Rare Singapore Hawker Dish #1. Lo Kai Yik 南乳卤鸡翼

Nam Yue Lo Kai Yik which means "Blue Bean Curd Stewed Chicken Wing" in Cantonese is sold at only 2, yes T. W. O., 2 ✌ hawker stalls in Singapore. Most locals go to Charlie's Peranakan Food stall at the basement of Golden Mile Food Centre for their Lo Kai Yik fix. (Another Lo Kai Yik stall is Lo Mei Specialist at People's Park Food Centre.)

Lo Kai Yik is a classic Cantonese dish. My grandma used to make it and I heard several hawker stalls sold it in Kreta Ayer, old Singapore's Cantonese enclave (today's Chinatown). Lo Kai Yik's heydays were in the 1960s but it gradually faded away.

Cantonese immigrants who came to Singapore from Guangdong, China in the 1820s - 1930s brought the comfort dish with them.

Today, Lo Kai Yik is rarely made at home and only two hawker stalls still sell it in Singapore.

The dish is made of chicken wings, chicken gizzard, cuttle fish, pork intestine, pork skin, pork belly, pork liver, fried dried bean curd (tau pok) slow stewed in a braising liquid with fermented red yeast rice bean curd (nam yue).

Nam yue is bean curd cubes fermented in rice wine with red yeast rice which gave it its blood red colour. It is literally called "blue bean curd" in Cantonese.

Nam yue was first mentioned in records from the Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644), so it is an ancient flavour, at least 650 years old. It is commonly used in seasoning meat such as in nam yue fried chicken wing, nam yue fried pork etc.

In Loh Kai Yik, Nam Yue's unique savoury salty flavour is complemented by sweetness from the other ingredients so the dish has stacks of savoury sweetness in layers - very delicious. The ingredients are stewed till tender and soft, and well infused with Nam Yue flavour.

Nam Yue is an acquired taste (I grew up with it). Those who are hooked, need an occasional fix. Those who have not tasted Loh Kai Yik, need to try it at least once, to check if they have been missing out 😄

(Some people suggest that Lo Kai Yik is the Cantonese version of Teochew kway chap with a different braising liquid but I am hesitant to concur as kway chap doesn't have chicken in it.)

In Singapore today, I know only Lo Mei Specialist at People's Park Food Centre and Charlie's Peranakan Food at Golden Mile Food Centre serve Loh Kai Yik.

Charlie's Peranakan Food serves a wide range of delicious Nyonya dishes and the best Loh Kai Yik according to his many fans.

How did Loh Kai Yok, a quintessentially Cantonese dish become a signature in one of Singapore's best loved Peranakan eateries?

Charlie's mother used to buy Lo Kai Yik from a two-basket mobile hawker during his childhood. Before the days of hawker centres, many hawkers carry their food in two baskets on a bamboo pole slung across their shoulders.

The whole family loved the Lo Kai Yik. As Charlie's mum is a good cook herself, she replicated the recipe and made her own version for the family.

Today, Charlie uses his mum's recipe for arguably the best Lo Kai Yik in Singapore.

Eaten with plain white rice, each $20 serving in a claypot is enough for 3 adults or 4-5 at a stretch, if not all are big eaters. Quirky Charlie won't serve you his Lo Kai Yik, unless you are 3 or more people 😂 He doesn't like to see food wasted 👏👏👏 (Of course, we can get around that easily by taking away 😄 )

If you had enough of mainstream chicken rice, Nyonya laksa, chili crab, etc, why not try Loh Kai Yik for a change? I doubt it would be available in the next generation of Singapore hawker centres, better hurry.

What are your Lo Kai Yik memories?

What other Singapore hawker dishes do you think face extinction?