There is a western food stall in one of the food courts opposite our house back in Singapore. The stall is manned by a group of men, of all shapes and sizes. One thing they have in common is their facial expression – blank, non-smiling. Their less than desirable service level aside (which I’m not really expecting in a food court anyway), their food is pretty good.
My personal favorite is their grilled fish. It’s strange that everytime I ordered grilled fish, the man taking my order will shout “kim her” (in hokkien – one of the local dialects in Singapore) to the kitchen staff. Isn’t “kim her” gold fish?? When I’m ordering grilled fish for my son, I will tell the man not to put coleslaw (my son doesn’t like it) and his order to the kitchen staff will be “kim her mai peh“. Now, if I translate it directly into English, it’s gold fish don’t want white. Just doesn’t make sense in English but so short and straight to the point in hokkien.
What makes their grilled fish special is the fried garlic that they put on top. And I’m doing the same here in this recipe. Enjoy!
GRILLED FISH
Ingredients:
- 450 gram white fish fillet
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoon garlic salt
- Black pepper powder, to taste
- 5 cloves garlic, chopped
Method:
- Clean fish well and pat dry with kitchen paper.
- Preheat oven to 190ºC.
- Place fish fillets on a baking tray lined with aluminum foil. Drizzle olive oil over fish and season with garlic salt and black pepper powder.
- Bake fish for 15 minutes then turn on broiler and grill for 10 minutes.
- In a saucepan, heat cooking oil and fry garlic until golden brown. Scatter fried garlic on fish fillets and serve with mayonnaise.