What’s Cookin’: Singaporean Specialties at Uwajimaya

Sadly, Seattle lacks a Singaporean restaurant. The closest we’ve got are Malay Satay Hut (a favorite!) and Salima, but they’re both primarily Malaysian. So if you can’t go out for Singaporean food, then why not make it yourself?

NuCulinary offers lots of cooking classes at Uwajimaya in Bellevue (later this month will be Thai Seafood Dishes and Basic Sushi Rolling). Coming up next is one called Singaporean Straits Cooking. In the Straits, Chinese traders settled and married Malaysian women, and the blending of Chinese ingredients and cooking techniques with the use of local aromatics resulted in Peranakan cuisine. Some of the dishes you’ll learn to make in class:

- Popiah (Nonya Fresh Spring Rolls)
- Laksa (Coconut Curry Prawn Noodle Soup)
- Black Pepper Prawns
- Long Beans Sambal
- Gula Melaka (Sago with Coconut Milk)

Instructor Naomi Kakiuchi brings enthusiasm and excitement to her teaching, as she likes to expose people to new foods and flavors. She describes the food of the Singaporean class as “friendly to families and a great way to spice up meals with the kids.” Participants will prepare dishes in the commercial kitchen and, yes, enjoy them all at the end of the class, walking away with new recipes to try at home.

Best of all, you can find these far-away ingredients like palm sugar, pandan, lime and lemongrass right at the store. Though we wonder whether they’ll have prawns as large as what we found in our travels to Singapore so long ago (taken with one of the first digital cameras ever made!).

April 7, 6:30 p.m.–9:00 p.m. // Bellevue Uwajimaya // $60