Siang Hee Restaurant: When Hawkers do it, it is not called Fusion

With Wahcow, Cactuskit, WahcowMaiden, Khim, Liverpool

Pumpkin Tempura Prawns (4 prawns $12)

It is funny, but everytime a fancy restaurant incorporates some local flavours to Western Cuisine, we call it "Fusion". However, when a Cze Char incorporates some Western Flavours into their cooking, we don't really think of it as "Fusion", do we?

Take Cereal Prawns for example. I am quite sure Cereal is not used in traditional Chinese cooking. But some very clever chef came up with this dish years ago and now everyone loves it. You hardly hear anyone complain that this dish is "non-traditional" or "Fusion".

This particular Cze Char Stall has been around for 30 years but it is only in the last two years that it has become increasingly popular. The increased in popularity came about when Ah Yoke, the feisty 60 year old Lao Ban Niang cum chef, decided to start experimenting with new flavours drawn from our current culinary climate.



Take the pumpkin tempura prawn for instance which is a cross between Japanese style tempura prawns covered with a gloriously rich Pumpkin Butter Cream which reminded me of a thick and savoury Pumpkin soup. The Pumpkin Butter Cream was quite an eye opener for me especially since I really like a good Pumpkin Soup. The sauce is so addictive that I could simply eat it with my rice and be as satisfied as little Jack Horner (you know the one who pulled out a plum and said "what a good boy am I"). Aside from Pumpkin and Butter, Ah Yoke also added some fresh chilli and curry leaves into the secret sauce. Simple but satisfyingly Shiok! 4.5/5


Crispy Ter Kah (Pork Knuckle) $15

The other dish that got the "Wows" from our kakis was this Crispy Ter Kah which really is Ah Yoke's version of the famous German dish. She manages to get the skin to be as crispy as Keropok with a nice layer of chewy subdermal fat to compliment it. Ah Yoke was explaining that she goes to a lot of trouble trying to extract the "porky" stench and excess fats from the Pork Knuckle. First, the pork knuckle is pressure cooked for 20 minutes to extract the fats, then it is slowly simmered in herbs to remove get rid of the stench.



One of the ingredients that is used in the Pork Knuckle is Red Yeast Rice which Ah Yoke said was added because it negates some of the ill effects of eating Pork fat. Now, you might think that this is another old wife's tale, but she is actually quite right. Red Yeast Rice contains lovastatin which is actually a cholesterol lowering drug. The "Statins" are a major class of drugs that are used to lower cholesterol levels, so our hawker aunty knows what she is doing! However, whether or not the addition of Red Yeast Rice to the Ter Kah is going to help with your cholesterol levels is debatable. So don't be too happy if you have high cholesterol, because this is NOT your license to indulge in Ter Kah!

The chilli sauce is quite unique as one of the key ingredients is apricot jam and it actually goes really well with the Ter Kah. My only grouse is that the meat itself was a little dry, otherwise the crispy skin and the chewy layer just beneath it is really quite a treat. 4.25/5


Marmite Pork $8

If you, (like me) enjoy Jing Dou Pai Gu (Pork Ribs) then you will enjoy the variations of the dish that you can order here. The Pork is nicely seasoned and has just the right amount of tenderness. You know how some Cze Char places go overboard on the use of bicarb in tenderizing the pork so that it has the consistency of fishcake? Here, it is tender but you still get enough bite in the pork. Basically, you can order the same deep fried pork with Pumpkin Butter Cream, Marmite or Mongolian sauce. We tried the Marmite Pork that day. It was good but I felt the Marmite flavour could have a bit more kick. Judging from the quality of the fried pork, I can think it is quite a sure bet that the Jing Dou Pai Gu would be really good. 4/5

Conclusion

If you are looking for your next Cze Char to visit, then Siang Hee is a good bet. Our kakis have either already gone back there or are planning a return visit with the family.

Siang Hee Restaurant
Blk 89 Zion Road
#01-137
S160089
11am to 10.30pm
Closed once every 3 weeks on Tuesdays
97364067 Ah Yoke

What to do next?

Check out the review from the advance party led by PChong
Check out the food across the street at Beo Crescent!
There's several good eats at the Zion Road Food Centre too!

