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Popular dishes at Westlake include an award-winning Hot and Sour Soup, Butter King Prawn and Roast Chicken. But, it was their braised pork buns that first put Westlake on the map, and the restaurant continues to be synonymous with the dish today: melt-in-the-mouth slabs of pork belly in a dark, savoury-sweet sauce, sandwiched into fluffy, steamed Chinese buns.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people think about braised pork buns, they think of us. It\u2019s something that has carried on over the years,\u201d Matthew said.<\/p>\n
The recipe, developed by his grandfather and uncle, originally required chefs to get up at 4am to braise the pork so that it would be ready for lunch hour.<\/p>\n
\u201cCustomers say our braised pork is fatty without being cloying. You don\u2019t feel the oiliness when you eat it. The texture is extremely important,\u201d Robert said.<\/p>\n
The secret to the perfect texture is in the thickness of the cut, Matthew divulged. Meat is sourced from Germany and the Netherlands. The dish also uses a premium-grade soya sauce specially calibrated for the restaurant by their longtime local supplier. The buns, too, have been supplied by the same family-run business over the decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t cut corners on these ingredients.\u201d For example, if one batch of soya sauce happens to taste different, it gets sent back. \u201cThat\u2019s how we have been able to keep our flavour consistent throughout the years.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, that\u2019s why, he continued, \u201cour braised pork buns have a certain taste that is only achievable with this combination of buns, soya sauce and meat. The buns have a tinge of sweetness, but, combined with our sauce and meat, you don\u2019t feel that the dish is overly sweet. Because we really started from scratch, the taste we came up with is very different from any other kind of braised pork in Singapore. I honestly think it\u2019s one of the best.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n