Food Picks: Cherry & Oak's smoked nasi lemak and Enjoy Eating House's Hokkien mee

Smoking food has caught on in Singapore in the last year or two, with restaurants and home-based food businesses sprouting up to offer American-style barbecue and smoked charcuterie such as bacon and guanciale, and home cooks buying smokers to DIY at home.

One restaurant serving excellent smoked tomahawk steaks is ASAP & Co in North Bridge Road. The owners, Mr Isrudy Shaik and Mr Hairul Isa, have opened a new restaurant, Cherry & Oak in Owen Road, and the pull for me is its smoked nasi lemak.

Basmati rice cooked with coconut milk is wrapped in banana leaf, smoked for five minutes in the restaurant's impressive built-from-scratch stainless steel smoker and then "burnt" for six to seven seconds. Each serving of Nasi Lemak Bakar costs $2.50 and comes with half a boiled egg, cucumber, sambal, ikan bilis and peanuts. It is included with the restaurant's sharing platters.

And my, what an aromatic package it is. I think the rice could be more smoky, but chef Isrudy has to infuse smoke into the rice without making it too dry. The piquant sambal, not too sweet, is a great accompaniment. And really, that first whiff when I pull apart the leaf wrapping is priceless.

There are lots of smoked meat and sausages to go with the nasi lemak, but a good option is Burnt Ends ($32 for 200g). The meat is from the point end of a brisket - fatty, gelatinous, tender and juicy. Heady smoke from cherry and oak logs infuses every bit of the meat.

Juicy thigh meat makes Smoked Chicken Satay Madura ($18 for six sticks) well worth ordering. Peanut sauce is already drizzled on the satay, and finely sliced onion and red chilli top the skewers. Squeeze lime juice over it and you get perfection.

I cannot resist Sambal Chilli Fries ($12). The spicy and slightly sweet sambal coating reminds me of sticky chilli coated tapioca chips, a snack I cannot get enough of. The fries version has that old school taste I long for - but rarely get - in food.

For dessert, I home in on Cempedak Creme Brulee ($9.50), which I had been so curious about when I wrote about ASAP & Co. It is worth the calorie splurge. I have always preferred the wild and heady flavour of cempedak to its more circumspect cousin jackfruit and here, that wildness runs riot through the custard. At the bottom, chunks of the fruit sit buried, just to make sure the last spoonfuls of dessert are spectacular.

There is a chill vibe in the casual restaurant, which is flooded with natural light during the day. It seats 53 people indoors and 48 outdoors.

My dining companion and I barely make a dent in the menu. When we can have reinforcements, we will head there for a smoky feast.

Where: Cherry & Oak, 95 Owen Road
MRT: Farrer Park
Open: 11am to 10pm (Tuesdays to Sundays), closed on Mondays
Tel: 9119-4074
Info: Cherry & Oak's website

For 10 weeks straight, Hokkien Mee by chef Joel Ong of Enjoy Eating House And Bar has been sold out. The dish, for delivery only, is infused with wok hei and packed with goodies. These include large grilled ang kar prawns and also peeled grey prawns, tender squid, seared scallops, roast pork and cubes of fried lard.

As lovely as these accountrements are, they are nothing without the basics. And the basics are very much there.

It's all in the stock. This one is made with ang kar prawn heads and aromatics, and simmered for six to seven hours. The noodles are fried in small batches so that each strand gets charred properly in the wok, releasing that irresistible, appetising smell and taste that come from the breath of the wok.

Each $48 portion (delivery is free) feeds three to four hungry people, and the dish travels well. When I lift the lid of my box, the wonderful aroma fills the kitchen and the noodles have not become mushy in transit.

A squeeze of calamansi lime is really all that is needed to complete the dish, although I also like the kicky sambal that accompanies it.

Chef Ong has been cooking the dish for years, with tweaks along the way to make it better. He has never had it on his menus because of all the work involved, even though his restaurants in Jalan Besar and Stevens Road serve elevated local food such as Grandma's Te Kah Bee Hoon and White Pepper Alaskan King Crab.

The Hokkien mee delivery is a way to improve delivery sales during the pandemic. For customers, we get to order in and chow down - why be delicate - on his excellent, hearty offering.

Where: Enjoy Eating House And Bar,01-07, 30 Stevens Road
MRT: Stevens
How to order: Via WhatsApp (8511-1478) or on Instagram; delivery is free and payment is through PayNow

There are many, many home-based food businesses selling every condiment known to man - chilli sauces, sambal belacan, Thai-style dipping sauces, XO sauce and the like.

Some are excellent, others are unremarkable.

One taste of Hiam Origins' wares and I know I want more. It is a home-based food business started by Ms Annie Chua, a project manager by day. She runs the business with her aunt, Ms Yap Kwee Lan, a retiree who, with her siblings, used to operate a large staff canteen in the city centre.

All that experience shows.

Their Fermented Chilli Bean Sauce ($8.80 for 220g) has a little unexpected zing - turns out, it is sour plum. I use it in a stir-fry of French beans, capsicum, lotus root, baby corn and ginkgo nuts, and it is terrific. There is just enough spice and the final dish is not too salty. I season it with nothing else apart from the sauce.

Premium XO Scallop Sauce ($26.80 for a 220g jar or $50 for two jars) is not too spicy either, and has a good bite from the dried Japanese scallops and dried shrimps. The caramelised onion in the sauce gives it lots of oomph. Toss this with noodles or fry rice with it.

As good as these two sauces are, I am most in love with Crispy Fried Shallots ($8.90 for an 80g jar) andShallot Oil ($6.50 for 300ml) because they have done the hard slog for me - peeling the shallots, slicing them thinly and frying them carefully so they are golden brown.

That aromatic shallot oil - the base is soya bean oil - is gold. I make a dressing using the oil and soya sauce to pour over chilled tofu, with a sprinkling of shallots; and add black vinegar to the oil and soya sauce to pour over steamed eggplant. I cannot wait to make muah chee, so I can coat the QQ morsels with the oil before rolling in crushed peanuts and sesame seeds.

Many home-based businesses fizzle out after a while. But Hiam Origins is looking to scale production next year, with a view to selling the sauces in stores.

I hope they continue to offer the shallot oil.

Where: Hiam Origins
How to order: Via Shopee, Instagram and e-mail