Yuet Loy: Mom and Pop Cze Char!

With Cactuskit, liverpool, keano, smart, jems and damien

Tofu with Beansprouts

If you are hankering for some really shiok dishes to make you eat more rice, then you can try heading down to the Smith Street Food Centre to check out this little Mom and Pop Cze Char who specializes in Cantonese style cuisine. Actually this stall is quite famous for its Beef Hor Fun and I have been wanting to check them out for the longest time. But when I eventually got there, they ran out of Hor Fun! Sigh! So I had to settle for the Cze Char dishes which turned out to be quite a treat.

Now this couple are pretty old school, so they don't believe in a "low salt" diet so the dishes all come out pretty tasty (salty). The homemade tofu with beansprouts is a simple dish but there is something about the texture and taste of the tofu that made it go very well with rice. 4.5/5


Stir Fry Kai Lan with Sliced Beef

Since I couldn't order the Beef Hor Fun, I settled for the Beef Kai Lan. The beef was tender and the dish was good. But lacking the Hor Fun with Wok Hei, it just didn't have that ooomph I was expecting. Still, it was a commendable dish. 4/5


Salted Fish Chicken

I don't take much salted fish nowadays but by golly, when you actually get to eat it, it is quite shiok. Again this Salted Fish Chicken dish is a great dish to down that extra plate of rice with. 4.25/5

Conclusion

Humble little stall that is churning out really great Cantonese homecooked food! Well worth a visit.

Yuet Loy
Smith Street Food Centre
#02-151
Open for lunch and dinner

Eng Seng Restaurant: Ring Up First or No Crabs for You!

With Amagada

Black Pepper Crabs $38 per kg

We should do a poll to see whether there are more Chilli Crab lovers or Black Pepper Crab lovers. I think that there was one time when Chilli Crabs were the runaway favourites, but then Black Pepper Crabs came onto the scene and stole top spot from Chilli Crabs. Of course, nowadays there are a few other crab fads like Crab Bee Hoon and Salted Egg Crab, but I still think that Chilli Crabs and Black Pepper Crabs are still by far the favourite amongst Singaporeans.

Today we talk about Black Pepper Crabs and as you all may already know, the creation of the dish is widely attributed to the famous Long Beach Seafood Restaurant. But if you ask where is the best Black Pepper Crab around, a lot of people will tell you about this particular place where you have to ring up early in the day to book your crabs before coming down at around 5pm to start queueing for a table.

The notoriaty of this place is legend. The queue is so bad that it had intimidated me enough to not to try it after all these years. There is also the rumour of a Empress Dowager like figure commanding the restaurant and rumours of the Uber Food Nazi chasing people away for the lack of crabs is the stuff of Singaporean Hawker Lore. And then, there is the fact that they are usually sold out by 8pm. How to eat like thaaaaaat? Then again, like that, how not to eaaaaaat?



What finally brought me to the restaurant was when I heard rumours that the restaurant had moved to somewhere in Yio Chu Kang and that the restaurant in Joo Chiat is closed. In fact, I have driven past the alleged new restaurant (which I shall not name at the moment) and it says clearly on the signboard that they were previously from Joo Chiat Place. I think it was Holydrummer who told me that he had already eaten the black pepper crab there. So I started making plans to visit the new restaurant at Yio Chu Kang since I thought I might get a chance to eat the crab before people find them and we have to start queuing again.



But as I was organizing my trip there, one of my patients told me that she had just eaten Black Pepper Crab at the old Joo Chiat Place! After making sure she wasn't seeing me for diarrhoea, I decided that I would get to the bottom of this mystery once and for all.

So we eventually found ourselves sitting at the old coffeeshop at Joo Chiat Place at 5 pm waiting for our Black Pepper Crabs. We were lucky as we did not ring to reserve our crabs ahead of time but still managed to order some because they had a good supply of crabs that day.


As our gowment says, Two is not enough!

