From Friday, 23 October, a 24-seat café at Clarke Quay Central will serve a S$15.90 bowl built on one grandmother’s island recipes.
The pop-up is called Terumbu, Malay for coral reefs. It’s the first café-style pop-up from Orang Laut SG, and it runs until 26 December 2026. That gives you a little over two months to try the menu.
A Family’s Island, Pieced Back Together
The man behind it is Firdaus Sani, 37, a fourth-generation Orang Laut and Orang Pulau (people of the sea) descendant. As a boy, he often visited his maternal grandparents on Pulau Semakau, one of Singapore’s Southern Islands. According to Orang Laut SG, they lived there until the family moved to mainland Singapore in 1977.
In 2020, Firdaus started a personal page about Pulau Semakau, using old family photographs, his own memories and his grandparents’ stories. The page grew into Orang Laut SG, a community-led non-profit that works with indigenous coastal communities from the Southern Islands and beyond. It now runs research, education programmes and coastal tours.
Food became another way back in. With his mother, Mdm Noorani Rani, Firdaus began writing down the dishes passed on by his grandmother, whom he calls Nenek Ninah (nenek means grandmother in Malay).
The “Follow Your Heart” Kitchen
Nenek Ninah’s recipes went to Mdm Noorani and her sister, Mdm Rohaini, who continue to prepare the dishes today. There are no precise measurements in this tradition. The family cooks by a philosophy called ikut hati kau, or “follow your heart”, which means tasting, adjusting and knowing by experience when a gravy is ready.
According to Orang Laut SG, island cooking was shaped by whatever the day’s catch brought in, alongside things grown around the home, gathered along the coast or carried back from the mainland. That is why the menu leans on fish, squid and prawns.
Chef X is a residency programme by Far East Organization that launched at Clarke Quay Central in April 2024. It gives home-based chefs a fitted commercial kitchen, a dining room for up to 24 people and a mentor chef for four- or eight-week stints.
What to Order First
The Pulau Bowl (S$15.90) has three dishes in one bowl, served over jasmine rice with vegetables:
- Asam Pedas Ikan Karang: reef fish in a spicy, tangy gravy of turmeric, dried chillies and black pepper.
- Sotong Hitam: green-eyed squid slow-cooked in a squid-ink gravy with garlic, dried chillies and onions. Orang Laut SG notes this squid was traditionally caught with fishing lines rather than nets.
- Sambal Udang: prawns stir-fried in homemade sambal.
Sotong means squid.
The other main is the Bubur Lambuk Tenggiri. Bubur lambuk is widely associated with Ramadan, when the spiced rice porridge is shared at local mosques for iftar, the evening meal that breaks the fast. For families from the Southern Islands, it held a different place in everyday life, and Orang Laut SG says it turns the day’s catch into a meal for the family. Mackerel simmers with rice, lemongrass, coconut milk, black pepper, garlic and onions. It comes with prawns (S$11.90), with squid (S$11.90) or as a combo with both (S$13.90).
For dessert, there are two Malay kueh (traditional bite-sized cakes): coconut-forward Kueh Koleh-Koleh and Kueh Puteri Salat, which pairs glutinous rice with pandan custard. Seasonal drinks and desserts are on the list too.
More Than a Menu
Singapore has no shortage of heritage menus. We’ve covered Golden Peony’s heritage-focused menu and Choon Hoy Parlor’s tribute to a mother’s cooking before. Terumbu’s menu comes from the recipes of a family who lived on Pulau Semakau.
Alongside the food, there’s a community gallery with stories, traditions and memories from Southern Islands communities.
Firdaus puts it simply. “Although our family no longer lives on the island, these recipes have remained a way for us to stay connected to where we came from,” he says. “I hope that when people sit down to eat, they leave with not just a taste of our food, but a better understanding of our community, our history and the heritage we continue to carry with us today.”
🗓️ Date: Friday, 23 October to Saturday, 26 December 2026
⏰ Time: Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 9pm (according to Orang Laut SG)
📍 Location: Chef X, Clarke Quay Central, 6 Eu Tong Sen Street, #03-103/104, Singapore 059817 (above Clarke Quay Mass Rapid Transit station)
💰 Price: Pulau Bowl S$15.90; Bubur Lambuk Tenggiri from S$11.90
🔗 Details: Orang Laut SG
Opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday, so Terumbu is closed on Sundays and Mondays. The islanders’ stories and the non-profit’s coastal tours are on the Orang Laut SG website, and the pop-up closes on 26 December.
Photos and Visuals courtesy of Orang Laut SG.
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