One of the things that I often get asked during consultations is whether the condition they are suffering from is a result of "heatiness" (Juah). And it is not just the elderly who ask me this question, I also get asked by teenagers at times. Now, we never learnt about the antidote for "heatiness" in medical school, so I must admit that I don't know the intricacies of Chinese Medicine. Suffice to say that there are now 1.3 billion Chinese in the world so even if I don't understand how it all works, at least I have to admit that it has somehow helped in the successful propogation of the Chinese race.
Anyway, what I know is that if one is striken by a condition caused by "heatiness", then the remedy is to take something that is "cooling" (liang). I guess everyone knows that. Unfortunately, there is nothing in my dispensary that can be prescribed as "cooling" medicine, although if one is suffering from, say, a bacterial sorethroat, I would prescribe a suitable antibiotic to remedy the ailment. So, can antibiotics be also called "cooling" medicine? On the other hand, we often try to do the reverse and understand Chinese Medicine in the context of having anti-inflammatory ingredients and antibiotic effects. So maybe calling an antibiotic a "cooling medicine" might make sense to those who practise Chinese Medicine.
Back to this "Cooling" tea that Cactuskit told me about. As you all know, our roving food photographer eats quite a lot of hawker food, so every now and then, he feels a bit "heaty" and needs to cool down. That is when he pays this particular stall a visit to get his dose of "Bitter First Sweet Last" (Xian Ku Hou Tian) Cooling Tea.
For $3, you get a bowl of powdered bitter herbs mixed with a tonic which you have drink first and then counter the bitterness you follow with another sweet concoction. Like all medicines it is bad to take but good for you. Like I said, I don't know how it works but at least you feel that you have taken something that will enable you to continue eating all that yummy food at Old Airport Road FC!
This is a wild guess, but I reckon that more women like Vietnamese food than men. We are talking about Singaporeans of course. The reason I say this is because Vietnamese food is pretty healthy and low in oil and coconut milk. I think if we did a survey, the number of women putting up their hands should at least be twice the number of men.
I have been to Vietnam only once, but the place that I ate Vietnamese food most was in Australia and Thailand. It's funny, but in Thailand, Vietnamese food is regarded as a higher class of cuisine than the local fare. It's very much like how we compare Thai food to our local hawker food.
When you feel that you have had a little too much rich food, than going to Vietnamese restaurant to eat something light and satisfying like the salads and summer rolls might just be the way to go. For starters, we had the sampler which had three different types of salads and they were all refreshingly good. It's the combination of fish sauce, vinegar and palm sugar that gives the salad that kick. 4/5
Summer Rolls with prawns (Guoi Cuon) $8.90 (2 rolls)
Summer rolls might seem like a very simple dish to do since it really is just rice skin, vermicilli, prawns and mint leaves. However, it is a bit of a challenge to rehydrate the rice skin to just the right texture so that it has that nice gummy bite to it. For me this dish always epitomizes healthy eating. Having tasted this dish quite a few times, I am confident to say that the summer rolls here is almost as good as it gets. 4.25/5.
Stir Fry Beef Vermicilli (Bun Bo Xao) $10.50
The dish of the day for me though, was the dry beef vermicelli. The fragrant lemongrass marinated beef combined beautifully with the vermicelli, ground peanuts and other condiments. It's tasty, yet contains very little oil so you go away with a satisfied tummy and a clear conscience. 4.25/5
Vietanmese Pancake (Banh Xeo) $10.90
Vietnamese pancake is a sort of rice flour pancake filled with bean sprouts, prawn, chicken and mung beans which I surmise must have been a Vietnamese adaptation of the French crepe. I have had this many times in Thailand before and all the crepes always came very thin and crispy. The version here has got a thick chewy pancake which I felt was a tad too heavy. Would have preferred it thin like a Thosai. Then again they have thin and crispy as well as pan pizza to cater to different types of people, don't they? 3.5/5
Beef Pho $8.90 (Special)
How to blog a Vietnamese joint without the Pho? This is as Vietnamese as Hokkien Mee is Singapore. To have good Pho, you need lots of good quality beef bones. The Pho that they sell in Cabramatta, Sydney are really good because they have lots of cows in Australia, so bones are cheap which explains how they get their soup to be really robust and sweet. I guess in Singapore, it is harder to do the same. Despite that, they did managed to produce a pretty good Pho here which is good enough to satisfy a Pho craving. 4/5
Conclusion
If you feel a need to eat something light and tasty, Vietnamese cuisine is a good bet. Madam Saigon is a comfortable little eatery with friendly service and several items which are worth trying.