The verdict: Strangely addictive. These Black Pepper Crabs are not like the ones served elsewhere. The sauce is slightly sweet and not overly spicy. As Goldilocks would say, "it is just right!". It was so shiok that I think I ate more crabs at that one seating then I ever had for a long while. 4.5/5

The lady manning the register told me that there is some secret ingredient in the black sauce that they used but stopped short of telling me what it was. She also insisted that rumours of there being a change in management at the restaurant was untrue and that everything was the same as before. She appeared to know about the restaurant in Yio Chu Kang but wouldn't say anymore about them.

Conclusion

I guess the real question is whether I would bother calling up earlier in the day and come at 5pm to start queuing up for the Black Pepper Crab the next time? Quite honestly, I think I would.

But back to the mystery at hand. Something must have happened to have started all the rumours! Anyone knows of what actually happened?

Eng Seng Restaurant
247 Joo Chiat Place
(Jn Joo Chiat Place and Still Rd)
4.30pm to around 8pm
64405560
91113564 Eunice

Lu Tian: It doesn't get cheaper than this!

With Cactuskit and liverpool

Chilli Crayfish (deshelled) $12

Although this blog is about great food, you all realize that the stalls that we frequent do not necessarily sell THE best food. No, there are several other factors that influence how we decide where to eat our next meal, right or not? At least for myself, the decision to eat at a particular stall is based on convenience, value, whether one if familiar with the stall owner and of course, taste.

So what makes this Cze Char one of Cactuskit's favourite haunts? He told me that he once ate here thrice in a fortnight! Well, the food here is good but it is the price that will draw anybody back again and again. Plus the fact that you will definitely find a table to sit without having to stand in front of someone with your most pathetic "hungry puppy" look to pressure them to finish their bowl of chengtng and get their butt off the chair.


Hong Shao Tofu $6

Cactuskit tells me that in its heydays at Lau Pa Sat, Lu Tian commanded a long queue and at the time the owners were quite a Food Nazi. Nowadays, the stall occupies a single hawker space in Amoy Street Food Centre and is only one of a few stalls which open at night. So you get to choose to sit at any table you like.

The food here is still pretty tasty although I would not say it is die die must try. The crayfish in chilli had an excellent texture. It was perfectly cooked so that it was still tender and moist on the inside and was not dry like a lot of other crayfish I have eaten before. The chilli sauce was quite unique and the addition of cilantro gave it a refreshing "grassy" flavour. 4/5

The Hong Shao Tofu will appeal to anyone who likes eggy "Sap Kum" hor fun. The sauce has that "really makes you want to eat more rice" quality about it. The kids loved it. For 6 bucks, I was really surprised to find that it still had quite a few mid size prawns and other seafood in it! 4/5


Jacket Fish $12

Lastly we had the jacket fish without its jacket. The sauce is similar to that of the crayfish. Not a big fan of Jacket fish and chilli, but my kakis seem to enjoy it. Cactuskit who eats this all the time gives it a 4.25/5

Conclusion

The food here is quite decent but it is the bill at the end which will make you go back again. For 5 dishes which included quite a bit of seafood, we paid less than $40. Coincidentally, SCS butter was there with a group of 8 people and they paid less than $80! So if you are after good food, excellent value and not needing to wait for someone else to finish their cheng tng before you can sit down, you'd be very happy if you visited this place.

Lu Tian
Amoy St Food Centre, 2nd Floor
(The opposite end of the POSB ATM)
Opened till 3pm for lunch and 10pm for dinner
Closed on Sundays



Remember to vote today! Click here

Geylang Claypot Rice: Still using Charcoal!

With oil prices soaring, we should all turn to alternative fuel sources like charcoal for instance. That would be good news indeed except for one problem --NEA. Yes our friends at NEA will not allow this wonderful food enhancing fuel source in any of their hawker centres or coffeeshops, so we can only find them in private places.

I can understand that charcoal can infuse a nice smoky flavour when used to grill meat, but I have yet to comprehend the scientific basis behind using charcoal to cook claypot rice or fry hokkien mee. How can the smell of the charcoal somehow permeate a metal wok or claypot to infuse flavour to the food? According to the Lor 29 Geylang Hokkien Mee uncle, it is supposed to have something to do with the wider coverage of the flame such that the whole bottom surface of the wok is sizzling hot. So with claypot rice, maybe it has something to do with the flames coming up the side of the claypot and making all burnt rice round the sides of the claypot?



