Violet Oon @ Jewel

Before Joel Robuchon, Guy Savoy and Daniel Boulud came to Singapore, the country had its own homegrown celebrity chef – Violet Oon, sometimes referred to as the Julia Child of Singapore.

Nestled within the lush tropical garden of the world-class Jewel Changi Airport, Violet Oon Singapore at Jewel will whisk you away with their assortment of Singapore flavours. 

Born a Singapore Nyonya in 1949, Violet Oon is the grande dame of Singaporean cooking and is widely considered to be an authority on Asian cuisine, specialising in Nyonya food. Her reputation as a food journalist, food connoisseur and finally as a chef when she had her own cooking programme called What’s Cooking in the 1980s. She often represents Singapore as a food ambassador abroad.

She opened National Kitchen by Violet Oon Singapore in Nov 2015 to critical acclaims, including a Michelin Plate. Housed in the iconic former City Hall building and restored to its original grandeur, the National Kitchen by Violet Oon Singapore offers the perfect backdrop for an unforgettable event. Oon is paying tribute to Singapore’s colonial cafe culture with her latest restaurant here at the Jewel.

There is also a retail section that takes up about a quarter of the space. It carries 16 products including cashew nut, peanut and sugee cookies, bright green and pink coconut candy, pineapple tarts, mini sugee financiers and bottles of kaya spread. These products, which are packed in boxes fashioned after colourful Peranakan tiles, are produced in a central kitchen.

Ngoh Hiang

deep fried beancurd skin roll with prawn, crab, chicken and water chestnut seasoned with five spice powder

Ngoh hiang, also known as lor bak (as it is known in Penang), is a unique Hokkien and Teochew dish widely adopted in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines (where it is known as kikiam, que-kiam, or ngohiong), Singapore, and Thailand; in addition to its place of origin in eastern China. It is essentially a composition of various meats and vegetables and other ingredients, such as a sausage-like roll consisting of minced pork and prawn (or fish) seasoned with five-spice powder (五香粉) after which it is named, rolled inside a beancurd skin and deep-fried. It is usually served with chili sauce and a house-special sweet sauce.

Kuay Pie Tee 

julienned bamboo shoot and turnip poached in a prawn bisque and served in a deep fried “top hat” cup. topped with prawn, chilli sauce and a sweet fruit sauce

Kuay Pie Tee is a thin and crispy pastry tart shell kuih filled with a spicy, sweet mixture of thinly sliced vegetables and prawns. It is a popular Peranakan dish. The shells are made of flour and though some stores will make them from scratch, they can usually be found ready made in most supermarkets. Similar to popiah, the main filling is shredded Chinese turnips and carrots, and usually these two dishes are sold by the same stall in hawker centres.

VO Chicken Curry

chicken and potatoes stewed in Nyonya curry powder, curry leaves and coconut cream

First of the three meat dishes, VO Chicken Curry made with house curry mix and coconut cream. Violet Oon has been creating special curry powder mix for different brands, and it is used in this chicken curry that bears her name. It is a very thick curry, not the usual runny ones that are served at economic rice stores.

Babi Pong Tay

slow-braised pork belly with dried mushroom and bamboo shoot flavoured with bean paste, cinnamon and cloves

A much loved, traditional Peranakan dish of braised pork in fermented soy bean sauce called babi pong tay, VO’s version is made up of two generous pieces of pork belly capped by two huge shiitake mushrooms with a sauce made out of yellow bean paste, cinnamon and cloves. 

Sayur Lodeh

mixed vegetables and tempeh in a fragrant and mildly spicy coconut gravy

The vegetable dish we ordered was the sayur lodeh which essentially is vegetables in a very lemak curry. I felt that it was a little too sweet but still packed a lot of flavours. They managed to let the flavours of each dish not overpower each other (which is a tendency when there are so many spices involved).

Dry Laksa

fresh rice noodle tossed in Violet’s laksa gravy, topped with prawns, tau pok and bean sprouts

Many tried to create a laksa that is dry, and the result was usually using the same rempah for laksa and frying it with vermicelli noodles. Not only the taste was unsatisfying, the result was quite a far cry from the wet version. Hence, I thought that laksa would never be able to be available dry. Until I discovered Violet Oon’s version. Violet’s Dry Laksa was moist like a pasta, the laksa noodles were even smothered with the rich and fragrant sauce. If you closed your eyes, you could imagine yourself eating the wet version – very satisfying.

Here’s the recipe if you are interested to try to replicate.

The Perenakan Chinese are descendants of Chinese settlers who came to the Malay archipelago between the 15th and 17th centuries. The cuisine that developed draws in influences from Malaysian, Chinese, Indian and British colonial cuisine. Eating in a Nyonya house is often communal, so it is best to share the dishes with the steamed rice.

Pulot Hitam with Coconut Ice Cream

black glutinous rice stewed with gula melaka and coconut milk topped with coconut ice cream

Pulot Hitam with Coconut Ice Cream – I loved pulot hitam as a kid. It is essentially boiled black glutinous rice with lots of sugar, mandarin peel and panda leaves into this porridge and served with a dash of salty, creamy coconut cream. Here, Violet upgraded the cream to an ice cream and the result was sweet on sweet. I still preferred the old, tradition of salty coconut cream.

Coconut Delight

coconut jelly made with coconut water topped with fresh coconut flesh and coconut ice cream sprinkled with shaved gula melaka

The Coconut Delight was a surprised among us. It was a dessert of coconut flesh stacked upon coconut agar stacked upon coconut ice cream. The only thing that was not coconut was the shaved gula melaka (palm sugar) on top of the coconut ice cream. It was delightful, not too overwhelming. I especially loved the coconut agar made from fresh coconut water.

And best accompaniments with the desserts are some fresh brewed coffee. They do the usual barista’s creations, and also local kopi.

The food was as good as i remembered, the staff friendly and attentive and the restaurant tastefully decorated. While the food quality was high, the price was a bit steep which they compensated with the portion (enough to be shared by four). It should be on the list as a must-visit in Singapore for Peranakan food if you are in transit in the airpot.

Violet Oon Singapore at Jewel
Jewel Changi Airport, 78 Airport Boulevard, #01-205/206, Singapore 819666
Tel : +65 9834 9935 (Reservations)

Visited Sep 2024