So, am I right is saying that there are more women than men who enjoy Vietnamese food?
Carlene introduces us to Madam Saigon!
Just trying out some new things with my Creative Vado. Let me know what else you think might be interesting for short clips.
Madam Saigon 30 Liang Seah Street Tel: 6333 9798 Mon-Fri 11.30am - 3pm, 6pm to 11pm Weekends, PH, 12pm-4pm, 6pm to 11pm Disclaimer: This was an invited review
Ok, time for a post to highlight some healthier stuff for our gym going, organic insisting, calorie counting friends who want to make sure that their tight T shirts remain comfortably tight but not bursting at the seams.
Yes, there is a market for people who want to eat chicken breast without the skin and all natural mayonnaise that is whipped by hand instead of being churned in a industrial vat. It is the same people who would for brown rice, whole wheat, whole grain, no artificial this and that stuff. In order words, the good stuff that they used to grow in the farm before the advent of genetic modification, pesticides and hormone injections to increase the yield of the harvest. All good intentions aside, these are the very people who are contributing to the global food crisis by insisting that we grow our food slowly. OK Ok, I am just joking, its good to be natural - just like armpit hair is also very natural.
Anyways, if you have just had a 3 hour workout at the gym, the last thing you want to do is to put back all those calories that you just worked so hard to get rid of --- Unless of course you are in the gym to burn calories in order that you can eat more. So what do you do if you are also on a tight budget since you have already spent all that money on the gym instructor and the latest gym gear? You do what most Singaporeans do when "money no enough" and head down to the hawker centre where you can spend the minimum cash for maximum satisfaction. But here is the dilemma, Char Kway Teow has too many calories, Chicken Rice is full of hormones and Yong Tau Foo is probably laden with trans-fats from deep frying in palm oil. So what to eat?
Enter Kenneth, our twenty something year old, half Eurasian, quarter teochew but "all natural" Engineer who got so fed-up facing the problem everyday that he decided to open a stall to sell the things he would like to eat after a gym workout. All natural kitchen is not called "all natural" for nothing. Kenneth makes all the sauces here using natural ingredients. I guess natural means no stuff like artificial enhancers. After all, if you are already on artificial enhancers to build up your physique, you won't want to overload yourself would you?
One of the popular dishes here is the toasted tortilla wrap which is filled with roast chicken (with no skin), fashionable lettuce (not iceberg) and fresh tomato salsa. Not bad and I especially like the spiced yoghurt sauce he provides with the salad. Think healthy and it can be quite shiok. 3.75/5
If you are looking for a wholesome breakfast, you can go for the wholemeal pancakes with raw honey. Tastes really healthy. Know what I mean? 3.5/5 OK, I admit I still prefer my Pratha but when you are struggling to keep your belt buckle from slipping under an ever expanding belly, this is what you should be eating right?
Kenneth had to hide behind the counter because he didn't wear his tight T shirt that day and was too shy to let us take a picture of his abs. Damien insisted that he should be tagged under "Hawker Hunks" though I felt he was more of a "Metro" Male. Well, you guys can tell me what you think.
Conclusion
Eat healthy food, it's good for you.
All Natural Kitchen Amoy Street Food Centre #02-110 Open for Breakfast and closes around 4pm
With Amagada, ieatjr and ieatprincess Sliced Fish Soup $5-$7
With the increased emphasis on a healthier lifestyle, I am making a conscious effort to eat more vegetables and trying to substitute meat with fish instead. That does not mean that I am giving up on lard and beef burgers. But as with all things, moderation is the key. So even though you see a post on something really really unhealthy, you must remember that constitutes maybe 4 meals out of a possible 21 meals a week. That underscores what I mean when I say that one should "Never waste your calories on yukky food". Enjoy your food when it is really good and store up your calorie quota at other times.
Smart has been chastising me about not including this fish soup in my series on Amoy St Food Centre. He prefers this one over Han Kee. And since Amagada loves fish soup, I found myself at Amoy St Food Centre one Sunday for lunch after Church. I thought that being a weekend, I would not have to contend with the office crowd.
Boy was I wrong. There was a queue of like 20 people and the queue was moving very slowly. What to do? Die die must try, so Kwai Kwai must queue.
Forty minutes later we finally got our fish soup.