It takes quite a while for the claypot to get to your table since they cook everything from scratch. I have eaten here quite a few times in the past before they opened their new extension. It used to be that you needed to call up to order your claypot rice before you came or risk waiting an hour to eat. However, with their newly opened extension, I managed to get my claypot rice within 20mins.



For me, the beauty of eating claypot rice lies in the crunchy burnt bits of rice that is stuck to the side of the claypot mixed with the flavour of the salted fish. Alas there wasn't enough salted fish that day so it lacked a bit of ooomph. 4/5



There are two dishes that you won't waste your calories on though. The deep fried soon hock is wonderfully crispy on the outside and moist on the inside and the sauce has got just the right amount of sweet umami to make you want to eat more rice. 4.25/5



The other dish that the whole family loved was the tofu prawns. They make their own egg tofu here so it was wonderfully silky and tasty. The sauce again was excellent and the prawns were fresh. The kids finished up all the tofu. 4.5/5


Unbranded durian $5 each

The best thing about eating around Geylang is that you can find Durians there all year round. However, the best time of the year for Durians is still around this time when they are in season! I know we have a lot of Durian lovers out there, so this should get you to start drooling!

Conclusion

Claypot rice was a little disappointing this time around, but the other two dishes were still as good as before! Now with their new air con extension, they are even opened for lunch!

Geylang Claypot Rice
639 Geylang Road
Jn of Lor 33
67444574, 67443619
11.30am to 2.30pm
5pm to 12am

ieatishootipost on Channel U

Here's the link to the video on youtube

You can also read the online article at xin.sg

When the reporter from Channel U asked me to pick a place where we can stage the interview, Ya Kwang immediately came to mind. I chose Ya Kwang because Jason decided to introduce Cze Char dishes right after the first blog post on their Kway Chap. It was during that meeting that I discussed with Jason about the possibility of introducing a Lobster Noodle dish that was available outside of a hotel or fancy restaurant. It became the first of many unique new Cze Char dishes to be introduced our local food scene.

So after 10 months of blogging (on this and other blogs), the print media finally took notice and featured their Crab Bee Hoon on the Sunday Times last week. I thought this was a good example of how blogging is changing the way eateries are being marketed in our day and age.

Personally, I feel that restaurants have not fully realize the potential of blogs to make or break a restaurant. Of course, blogs are still very much in the infancy stage compared to the main stream media when it comes to marketing. However, as the experience in the Malaysian elections have shown, it would be a mistake to simply ignore the blogs. I think it is only a matter of time before PR agencies are hired by the restaurants to manage bloggers. This would be a whole new ballgame for the PR agencies because they will be dealing with a group of people whose nature is to fiercely defend their right to independence and free speech.

On the other hand, consider the impact that a group of 20 or 30 food bloggers reviewing the same eatery all at the same time. All we need now is a nexus whereby they can all be mobilized simultaneously. It's an uphill task trying to get a whole bunch of individualistic "cats" to behave like socialistic "dogs". There have been food bloggers' dinners organized in the past to try to bring food bloggers together, but these have only been a "blue moon" affair. The community of food bloggers in Singapore still tend to remain fragmented. Some would perhaps argue that it should remain this way. Though I believe that blogging should retain its independent flavour, I also see the marketing potential of some form of association. I am trying to plant the seed for such a nexus by creating a special segment in the forum where Singapore food bloggers can get together to discuss food blogging issues. It's a start but there is still a long way to go.

One of the emerging players in this whole equation is the blog advertising agency Nuffnang whose ads are supported in this blog. Nuffnang is emerging as the de facto association for bloggers by organizing gatherings and forums where bloggers can all congregate to discuss contemporary issues. The next logical evolution is for Nuffnang to segment its registered bloggers into the various categories and mobilize them to provide reviews of different products. I think that would be an attractive proposition to advertisers. Currently they are already doing product advertorials but on a wider, less specialized scale.

Anyway, enough of theorizing, back to the appetizing.


500g Lobster Tang Hoon $60

For this occasion, we wanted to do something that would look impressive on TV, so we went with the Boston Lobster again. Nothing spectacularly imaginative, just substituting Crab for Lobster in his already popular Crab Tang Hoon dish.



