The Millennial’s Invigorating Tribute To Flavours Found In The Homes Of Kampongs

The team behind brand new The Kampong Bakery comprises, ironically, a bunch of millennials that the Gen X and baby boomers call “strawberry generation”, hinting at their allegedly lamentable fragility. The Kampong Bakery, though, is neither a bakery to belittle nor does it feature the fancy fruit. In fact, for their debut, think ginger flower, green mango, laksa leaf, goji berry…

Growing up in urbanised Singapore meant living in high-rise apartment buildings, and enjoying old-school hawkers’ food only in “hawker” centres. 30-year-old Jonathan Emmanuel, who manages The Local Collective, a food and beverage collective that owns The Kampong Bakery, and 28-year-old Ng Si Ying, head chef of The Kampong Bakery, often thought about the kampong experience.

Living somewhat interdependently on and in close proximity to neighbours who come from diverse and different cultures certainly had led to wild exchanges and fusions as evident in the intriguing vernacular of Singlish, and such nuanced variants of nasi lemak, chicken curry, chap chye, just to name a few dishes with which Singaporeans across all ethnicities must be familiar.

What could she do in her field of expertise, pastry chef Si Ying began to wonder, so Singapore gets to savour these precious, familiar flavours in modern ways?

Retro flavours reinterpreted by a pastry chef 

The Kampong Bakery launches just in time for festive gifting. Its eponymous bake box of five ($28) is the millennial’s invigorating tribute to flavours found in the homes of kampongs, bestowed by each villager helming from coasts and countrysides all over Asia.

Chef Si Ying channelled her sense of intrigue and awe into the Rojak Bomboloni: light ginger flower diplomat cream, hei ko (shrimp paste used in Chinese-style rojak) caramel, and peanut brittle that gives a sweet-savoury crunch fill a fluffy doughnut.

Forget molecular gastronomy – this ingenious bomboloni is proof that cognitive dissonance can be delicious, simply.

The other doughnut in the bake box honours pandan, a plant that is heavily used in Southeast Asian cuisines, and the crucial ingredient in Singapore’s Hainanese chicken rice which otherwise wouldn’t have had pandan since it is not native to China.

Like ondeh ondeh, foodies can bite into the Ondeh Bomboloni and taste the fragrant pandan diplomat cream made by cooking pandan leaves from scratch, and its gula melaka center. Toasted coconut boasting a concentrated natural sweetness is folded in so each bite is comforting yet surprising.

The chewy, oozy old-school ondeh ondeh takes a novel form in this pandan goodness while injecting the traditional doughnut with new life.

Another delightful ingredient that The Kampong Bakery had decided to experiment with is amchoor, a vivacious diva that is green mango powder, used widely but sparingly in Indian cuisines.

Sour, earthy, and even a tad bitter, amchoor sounds almost nasty, but lends a perfect citric tartness to the Amchoor Tart. A buttery pastry crust holds a literally saliva-inducing curd made from lemon, lime, tamarind, ripe mango, and amchoor – thrillingly sour, and just short of sharp.

Atop, cloud-like swiss meringue almost floats. Amchoor, also a key ingredient in the standard masala mix which Indian grandmothers are experts at concocting, is sprinkled onto it alongside ripe mango powder. This is the type of double whammy that yields compliments and scrunched up faces at once.

Speaking of grandmothers, The Kampong Bakery’s debut bake box also features a babka. Affectionately meaning “grandmother” in Polish, babka is made with yeast-leavened dough that traditionally features a sweet spread, such as chocolate or jam.

The Kampong Bakery’s savoury version colours its braids with the emerald of laksa leaf and the opal of cured egg yolk. The Kampong Babka’s pesto spread is made with laksa leaf, Thai basil, pine nuts, and parmesan blended together.

Infuse spice with nuttiness then add fine grains of cured egg yolk: the result is a nod to Singaporeans’ current favourite “salted egg yolk” seasoning that seems to please toddlers and their grannies.

Once an oddity, the flavour of preserved duck egg has inspired the creation of a savoury babka. Of Eastern Europe origin, the babka here is paired with an Asian pesto and can be enjoyed on its own.

The final treat in the bake box is Gogan Roll. Goji berry, longan, and red dates, the usual suspects in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), star in this variant of the cinnamon roll but possesses a fuller body and more robust flavour.

The dough is first spread generously with longan butter, then sprinkled with barley, goji berry, and red dates, and finally rolled. The sweet essence of all the fleshy grains and berries is retained in a cheng tng (sweet, cooling TCM soup believed to replenish qi and blood cells) icing drizzled over the roll.

Kampong spirit manifested in modern baking

Chef Si Ying explained her enthusiasm about what came out of kampongs, “We never experienced true kampong living but I know there is so much that our kampongs had given birth to, food-wise. There is definitely so much more we haven’t done. For our debut, I’m playing with ingredients and profiles that are often overlooked or undermined even though they’re such impressive flavour bombs. With my experience in European pastry making, I’m glad to be able to bring novelty into the familiar for those who remember these flavours
fondly.”

The Kampong Bakery is also seeking local partners, be they locally-owned businesses, or local chefs, bartenders, artists, and creators. Jonathan shed light on the ongoing effort. “The Kampong Bakery is inspired by gotong royong,  a phrase originating from Indonesia meaning mutual support in a community, and ‘kampong spirit’ encapsulates it perfectly. Beyond local suppliers and produce, we look forward to working with businesses and artists that seek to preserve the retro elements of Singapore and the stories of heritage they carry with them.”

Both The Kampong Bakery Bake Box of five, and Kampong Bombolonis ($23) which consists of two of each doughnut can be ordered via Oddle from 19 November. Orders may be placed Mon-Fri 11am-5pm, at least two working days prior to the preferred delivery time.

Delivery fee is an additional $5. The bakes are pork- and lard-free. Parties interested in collaboration may reach out to The Kampong Bakery via hey@thelocalcollective.com.sg.