Well, the soup was not quite up to our very high expectations, but the fish was very fresh and moist. The fact that each bowl was cooked individually means that the old man made sure that the fish was not overcooked but maintained its juices. Good but not nearly as good as I expected it to be. My vote still goes to Han Kee. 4.25/5
Conclusion
Would not mind eating it if it wasn't for the long queue and the fact that the smallest serving was $5. So which one is better in your books? Han Kee or Piao Ji?
Piao Ji Fish Porridge 02-100 Amoy St FC 10.30am to 3pm Closed on Thurs
Char Kway Teow must be one of the top three dishes with the worst reputation for being unhealthy. Just ask anyone which is the most unhealthy hawker dish and I think most people will mention Char Kway Teow.
To counter this bad rep, an increasing number of Char Kway Teow stalls are putting more vegetables on top of their Char Kway Teow in an effort to disguise the artery clogging properties of what is essentially rice noodles in a lard based sauce.
But if you think that the drive towards a healthier Char Kway Teow is a recent trend, then you would be surprised that this man has been frying his Char Kway Teow this way for over 20 years, from the time he took over his father's stall in Spottiswoode Park. He started adding the vegetables not because of health reasons, because he felt that it actually tastes better that way
He claims that he was the first one to actually fry Char Kway Teow this way and that other people, especially the famous one at Golden Mile FC had copied him. Is this true? Don't really know. Perhaps there are readers out there who can support or renounce his claim?
Anyway, I actually liked this CKT better then the more famous one at Golden Mile. He adds chye poh to the CKT and that adds a bit of kick. Still, I am a firm believer that CKT requires lard and without lard it is impossible vfor a CKT to reach its full potential. So I would rather eat a good CKT once in a long while and enjoy it rather then to eat partially healthy CKT more often. That said, this one is actually quite enjoyable although they don't put the lard in. Not something I would go all the way to Pasir Panjang to eat, but I'd say it is better then a lot of CKT I have eaten. 4/5
Conclusion
Not a bad CKT considering there is no lard and the vegetables will definitely soothe your conscience.
So what would you consider to be the top 3 most unhealthy hawker food?
PS: Westies should be happy that I am venturing this far West eh?
Heng Huat Fried Kway Teow 121 Pasir Panjang Road Pasir Panjang Food Centre 5 milesStall #01-36 11am to 9.30pm Closed on Sundays and PH
I think its best that I make clear my position on vegetarianism before I plunge headlong into my philosophical dissertation on this subject.
I believe that vegetarianism is a healthy lifestyle choice and that eating more veggies and less (or no) meat is beneficial in combating chronic diseases like high cholesterol and hypertension.
I respect vegetarians and their choice not to partake of animal foods although I do not have any religious/moral convictions about not eating meat.
I would opt to be a vegetarian for health reasons, but I just love my Beef Burgers too much.
OK, with that out of the way, let's get on to this very interesting question that was being discussed during our vegetarian makan session: Was Jesus a Vegetarian?
My first response was: "What a preposterous question! Of course he was NOT!" For me, saying that Jesus was a vegetarian would be in the same league as saying that the Holocaust did not happen. It is quite straightforward, is it not?
Ah, but you'd be surprised that there are people who have written whole books and websites to "prove" that he really was a vegetarian! Some of the arguments that were given was that it was his nature to be compassionate and so he must have been compassionate to animals as well. Aside from that, they also gave many references to historical resources outside of the Bible to substantiate their claims. Just google "Is Jesus a vegetarian?" and you would be amazed at how much material there is out there!
Monkey Head Mushroom Satay $9
I guess, it would make a compelling case for vegetarianism if it could be shown that the founder of one of the major religions of the world was vegetarian, even though the religion he founded does not actually require its adherents to practice vegetarianism. Or perhaps, they argue, it was in fact a practice that has been conveniently overlooked.
For me, this sort of argument is easy to debunk. It is the same sort of True/False question that we used to get in school. I always remember this very simple principle when it comes to answering True/False questions. If the statement has the word "ALWAYS" in it, then it is most likely to be false. That is because "ALWAYS" does not allow for even a single non-qualifying event. This is especially true for medical exams. Questions such as "Breast Cancer ALWAYS occur in women" are most likely to be False because it only takes one case of Breast Cancer occurring in one man to make the statement false. (The fact is that men are affected in 1% of all breast cancer cases).
TWE Olive Fried Rice $5
So when it comes to the argument of whether Jesus was vegetarian, rather then going convoluted philosophical arguments that imply that he was vegetarian, the simple thing is to answer the question: "Did Jesus ALWAYS eat only vegetables?" meaning that if I can show that he ate meat, then the argument is debunked.