This dish combines one of my favourite carbs with my all time favourite seafood. Korean Tang Hoon is one of those magical foods that I simply fell in love with when I first tasted it in Sydney. (My hometown of Eastwood is almost like a little Korea!) And I fell in love with Lobster the first time I had it in Phuket. Not only because they are nice to eat (and very exclusive), their are probably the prettiest and most photogenic of seafoods. The bright red colour never fails to make a good picture, and the shell and tomalley (that green stuff in the head) always imparts the savoury taste of the sea to starchy staples of any kind. So it was a impressive no brainer. 4.5/5

Conclusion

I would like to apologize to the 11 Lao Shis (10 from St Andrew's and Kang Lao Shi of RJC '87-'88) who have tried their utmost to teach me mandarin. I tried my best but as you can see, I have not made further progress in the last 20 years. And if it makes you feel any better, I am still occasionally waking up in the middle of the night thinking that I am sitting for my Chinese Exams the next day. So I hope it shows that I really did try. And to the rest, please give me a break, my Chinese is not "Half past six", its a proper D7!

Thanks again to all the readers of this blog. Your comments and constant encouragement continue to fan the charcoal fire and keep the satay grilling!

Update 1 Nov 2008

Please note that Jason has sold his business as of 1 Nov 2008. We wish him all the best as he ventures down under!

Ya Kwang Dai Pai Dong
709 Geylang Road (Lor 37)
11am to 11pm daily
98170006
Lobster orders before 7 pm




Here's the translation of the Video provided by jems based on the transcript: Thanks jems!

Some bloggers like to make use of their online blogs to introduce food they love to eat. There's this particular blogger who sets out to eat all the local hawker food and blog it on his blog as a food directory for netizens.

Dr Leslie Tay loves food and also loves photography. He combined these two interests one and a half years ago, started an online food blog, going around Singapore tasting hawker food, took pictures and uploaded them onto his blog, added his critic, categorized them into various categories for easy lookup for the netizens, averaging a hit rate of 8000 a day.

Some hawkers even voluntarily requested for Dr Tay to blog about them, hoping that it will help to boost their business. Dr Tay said, " Some said it does not affect much. It's very hard to say, but for most of the unique ones, I give full marks, or rather not full marks, but 4.75, most of them will see a significant improvement in business."

There's a stall situated at Geylang which is famous for its Crab Beehoon and Lobster Noodles, after Dr Tay's introduction saw an increase in business by 50%. There are even Indonesian netizens who after reading the blog, specially flew into town to try his food. Ya Kwang Da Pai Dang's boss Jason Tan said, "When they were here, they were carrying luggage, to come and eat my Lobster Noodles, I just find it very amusing, Dr Tay's blog can evoke foreigners to come try my stuffs."

Other than introducing good food, Dr Tay also from time to time suggests to the hawkers how to improvise and create new dishes, for example this Lobster Tang Hoon. Netizens also discuss in his forum how never to waste calories on yucky food.

Ya Kwang: Italian Cze Char

With Camemberu, Keropokman and Amagada

Huay La Ban Mian $5

You would be forgiven if you thought that this was a blog about Italian food. This is not a plate of Pasta con Vongole. It might look like Vongole and maybe taste a little like Vongole but Vongole it is not. Instead, it is a Fried Ban Mian with Huay La and it is eaten in a coffeeshop amidst the smells of Kway Chap and exhaust smoke.



This is a relatively simple dish. The secret lies in the type of clams used. Jason uses what he calls a Huay La (Huay = Flower) as opposed to the more common La La. The Huay La is much sweeter than the La La and that characteristic bitter aftertaste gives the al dente (should I say QQ?) homemade Ban Mian a great sauce to create gastronomic symphony. Certainly a most unexpected hawker dish!. 4.5/5

This is actually my second time eating this dish in a week and this time I gatecrashed on Keropokman's lunch AGM of the Alumni of Batu Pahat Bloggers. By the time I got there, the alumni was already halfway through their agenda and two eyeballs short of their steamed salmon head! You can read Keropokman's account here and Camemberu's here. So not say I say but other bloggers also say that this Ban Mian is good, ok?


