LEARNED COOKING FROM A HONG KONG CHEF
Since her parents didn’t want her in the business, Tan said her dad initially refused to teach her how to cook. She struggled to find a mentor, as all the chefs she knew through her parents “refused to teach (her), as they felt that a zi char kitchen was not an environment for a lady to be in”.
When asked if she was upset at her father for not mentoring her, Tan admitted: “Yes, just a little bit.” But she conceded: “Afterwards I felt like, okay, if you don’t want to teach me, then I’ll go and learn from someone else.”
Fortuitously, her friend introduced her to a retired chef from Hong Kong, whom she reverently called Zhang shifu (‘teacher’ in Mandarin). The 75-year-old chef is trained in Cantonese cuisine, and had worked in a Chinese restaurant in London for 16 years before retiring in Singapore.
She said that Zhang shifu “very luckily didn’t mind teaching me on my days off from work and through him, I learned how to do things fast and cook all the dishes”.
Tan paid him a “very reasonable” fee of S$150 per day for teaching, and learned how to whip up dishes like chilli oil dumplings, wok hei porridge, and how to boil good soup stock from him.
As she picked up some skills from Master Zhang, the other chefs who initially turned her down for an apprenticeship saw that she was serious about learning how to cook, and began teaching her their recipes as well. Her dad never ended up teaching her how to cook. “He realised he didn’t need to teach me,” Tan laughed.
THE MENU
New Station Rice Bar has a small menu featuring nine mains: Salted Egg Pork Chop or Chicken Cube (S$8.50), Mapo Tofu with Minced Meat (S$9), Lu Rou Fan with Shitake Mushroom (S$8.50), Assam Sauce Fish Katsu (S$8), Caramelised Marmite Chicken (S$8), Chinchalok Fish Katsu (S$8), Gu Lau Rou (S$8), Collagen Clam Soup with Wujiapi Wine and Rice (S$10) and Gong Bao Ji with Sesame (S$8).
Tan also has monthly specials, where she introduces potential new dishes to get customers’ feedback. This month, her best-selling specials include Chloe Style Curry Rice (S$9.50) and Chilli Oil Dumplings (S$8 for six pieces), both of which will be added to her permanent menu.
SALTED EGG PORK CHOP, S$8.50