So consider this passage is Luke 24:41-43:
This scene occurred after his death and resurrection which means that it occurred after he had been with his disciples for three years:
".........he (Jesus) asked them, "Do you have anything to eat?" They (his disciples) gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence."
For me it showed three things. First, Jesus ate fish and he ate it without hesitation. Second, the disciples who had been his companions for three years gave him fish when he asked for something to eat. If he had been vegetarian, then it would be the ultimate insult to their master whose habits they should know after spending such a long time with him. Thirdly, the disciples would not have been much of disciples if after three years they have not modeled to follow their master's vegetarian practice.
Case closed. Back to the food.
TWE Sweet and Sour Delight $12
If you have been reading my other vegetarian posts, you would know that I would opt to go veg whenever I feel I have eaten too much meat. The problem is that vegetarian food is not readily available and the ones that you often see in the food courts usually serve lots of deep fried gluten disguised to look like common Cze Char meat dishes. They all have that particular taste about them that I don't quite like. PK (a part time vegetarian) also remarked that it seemed hypocritical that one would still try to eat something that looks and tastes like the animal when the whole point was to protect them.
So when I found out that this vegetarian restaurant served Peranakan/Thai cuisine, it really got my attention as it is something I have yet to try.
Summer Shitake Mushrooms $15
For starters we had the Monkeyhead Mushroom Satay which was surprisingly quite good even though the only things that makes it a Satay are the peanut sauce and the skewers. The marinade is not your usual Satay marinade and they are deep fried, not grilled. It would have been even better for a meat eater like me to have the Satay marinated and grilled like Satay with pieces of Water Chestnuts in between the Mushrooms! That aside, the Monkey Head mushrooms have that chewability and taste about them that gives you that umami satisfaction that comes from eating meat. 4/5
Another dish that was quite commendable was the TWE Olive Fried Rice which we all felt was pretty good. They made a little concession and added a small amount of veg ham in it. The main taste still came from the liberal use of shredded olives and it was not too oily. 4/5
The Sweet and Sour delight is another dish that I would come back to order again. Instead of gluten, they use a Soy based protein "meat" which was nice and chewy and actually has that "Can't stop eating this" quality about it. Given that it does not have any cholesterol in it, I can say that I wouldn't mind substituting this for the usual sweet and sour pork. 4.25/5
Buah Keluak $15
In terms of the Peranakan/Thai food, I would say that they were a good attempt and definitely a nice departure from the usual but more work needs to be done before they would impress Peranakophiles like PowerAunty. The Buah Keluak could have been a hit since the main star of the dish is the Buah Keluak and not the meat. The gravy needed to be a little thicker, spicier and nuttier. However, I did like enjoy the Soya "meat" which was braised in the gravy. 3/5
The Tom Yam Mushroom soup is almost there but lacks that extra kick that comes from the use of Fish Sauce as well as a good stock base. But I think this can be tweaked by the addition of some Vegetarian fish sauce. 3.75/5. What I think could work really well is Tom Kha soup which is not on the menu.
We all liked the Summer Shitake Mushrooms which featured nice juicy Shitake Mushrooms simmered in a piquant sauce. The only thing we can't understand is why it is called a Thai dish since I really haven't come across this dish before even having lived in Thailand for two years. But still worth trying even if it isn't your classical Thai dish. 4/5
Oatmeal Tofu $15
Conclusion
The Whole Earth just underwent a change in the management and the new menu looks promising. The really good thing about the place is that you can actually bring anyone with food restrictionse. Not only don't they have meats, they also don't use garlic and onions. So they can actually appeal to people who are Vegans or Jains and to those who eat Halal and Kosher foods.
Overall, the food is not bad, but for a carnivore like myself it still only appeals to the health aspect. What I would really like to see is a vegetarian dish that is so good that I would crave to eat it despite it being vegetarian. Now that for me would be the "Holy Grail" of vegetarian food.
The Whole Earth 593 Geylang Road Between Lor 29 and 31 68413319 11am to 3pm 5.30pm to 10pm www.thewholearth.com Disclosure: This was an invited review.
Thunder Tea Rice or Lei Cha Fun is one of those dishes that are bound to get very mixed responses. My two makankakis that day wouldn't even spare a calorie to eat it spewing expletives like "It's like prison food" and "Hospital food tastes heaps better". Others are actually hooked on the dish and expound on its wonderful virtues of being able to lower cholesterol, detoxify the body, relieve stress, aid digestion, combat flu, boost the immune system etc etc etc. (With food like this, who would need a doctor?)
