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Choon Hoy Parlor’s Interior (Image: Choon Hoy Parlor)
In the heart of Singapore, a new restaurant has opened its doors, offering more than just food — Choon Hoy Parlor is an ode to Singaporean culture of days past.
The restaurant is run by chef-restauranteur Dylan Ong. The homegrown chef is known for starting Saveur, a casual French restaurant, and also runs The Masses, which both serve Franco-Asian food, but he has returned to his roots in more ways than one: with Choon Hoy Palor at Beach Road, which is named after his mother.
Inspired by maternal love
Growing up, Ong’s father ran a kway chap hawker stall, until he became ill. After Ong’s father passed away, his mother took on three jobs to support the family. Ong credits his mother for making him who he is today and imparting good values onto him. These values became the foundation upon which Ong built his career in the restaurant industry.
At Choon Hoy Palor, Singapore Soul Food takes pride of place. There are familiar local dishes that evoke nostalgia among the older crowd. Some dishes have contemporary spins and fun touches that appeal to the younger generation.
Several of the restaurant’s signature dishes are recipes tied to the chefs’ families, such as the Braised Duck Served In Tau Kwa Pau Style ($69), which was usually made by Ong’s mother for family gatherings and celebrations. Those from Teochew families will be quite familiar with braised duck, coupled with tau kwa pau (dried beancurd puffs).
A table full of Choon Hoy Parlor’s dishes, including their fried laksa and Hainanese kampong chicken (Image: Choon Hoy Parlor)
The puffs are stuffed with a mix of fried fish cake, cucumber, braised egg, and fried yam. Tau kwa paus used to be a popular hawker dish, but are now not a common sight. By featuring it with the braised duck, Choon Hoy Palor hopes to preserve this rapidly disappearing dish.
This isn’t the only recipe that the restaurant is trying to bring back; another of the restaurant’s signature dishes is the Pork Leg Trotter Jelly ($8.90), which Ong’s father used to make with the spare or leftover meat from his kway chap stall. The restaurant offers a different version made from the hind trotter meat, skin, and pig ears.
Updated to the modern day
Aside from heritage hawker dishes, Choon Hoy Palor is also bringing new versions of old dishes to the table, such as Rojak, Our Own Way, by chef-partner Benji Chew — a modern recreation of fruit salad tossed in prawn paste. Chew specifically chose rojak as an ode to her parents, who sell rojak back in her hometown of Ipoh. While the core ingredients of rojak are retained, Chew has made the rojak sauce into an ice cream.
Rojak, Our Own Way, by Chef Benji Chew (Image: Choon Hoy Parlor)
Snapshot of the past
The interesting new way of presenting rojak speaks to another mission of the restaurant: bridging the gap between generations. Updating traditional dishes in novel ways is one way, and another is interior design of the restaurant.
Choon Hoy Palor is made up to resemble a retro restaurant, furnished with foldable chrome-framed chairs, faux-leather upholstered benches, and laminate-top tables. These furnishings are arranged casually, together with a slew of old paraphernalia from the past, including posters from the sixties, neon signs, and a kopitiam mirror with red Chinese characters.
Together with the Mandarin and dialect music in the air, this restaurant evokes a warm ambiance akin to a family home, where guests can step in and find themselves transported to Singapore of the past — albeit with all the modern conveniences of 2024.