Prawn Tang Hoon $7

I did not want to eat crab that day, but I was still yearning for the marvelous Korean Tang Hoon, so I requested that Jason do a Prawn Tang Hoon for me instead. The dish came with a pleasant, and unexpected addition of belly pork as well. The Tang Hoon was wonderfully slurpilicious as usual, however the prawns did not give it as much kick as the crab usually does. OK, still managed to satisfy my Tang Hoon craving but not quite hit the umami spot. 4/5


Teriyaki Beef Hor Fun $5

Jason loves everything Japanese and used to run a Japanese stall over at Suntec City. So there is a lot of Japanese influence in his food. The Kway Chap for instance uses Kikoman soy sauce instead of the normal Soy Sauce. I tried his Teriyaki Beef with rice set which was so good that my son finished the whole thing before I got enough of it. So I asked Jason to try something new for me. Instead of rice, I asked him to fry a Teriyaki Beef Hor Fun instead.

Well, let's just say that it was so good that one of my fellow bloggers Tah Powed a portion home. I like the fact that Jason uses a really nice beef and he doesn't tenderize it by soaking it in bicarb. So the beef is nice and beefy and the homemade teriyaki sauce is quite shiok. The Hor Fun still can be improved as it did not have that wok hei flavour. That aside, this is a dish that I am looking forward to eating again soon. 4.25/5

Conclusion

Not many stalls get repeated blog posts. What can I to do? Everytime I come here to eat, I either discover something new or create a new dish!. So how not to blog? Anyway these one dish items would be a great idea for a quick lunch if you are tired of the samo samo and want to try something tasty and novel. Hope you enjoy it and if you have any ideas for something new, just ask Jason to try it and write about it in the forum for everyone to know!

Click here to read the other Ya Kwang Posts.

Five Stars Chicken Rice: The Kampung Chicken is French!

With smart, pk, bashful hunter and introducing Doc!

Kampung Chicken $12 for half chicken

I am an unabashed lover of plump white chicken. To me eating Kampung Chicken is like eating peanuts one at a time when what I really want is to scoop a whole handful and stuff it in my mouth. So it is with trepidation that I accepted the invitation from Five Stars Chicken Rice to blog their famous Chicken Rice franchise.

For the uninitiated, Kampung Chicken is really a misnomer. The chickens are not really raised in a Kampung. What makes a Kampung Chicken different from your normal Chicken is that it is a different breed of chicken which originated from France. But then again that is not quite right either because as a species, all chicken actually originated from China where they were first domesticated. But anyway, this particular breed of "Kampung" chicken were actually brought from France because the local species actually went extinct.

The common battery hens which we are familiar with have white feathers and take about 60 days to grow to eating size. They spend their whole life in a cage with limited movement, pecking away at chicken feed (which is why if you sit in a sofa munching potato chips, you too will grow nice and fat). The Kampung Chicken has orange feathers and a black head and spends its days in an enclosed space for 80 days where they can exercise their muscles. That's why the chicken always reminds me more of a rock climber than a sumo wrestler.


Kampung Chicken: Half Chix $12

As Kampung Chicken go, this is one of the best ones that I have tasted. The chicken is tasty and the wonderful thing about five stars is that they always managed to get that layer of jelly under the skin which kind of makes up for the lack of fats. What I was really impressed with was the sauce that they use to pour over the chicken. The boss, Mr Li told me that the secret to their sauce is that they brew it themselves from soy sauce with added soy beans and rock sugar. The sauce had a wonderful floral aroma to it and synergized perfectly with the chicken. Taste great but as I already said, I felt I was eating peanuts one at a time! 4.25/5



The rice here is very good even though Mr Li admitted that he did not fry the rice in oil before cooking it. The interesting thing is that because Kampung Chicken has got more flavour than your battery chicken, a lot of the flavour of the rice comes from the chicken broth rather than the chicken fat. I was skeptical at first, but our group all agreed that the chicken rice was flavoursome and not too oily. The texture is also perfect with each grain easily separated and whole. 4.5/5



People say there are 3 important key ingredient in Chicken Rice and they are the Chicken, the Rice and the Chilli. I propose that there are 4, the fourth being the drizzling sauce. For me the first priority is the Chicken followed by the Rice, which is why I seldom comment about the Chilli. However, when stallowners like Mr Li makes the effort to use only lime juice instead of vinegar to make their Chilli, then I think I should give credit where it is due. They also add chilli padi in order to put that zing in the Chilli sauce. One whiff of the Chilli and you know its different from your usual Chicken Rice Chilli.

