A student saviour during the week, this Bentley canteen really shines on weekends

The Age

6 days ago

Kenneth Lim, one of Chomp Chomp's founders, is on the other side of the cabinet and putting the final touches on the display.
The Singaporean-born, former marketer turned self-taught chef slides a tray of mashed potato into position. He gives a small jug of gravy a few final stirs. In lieu of some kind of bell ringing, the swarms of youngsters wearing hoodies and backpacks swarming into the room signals the start of recess.
The Chomp Chomp line and Lim both jolt into action. They point at things. He packs them into cardboard takeaway containers feathered with rice, just as the legions of aunties and uncles of Singapore's economy rice stalls do, day in and day out.
The golden fried pork cutlet, unsurprisingly, is a popular choice. Like that potato and mash, this Singaporean 'western' dish was invented during Singapore's colonial era by Hainanese cooks who discovered that coating pork in a layer of crushed cream crackers yielded max crunch.
The gold of the ayam Kapitan or 'captain's chicken', however, is derived from turmeric rather than a deep fryer. Like the pork, this rich, dry curry sharp with lemongrass is also a product of cultural exchange: in this instance, the intermarriage between Chinese seafarers and local Malays that laid the foundations for Peranakan cuisine.