OK, so it is a dish which polarizes seemingly homogeneous Singaporeans into two opposing camps just like supporters of Liverpool and Man U. Another assertion made by my makankaki (I shall not reveal which one) is that Thunder Tea Rice is a dish for health conscious ladies. Such statements only serve to ruffle the leg hair of women libbers. Hey some women like their Pork Lard too, OK!
For those in the DON'T know, Thunder Tea Rice is called Thunder Tea Rice because of the bowl of Tea which accompanies the rice. The Tea is made from a mix of Green Tea, Basil, Mint and another herb called Yomogi. These are all ground up in a special bowl and then made into a tea which is to be added into your rice. The other ingredients such as pickled radishes, long beans, peanuts, dried shrimps, fried tofu are all prepared and topped onto the rice.
For those who have not eaten this before, I think your reaction would be similar to my two makankakis. How can pouring a bowl of slightly bitter and astringent Tea into rice be nice? Plus its all veggies man! And it ain't even fried rice!
OK, it wasn't all bad. It was quite ok and tastes even better when you think to yourself "Detox, lower cholesterol, lose weight, unclog arteries, clear complexion.......". Ohhh yum yum. But seriously, peanuts and pickled radishes do go quite well with rice and you do get your carbo rush. But for me, tea in rice really is an acquired taste which I found no absolute need to acquire. 3.5/5
Conclusion
I will think about eating this whenever I am in one of my health conscious moods or when I am out to play a prank on some unsuspecting foreigner looking for "die die must try" Singapore food. But seriously (again), for those who really are looking for healthier choice hawker food, this is really not bad.
Thunder Tea Rice Stall 86 Maxwell Road Food Centre 10.30am to 3.30pm daily
There's no doubt about it. Teochew porridge is comfort food especially if you are a Teochew Ah Hia. And even more so if you are a sick Teochew Ah Hia. Our resident Teochew Ah Hia, Damien was just recovering from a cold that day so he insisted that he needs to take some Teochew porridge from one of his regular stalls at Maxwell. Knowing Damien, this Teochew porridge's standard must be quite good.
Most of the dishes he ordered were the staple steamed squid, handmade fishcakes, braised pork belly. They were all very good but the one that really caught my attention that day was the Sambal Shark's meat. This was the first time I am eating this and was pleasantly surprised and just how tasty shark's meat can be. This is the kind of dish that goes really well with plain porridge. It coats your mouth with all the tasty goodness that just begs to be washed down with piping hot porridge. 4.25/5
I just wonder: If shark's meat is so nice, why is it that not many more people actually sell it?
Conclusion
Considering how cold the weather has been, I am sure that many are yearning for a nice piping hot bowl of porridge and here is certainly one place where you can go and get your Teochew Porridge fix.
Teochew Rice and Porridge Stall 98 Maxwell Road Food Centre 10.30am to 8.30pm
Smart tells me that he visits this particular fish soup at least twice a month although he would not say it is the best in Singapore. It has the combination of being "one of the best" and being "close to home". So as a result, he was willing to sacrifice a bit of ooomph for convenience.
Macpherson estate is one of the oldest parts of Singapore, so the food here is still pretty cheap. The food centre is still very much in its original condition, so I suspect that the "Gow'ment" will probably be renovating it soon. Being such an old place, there were lots of stalls that looked like they served really good stuff that was still not too "sanitized". You know what I mean right? Somehow food that is too clean does not taste as robust as food that may have an element of risk in it. Now, I am not advocating that we should all throw caution to the wind. Just merely stating an observation. Lots of people would agree that the food in JB is much tastier than Singapore and that the best Hawker foods are often found in rustic places rather then spotless spots.
The soup here is indeed very good. The fish is fresh and they are quite generous with the amount of fish. I especially liked the Ti Poh (Fried Sole Fish) which was very "Pang" (Savoury). They make everything themselves here including the Ti Poh and the Ikan Bilis (Fried Anchovies) and the soup is made from boiling fish bones and chicken for at least 8 hours. They also add bittergourd in the soup. Tasty and at the same time good for your cholesterol levels! 4.25/5
Fish Head Noodles $4
I am not one for Fish Head, but smart is. This Fish Head noodle soup is his fortnightly "must eat" dish. The interesting thing about it is that they use the dried egg noodles to cook the dish. These noodles have a unique texture and tastes quite savoury. They are also very generous with the chunks of Batang Fish Head and the soup is sweeter than the normal sliced fish soup. Smart rates it a 4.5/5.