I took the picture of the "Bishops nose" for my two chicken rice connoisseurs, viz VB and smart. Those who know how to appreciate chicken say that the best part is the backside. So here are some backsides for you to oogle at! Me, I still like the big fat thighs.



Apart from the chicken rice, they also sell a variety of dishes to accompany the chicken rice so that your family can have a "proper" family style meal. One of the things that I would recommend is their homemade tofu. They actually make their own tofu here from soya bean milk and eggs and the texture is excellent. 4/5

Five Stars chicken rice has been around for 18 years. Mr Li initially named it five stars because he had five brothers and the initial plan was to have all five brothers run the business. He was nice enough to agree to share with us his chicken rice recipe for the benefit of those who might want to try to cook chicken rice at home and especially for our poor overseas friends who can't hop down to the hawker centre to have their chicken rice fix. Stay tuned for that one!

Conclusion

I was pleasantly surprised with my Kampung Chicken meal. The chicken turned out to be tender and tasty and together with the excellent sauce and rice, it did make up for the lack of chunky meatiness. All my other kakis actually prefer this over the fat white chicken because the chicken had more "chickeny" taste. For me, I think I would only be totally happy if they could serve me a kampung chicken that is morbidly obese!

So do you prefer Rockclimber Chicken or Sumo Wrestler Chicken? I have created a poll in the forum for you all to vote! Click here to vote.

Five Star Kampong Chicken Rice
No 910D Upper Thomson Road
65534119
11am to 11pm daily
Disclosure: This was an invited review

Koon Kee: Wok Hei Hor Fun with Paul McCartney!

With ieatfamily

Hor Fun $4

There are some places which I just fall in love with at first sight. Koon Kee is one of them. ChinChyeGuy's dad told me about this place which sells a pretty mean Hor Fun and since I have been searching for a Hor Fun with wok hei, I simply had to pay the place a visit. But it wasn't the food that got me at first. It was ambience of the place. Situated in a row of old shophouses opposite Serangoon Stadium, stepping into Koon Kee is like stepping into a time machine back into the sixties. I am not saying that it feels like a old Cze Char coffee shop. No, it's just that the owner of Koon Kee happens to be an antique collector, so the place is filled with old metal toys, Beetles records, bulky one door fridges and the like. Its just got that old "Hole in the Wall" rustic feel to it that I haven't felt in Singapore since I came back from Bangkok.

Koon Kee has been around for a long time. They started at the Civil Service Club, then moved to Hwa Chong JC for a while before Mr Lim decided to retire. After a restful retirement for 2 years, his younger son decided to resurrect his father's restaurant and they found themselves at this lovely little hole-in-the-wall.

My first plate of Hor Fun was a bit of a letdown as it did not have the wok hei flavour which I was eagerly anticipating. When I complained about it, the chef told me that a lot of people nowadays did not want the charred flavour so they had to cut back. So I had them fry another plate of hor fun for me with wok hei.

The state of Hor Fun in Singapore is pretty lack lustre nowadays and this one stands out as one of the best one I have eaten so far. However, I still felt that it still lacked that special something from the past. Perhaps I need to persuade the "old hand" to come out of retirement to fry one for me?

The Hor Fun here is sold out everyday because they order fresh Hor Fun daily and never keep it overnight. An expertly fried fresh Hor Fun is smokey with chewy charred bits at the edges and soft and slurpy at the same time. The sauce is pretty good and they do have fresh and good quality seafood although they do lack the more traditional pork tripe. 4.25/5



The other item which was recommended to me was the fried chicken. It is supposed to be Har Cheong Kai, but I think it tastes better if you don't call it that. It's a really tasty fried chicken but a mediocre Har Cheong Kai. I felt that day that it had just spend a minute too long in the oil so it was not as juicy as it should be. 4/5

Conclusion

Judging from the standard of the two dishes I had and the fact that dining here is really like eating in someone's home, I have already decided that I will be coming back to try their other dishes. I was told that the red wine chicken is really good as are some of their Thai food since the Lau Ban Niang is Thai. The Hor Fun was very good and one of the few places which I would recommend for Hor Fun, but is this really the best a Hor Fun can get nowadays?

