texture of that.  It also has preserved vegetable (Mui Choy) which is really salty.
What did you cook for your children when they were growing up?
What I cooked for Lexi and Asher [son] was very different. When I had Lexi, I had more time and energy, and would make things from scratch. Everything was organic. I would make my own pasta sauce in batches and freeze them.
There was a lot of Western meals because it was easy to batch cook Western meals. When Asher rolled around much later, we had a confinement nanny who did a lot of cooking - and he was exposed to more Asian flavours. So now, when I cook, I find it easier to make Chinese or Asian meals, because he likes it. With Chinese meals, I can do three dishes and only have to make sure there is one dish that Asher will eat, and the other dishes can be something spicy or something that he doesn't eat, but the rest of the family enjoys.
What would you say your best dish would be? Or what do you think the rest of the family will say your best dish is?
I don't think there is a best dish. I do get cravings for dishes that I feel like eating - and then I'll cook it.
My husband would probably say its my Beef Lasagna or Curry Kapitan (I've tasted Christine's Curry Kapitan and it's so good!). My daughter's favourite dish is this seafood pasta dish that was inspired by a similar pasta dish we've had in Marmalade Pantry. The pasta dish at Marmalade Pantry costs too much, so I had to find a way of recreating it at home.
(Christine talks me through how she makes this rich and decadent pasta sauce made with prawn shells. It is a labour of love.)
Christine's Soupy Pasta
Serves 4
Ingredients
2 - 3 tbsp garlic oil (or regular vegetable oil)
1 yellow onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 knob of ginger, peeled and grated
3 - 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
200g back bacon, cut into 1cm strips
300g minced chicken (seasoned with 2 tsp sesame oil + 3 tsp light soy sauce)
1 medium carrot, peeled and diced into small cubes (about 1cm)
3 sticks of celery, diced into small cubes (about 1cm)
6 chicken sausages (Christine used Johnsonville's Smoked Bratwurst Sausages here)
2L chicken stock (or water)
1 x 375g packet of dried tri-colour pasta (Christine used San Remo's Vegeroni Shapes)
Toppings (Optional)
Finely chopped spring onions
Finely chopped coriander
Fried shallots
Fried garlic
Method
Heat a large stockpot and add in garlic oil.
Add in the onion, ginger and garlic and cook on medium heat until the onion has softened slightly and everything is aromatic.
Add in the bacon and minced chicken and cook on high heat, breaking up the minced chicken with a spatula as you stir. When the chicken is mostly cooked, add in the carrots, celery, sausages, and mix well. Cook for a few minutes before adding in the stock.
Bring everything up to a boil and turn the heat down to a simmer, cooking for about 15 mins, or until the carrots have softened.
Remove any scum that comes up to the surface of the soup.
While the soup is simmering, cook the pasta in a pot of salted boiling water, as per packet instructions. Drain and set the pasta aside.
Taste the soup and season with freshly ground black pepper, and salt, if necessary. The bacon, sausages and chicken stock usually provides enough salt for the soup.
Spoon cooked pasta into soup bowls and ladle the soup over the pasta.
Top soupy pasta with optional toppings and serve immediately.
It’s so good!