'It was a little disappointing': Darren Lim and Evelyn Tan hope to see more local flavours in pasar malam stalls

Pasar malam is a local term for night market, but it seems like the offerings are no longer as local.

Recently, AsiaOne spoke to local celebrity couple Darren Lim and Evelyn Tan regarding their experiences planning and managing a pasar malam stall on the variety show Pasar Malam Stars.

The couple's main motivation for participating in this show was to advocate for more local flavours and locally designed and produced products in the night markets.

Darren, 50, shared his thoughts on the present-day pasar malams: "I took a short walk and I was a little disappointed. A lot of foods are inspired from other countries, like Taiwanese braised meat rice, Arabic kebabs and takoyaki balls. All these are foreign foods and are not related to Singapore.

"Pasar malam is close to our hearts. In every country, they have their own styles, like in Thailand they have fried insects like crickets, and in Australia they have handmade soaps and homemade jams. Tourists want to see something uniquely Singapore when they visit a pasar malam."

Ultimately, these led to his interest to participate in the show: "Our mission is to promote local foods, flavours and creations."

Pasar Malam Stars features celebrity teams manning their own pasar malam stall for one evening. When the theme is revealed 24 hours before the day of business, the participants are required to plan and prepare for their stalls. In this episode with the theme "sweet love", Evelyn and Darren compete against Felicia Chin and Jeffrey Xu.

Evelyn, 48, concurred with Darren.

In fact, that was their main source of inspiration for their dish offerings for the theme of "Sweet love" - red ruby drink and kaya butter biscuit - where Evelyn prepared the drink and Darren prepared the food.

Darren was persistent in ensuring his dish was filled with local flavour.

"I wanted to express my message of thinking out of the box for traditional local dishes. I even thought of nasi lemak, bak chor mee and chicken rice but it's hard to make them sweet.

"I like kaya butter toast so I thought of cutting it into a heart shape, coating it with egg and breadcrumbs and deep-frying it."

His idea didn't sit well with Evelyn, who thought kaya butter toast sounded "more like breakfast than a dessert dish".

She shared: "It sounded plain. I didn't feel that it would draw the crowds in."

Nonetheless, in the end he proved her wrong and Evelyn was "glad he stuck to his idea" as it drew crowds and good reviews.

'We ran out of ingredients more than once'

With it being the first time they were managing a pasar malam stall, they admitted that their greatest challenge was estimating the amount of ingredients needed.

In fact, they ran out of ingredients a few times throughout the duration of the show.

"I added water chestnut to my red ruby drink, so that there will be additional nutritional value… But I didn't have enough water chestnut, so initially I used one tablespoon per cup. Later on, it became only half a tablespoon per cup. Only the first 20 customers got the complete drink." Evelyn shared with amusement.

Darren also said: "I didn't have enough bread and kaya. I had to run to and fro the supermarket a few times… We asked our customers to walk around as we had to close shop for a while."

Nonetheless, they found their silver lining in their customers' kind understanding. Instead of getting the red ruby drink and kaya butter biscuit for $10, many were willing to buy two biscuits for $10 when the couple ran out of the drink.

'I used to stir kaya for my grandma'

Having not visited a pasar malam since the pandemic, being in one also stirred up nostalgia from their childhoods, which they recalled fondly.

Evelyn recalled her favourite games: "Fishing ducky, where we fish for a rubber duck, and a number on the duck corresponds to a prize. I also enjoy the one where naphthalene balls run down a covered slope…then we have to crush the ball once it pops out."

"Making kaya butter toast reminds me of the homemade kaya that my grandma used to make. I used to help her in the kitchen, constantly stirring the kaya so that it will not coagulate and get burnt," Darren reminisced.

Evelyn's favourite snack is kueh tutu, while Darren's is kacang putih and the artificial bird's nest drink that's supposedly made with agar agar strips.

Pasar Malam Stars is set to be shown on Channel 8 in January 2024.

ALSO READ: 'I would love to come back': Dai Xiangyu misses Singapore but hasn't been invited to return to act

jolynn.chia@asiaone.com

No part of this story can be reproduced without permission from AsiaOne.

For more original AsiaOne articles, visit here.