Koon Kee
66 Yio Chu Kang Road
Opp Serangoon Stadium
12 - 2.30pm
6pm to 9.30pm
Closed Thursdays
62881206, 92718875

Noor Jannah's Kitchen: Bone Steak Hor Fun Anyone?

With fashionfoodie, bashful hunter, carnineviand, khim and friends


The good people from Noor Jannah's who were responsible for the Prata Bomb, have just moved to their new location at Jalan Masjid. As you would recall in the previous post, the neighbours were complaining about the smoke from the BBQ pit and as a result they couldn't grill their satay outside anymore. So they actually moved to another location and starting doing this Bone Steak Hor Fun which became a big hit after it was featured in the Suria Channel. When the owners of the coffeeshop saw how successful they were, they decided to take back the coffeeshop and run it themselves. As a result, this nice Malay couple found themselves having to move again. So now they have settled in Jalan Masjid, a place where they can panggang their Satay in the open and lead a Kampung like existence, hopefully for a long time.

I really enjoy eating at Noor Jannah's because they are not afraid of experimenting with new things. The raisin bomb, cheese bomb came into existence because of our zany experimentations and the bone steak hor fun became a reality because of the Satay Man's (Sha) secret fantasies.

This is my very first review of a Malay Cze Char. In fact, it is the first time I am eating Malay Cze Char. With all due respect to our Muslim readers, I have never really thought of eating Halal Cze Char because I had always assumed that there was no way Halal Cze Char can be that good since they don't use any pork to cook. However, I was proved wrong as the Hor Fun turned out to be quite tasty and I dare say better than a lot of Chinese Cze Char Hor Fun. Our group felt that the Hor Fun deserved a 4/5 even though it still lacked that elusive wok hei flavour. We were however not quite sure about the combination of Bone Steak and Hor Fun. The taste was just too jarring for our liking. However, it might appeal to people who love the strong taste of mutton. Guess it's something you will have to try for yourself!



If you like Malay Style Mee Goreng, then we would recommend you this particular one. Before this, I only know of Indian and Chinese Mee Goreng. Fashionfoodie told me that this version is the Malay version, which was more like the Chinese version but is more savoury than sweet. He gave the Mee Goreng a 4.25/5.



We confirm that you can now find the raisin and cheese bomb here and the good olde prata man from Malaysia is also resident. So this is going to be my regular prata spot since it is close to home. They have also introduce coin pratas which are mini pratas the size of a drink coaster. At six pieces for $2, it's great for the kids but a heck of a lot of work for $2 if you ask me. 4.25/5



Finally, my favourite (Malay) satay has found a home in the East. Not just I say, but the rest of my makankakis who are tasting the satays for the very first time also agree that the satays here are really good. Sha uses only thigh meat and they are big enough to remain juicy after grilling. We all agreed that it deserved a 4.5/5 You can also get beef tripe satay here, though it was a little too soft that evening and only scored a 3/5. However, Sha has informed me that he has already rectified the problem, so it should be much better now.

Like most Muslim 24 hour joints, the coffeeshop also serves a lot of other stuff. Frizz grill is also here for those looking for western food in the middle of the night. They also have a stalls selling Naan Bread and Ayam Penyat. Located in close proximity to two other 24 hour Muslim eateries, this stretch along Upper Changi Road is fast becoming a hub for those looking to satisfy their hunger 24/7.

Conclusion

To my surprise, Malay Cze Char actually turned out to be quite good. You'll just have to try the bone steak Hor Fun out for yourself to determine if you like it. The place has got a laid back kampong charm to it and coupled with a very good Prata and Satay, I can see myself having supper here quite often.

Noor Jannah's Kitchen
2 Jalan Masjid
90373623
Opened till very late for now
Open 24hrs soon
Disclosure: This was an invited review