Conclusion
Very good sliced fish soup and real value for money. My only complain is that they only give one or two pieces of the excellent Ti Poh!
Yong Lai Fa Ji Cooked Food Macpherson Food Centre 79A Circuit Road 5am to 9pm Closed Sun and Pub Hol
This is another one of those food blogs to make Westerners cringe. (Not all, of course) As is widely known, we Chinese eat anything that has legs and have their backs facing heaven. (Where does that leave snakes and monkeys?) Not only that, we eat almost every part of the animal. That's cos in poverty stricken China, its not every day that you get to kill the prized pig. So don't waste all those lovely innards yah?
Anyway, this blog is not about pigs, it is about fish. But what makes this fish soup special is that they serve fish skin as one of their specialties. Yes, I see you cringing. We both brother/sister, we both.
Me, I'm no fish skin person. But as I say, if other people like it, I am willing to at least give it a try. I was brought up thinking that the skin of the fish is the part that makes it Chor (gives it its fishy odour). I actually grew up not liking fish much because of the fishy odour. So it was already an achievement for me to start eating fish, much less eating the most fishy part of the fish!
Fish skin or Snake skin?
Truth be known , the skin actually tastes alright. It did not have that fishy odour that I was worried about. The texture was like soft pasta and was a bit slimy on the inside. Tastewise, I can't really describe. I guess it tasted like fish. The soup was good and Jason spikes his soup with a generous dash of Hua Tiao Chiu (Chinese Rice Wine) which gave it quite a kick. I arrived too late that day, so the fresh fish was sold out, but I was told by gubak that the fish is usually very fresh and the quantity generous.4/5
Conclusion
I don't think I will specifically order the fish skin again, but the soup and the fried fish was pretty good and at $3 a bowl, I'd say its quite good value too.
Jason's Fish Soup Golden Shoe Carpark #03-25 10am to 3pm
Some foods you eat because it is shiok. Some foods you eat to cleanse your system because the night before you ate something which was shiok. Whenever I need to eat something guilt free, I think of steamed soup and plain rice. Yep, as I get older, plain white rice seems to taste better and better. Not only that, it is guaranteed not to give you indigestion or reflux!
There are lots of steamed soup places that have made their appearance in recent years to cash in on the healthier lifestyle trend. You can now find steamed soups in a majority of air-con food courts. So what is it that sets this one apart from the others? For me it was 3 things. 1. The generous quantity of ingredients. 2. The fact that the soup is actually double boiled ie steamed in a steamer and not boiled then put in a steamer and 3. The friendly couple selling the soup ie great service.
A lot of times when you order a bowl of Xi Yang Chai (Watercress) Tang, you get a few strands of Xi Yang Chai that has been boiled to death and maybe 3 pieces of lean pork. Here, you get a generous helping of the vegetables that are steamed such that the soup is tasty yet the vegetables are soft but still intact. Same goes with the Winter Melon soup, the chunks of Winter melon are still intact but soft. This is achieved because the soup is not pre-boiled first. Instead all the raw ingredients are put into the bowls and then cooked by putting it in a steamer. This way the temperature is never too high to overboil the soup, resulting in maximal extraction of the flavours without destroying the precious nutrients. In addition, they use only pork soft bones and you get around 5 generous pieces per bowl! 4.25/5
Hong Kong style food is less robust when compared to Singapore food. So don't expect the soup to be very savoury. It is very Cheng (clear) and some may even find it a tad bland. However, as I said, it is great for those seeking something healthy to cleanse the system.
The steamed rice was also very good. I had the steamed pork with salted egg which was excellent. The pork was perfectly marinated and it was bouncy to the bite. Having the minced pork with the rice was really tasty yet gentle to the stomach. 4.5/5
Here's the Hong Kong Chef himself. Mr Heung has lived in Singapore for quite some time now and is married to a Singaporean. He still speaks with that typical Hong Kong accent though his mandarin is pretty much almost localised. I had a great chat with him. Friendly and unassuming, it is great to find a hawker who is passionate about his food and provides service with a smile!
Conclusion
Certainly not something you would drive all the way from Choa Chu Kang to eat, but if you living in the East and hankering for something nutritious and tasty, this would be a good choice. At $3 per bowl of steamed soup or steamed rice, it is one of the best value for money HK food that you can find!
House of Steamed Soup & Rice 29B Chai Chee Ave Fair Vision Food Court 11am to 8pm Closed on Sunday (So that the couple can attend Church!)
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