Culinary Grad Who Turned Down Dempsey Cookhouse Chef Job Opens Nasi Lemak Hawker Stall

Ah Lemak (alamak, get it?) is the latest punnily-named hawker stall opened by enterprising young hawkers. It serves nasi lemak, obviously. The sleek, gold-accented stall signage and marble counter adorning the shop in Tampines West hint that this is no ordinary nasi lemak joint: aside from the usual fixings, there are more atas, fusion add-ons like deep-fried soft-shell crab and unagi here. The stall also sells Hokkien mee.

It’s run by professionally-trained chef Jason Koh (left in pic), 24, and ex-maritime engineer Cleavon Tan (right), 25, who met at Singapore Polytechnic while pursuing diplomas in Engineering Systems.

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Jason didn’t complete his studies at Singapore Polytechnic, dropping out in favour of a diploma in Culinary Arts at At-Sunrice GlobalChef Academy. Though his professional attachment at Spanish restaurant FOC Sentosa was cut short after two months when the pandemic emerged, Jason eventually interned for a full year at The Dempsey Cookhouse & Bar. The latter boasts celebrity New York-based French chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s name behind its contemporary European and American plates with Asian flourishes.

Which might make you wonder why he’s now cooking nasi lemak and Hokkien mee. While Jason initially had dreams of opening “a café focused on local food”, he settled on a hawker stall and narrowed the menu down to two items to begin with. “It was less of a risk,” he explains simply. “Nasi lemak, to me, is comfort food. I wanted to add a twist, like having unagi and crab and so on with Japanese or Western influences to [freshen up] this traditional [dish].”

When the time came to take a leap of faith and set up his own biz he turned to Cleavon. “This guy really taught me about work ethic,” Jason says with a laugh. Cleavon, who’d been working in the maritime engineering sector, was more than happy to work with him. “We’d always talked about business, and of course, I trusted his cooking.”

“To be successful in Singapore, you’ve got two options. Start a business, or invest. I can’t invest – so I started a business,” he adds.

Cleavon, who’s a father of one, was also dissatisfied with the work-life balance as a maritime engineer. “The shifts are 24-hours long on Jurong Island. So when you go back home, you just sleep until your next shift,” he says. “At least [if you’re building up a business], you’re feeding the business until one day, it feeds you.”

In fact, he and Jason were so determined to start their own biz that they turned down “pretty good job offers”. He refused a new job in the same sector, while Jason gave up on “an attractive full-time job offer at Dempsey Cookhouse. I would prefer to fight hard for my own money, rather than fighting hard for other people’s pockets,” he says.

The pair finished planning for Ah Lemak’s opening just before the emergence of the KTV and Jurong Fishery Port clusters. “At that point it was like zero cases every day, until it suddenly rocketed up,” Jason shares. They managed to get “one good day of business in” on their July 21 launch day, Cleavon tells us. “The next day, [the dine-in ban started and] people couldn’t dine in anymore. So it was a lot quieter.”

During the ban, Jason refined his recipes, some of which incorporated the use of techniques he learnt at fancier restaurants. For example, he uses a soda siphon to aerate the batter for a lighter battered fish. He also hits the fillets with freshly-cracked black pepper right out of the fryer to help the spice stick to the fish. For the grilled unagi, it gets finished off with a blowtorch.

Now, after dining-in has returned on August 10, he laments, “Business is still very bad. I think people are still afraid to come out and eat.”

For now, Ah Lemak is serving up two main dishes: fusion nasi lemak with a variety of atas toppings like grilled unagi or deep-fried soft-shell crab, as well as Hokkien mee. All plated on hipster wooden crockery. Every set of nasi lemak comes with ikan bilis, a fried egg, cucumber and chilli by default. The fancy toppings, however, cost you extra — the simplest plate with one chicken wing and an egg goes for $4.20, while the most atas set with deep-fried soft-shell crab, squid and fish costs $19.90.

Most of the cooking is done by Jason, while Cleavon handles plating and cashiering.

“The chilli and rice is the root of having a nice plate of nasi lemak,” Jason says. We agree, so we’ll start with that: the jasmine grains, though a little clumped up, have an enjoyable coconutty fragrance. It’s elevated by the maroon-hued chilli, which is sweet-savoury and light on the spice. We don’t mind that it’s mild on the heat, since you get to focus on the punchy, umami-rich aroma of the chilli instead (though Jason wasn’t keen on sharing the deets on what goes into it, we got a strong savoury hit from the hae bee and belacan mix).

The frozen chicken wings are marinated for “sixteen hours” (we spot some slivers of ginger and flour, though Jason didn’t share what else was in there). “The batter we use is very light as I want people to [taste] chicken meat, not fried flour,” he says.

Our chicken wings survived the journey home well – they’re crisp on the outside while remaining moist within. They do, in fact, taste like chicken. Satisfying enough, but rather understated next to the other fancier offerings.

Ah Lemak offers up a sizable hunk of deep-fried pangasius (a freshwater white fish that he prefers to commonly-used dory) in an airy, crunchy batter that’s reminiscent of western fish-and-chips. The batter, which remained crunchy even after sitting in a takeaway box for 20 minutes, gave way to yielding, flaky flesh. Yummy, but a bit too rich after a while with the coconut rice.

Their mutton rendang takes “around six hours to prepare”. It’s simmered in an aromatic mix of fennel, cardamom and other spices till fork-tender. The mutton is served completely incorporated into the sauce, a little reminiscent of pulled pork. While we dig the earthy flavours and meltingly soft meat, we miss having a bit of bite from the meat.

Japanese eel, cooked over a gas-powered grill and finished off with a blowtorch. What’s not to like? While you’re not getting the same delicate smokiness you’d expect from an upmarket unagi specialist, Ah Lemak delivers a competent slab of unctuous eel that’s charred on the edges and slathered with caramelised glaze. Better than most we’ve had at other hawker joints.

Soft-shelled crab that’s dredged in flour and deep-fried whole. Nothing too complicated – the crunchy crustacean manages to hit the right spots in terms of crunch and briny-sweet flavour within its juicy depths.

An odd pairing with nasi lemak. Nonetheless, it’s something that Jason included on the menu as an homage to his father. “He’s not a hawker – just someone who loves Hokkien mee and came up with this recipe,” he says.

Pork bones, as well as prawn heads and shells, are boiled for “at least three hours” to create Ah Lemak’s orange-tinged broth. It’s ladled onto a mix of yellow noodles, thin bee hoon and egg (which are fried separately) and simmered for a spell to meld together.

The Hokkien mee here is cooked to a wet consistency, which we usually prefer – in this case, the stock’s partially thickened by the time we reach home with our loot. We also find the noodles undercooked, with a hint of alkaline and weak wok hei. The stock could be richer, too. This is made up for somewhat with a piquant dollop of belacan and crispy lard bits, though we’d skip the noodles for the nasi lemak instead.

Tasty enough nasi lemak if you’re getting the basic plate, though we feel the new hawkers need a bit more time to settle into their kitchen. The draw here is obviously the more upmarket fusion toppings — we recommend the competently cooked soft shell crab, grilled unagi and ‘pulled’ mutton rendang, but be prepared to pay correspondingly higher prices. The Hokkien mee, while serviceable, is a bit of a distraction here.

Ah Lemak is at #01-451 Nam Wah Coffeeshop, Blk 929 Tampines St 91, S520929. Tel: 9008-2971. Open daily 11am - 9pm. More info via Facebook and Instagram.

Photos: Alvin Teo

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