Kwong Satay: Kushiyaki style Pork Belly Satay!

With Holydrummer, Holybunny, Wahcow, Cactuskit, Khim, Amagada, Denniz

Kwong's Premium Pork Belly Satay $1ea

I had a dream.

I dreamt that I was eating Pork Belly Kushiyaki (Butabara) and all the wonderful juice was bursting out in my mouth as I sank my teeth into the springy flesh. But in my dream, instead of the plain salt and pepper marinade, the pork was marinated Hainanese satay style and I enjoying the sweet fragrance of the cumin, coriander, five spice powder and saffron....yummm...

Then I woke up right at the part where my pastor said: "And in conclusion......."


Pork Belly Satay on the grill (note size of the normal satay beside it)

Now that I had that dream, I just couldn't get it out of my mind. Somehow, I had to find some Satay seller who is willing to take on my idea. As if by divine intervention, I stumbled upon this blog whose author just happened to be the daughter of Kwong's Satay whom I blogged about a while ago. In her blog post, she said that she was pleasantly surprised that one day, person from one of Singapore's major organizations called up to place an order for a large function. She found out later that they had found out about them from reading my blog post! So since I knew she was happy, I decided it was an opportune time to try my luck and see if they would agree to my idea of a Kushiyaki style Pork Belly Satay.

So that is how our group of Makan Kakis ended up in Geylang Lor 29 one evening to taste-test the latest "ieat creation". The majority of the makan kakis including myself gave it a 4.75/5 for being the juiciest and best tasting satay (certainly the largest). Cactuskit was not as ecstatic as he did not like fats in his satay (where got pork satay with no fats?) but still gave it a 4.25/5. The satay is almost 2 and a half times their normal Pork Loin Satay, so I guess the price of $1 is justified and furthermore you are getting Pork Belly meat which is more expensive than Pork Loin.


Original Pork Satay 40 cents each

Don't miss out on the normal Pork Satay (40 cents) as well as the two meats are different. The normal Pork Satay is more tender compared to the Pork Belly which is a little more chewy but more flavoursome and juicy. One of the secrets of Kwong's satay is that he still insists on using Saffron ($6000 per kg) in the marinade which made it very aromatic. 4.5/5

The peanut sauce comes with crushed pineapple which would please most foodies. However, I did feel that the sauce could have been more "peanutty" to make it even shioker. The Ketupat is very nice as they use pandan leaves instead of coconut. Have a bit of a sniff before you pop it into your mouth when you try it.

Somehow, I felt that the Satays here at the original stall taste better than the one that I blogged earlier at one of the franchisees. It could have something to do with the high turnover of the satays as well as the person who is actually doing the grilling.The original owner, Mr Kwong has since passed on the everyday running of the stall to his disciple whom he has trained in the art of Satay BBQing. He now concentrates on supplying his satay to various stalls around Singapore (as well as home parties). However, he can still be spotted at the stall occasionally since it was where he first started his business in the 80's.

Conclusion

One of the most memorable Satay experiences for me and, I hope, for you too!

Post Script:

This is already quite a popular stall on weekends, so be prepared to wait for your satay!

Kwong Satay Geylang Lor 29 (Geylang side)
5pm - 11pm
closed on alt Wednesdays (This wed open)
Home orders available from Kwong's
Call 6565 0002 Judy
www.kwongsatay.com.sg

The ieatishootipost East Coast Lagoon Satay Challenge!

One of the things that really frustrates me every time I visit East Coast Lagoon FC is the fact that I never really know which of the 10 Malay style satay stalls is really the best. I always end up ordering randomly from whoever does the best touting that night. Sure, there is Haron 30 satay (Stall 55) which is the one that a lot of people recommend, but having tasted it a few times, I remain unconvinced that it is really the best one there. I have this niggly feeling that there is a better Satay around just waiting to be discovered.

So, being a Scienty Fienty(as opposed to Arty Farty) type of a guy, there was only one solution to the problem and that is to do an experiment -- A Randomised, Double Blinded, Controlled Trial (yeah right) to find out which Satay is indeed the best.

Test Design

What I did was to mobilize a dozen test subjects, order Satays from every stall there and taste test each one to find out whether there is a clear favourite. Our unwitting but intrepid test subjects are all experts in their own rights, each with at least 20 years of experience in eating. Of course that's just counting biological age. The true "eating" age of some of them far exceeds their biological age as evidenced from the subcutaneous storage of unused calories.

Unfortunately for us, 3 of the stalls were closed that night, so we sampled Satays only from the following stalls: 49, 50,51, 55, 56, 58, 60.

We decided only to taste test Chicken Satays since that is the most popular choice. 10 sticks of Satays were ordered from each stall and each judge graded both the Satay and the quality of the peanut sauce.



Here then are our panel of Satay judges: From the far left: who, jems, khim, Melbournite, TeochewHKer, carnineviand, khim(again!), holydrummer, holybunny, holybro, J-star and Dodo. Big round of applause for them who unselfishly sacrificed their calories so that you can save yours! Clap clap clap clap!


The Aftermath

You would think that with 10 Satay stalls all competing for the same customers, that competition would be stiff. But the unfortunate truth is that a lot of them taste quite similar and most of them were quite lack lustre. Our judges were penning down more phrases like "terrible, no taste at all, not marinated enough", than adoring accolades.



There was however a real difference in the quality and style of the Satay gravy that was provided. These ranged from "watery, burnt nutty taste to "consistent" and "can taste peanut" You can appreciate from the picture just how wide a difference there was.

Three of the seven stalls sampled procured their Satays from suppliers, but some make it a point to cook their own peanut sauce. It seemed to me that the sellers are trying to differentiate their products with their sauces rather then on the Satay itself.


Chicken Satay from the winning stall

The good news is that there was a clear winner that night (with only a minority opposing). Our judges rated this Satay as "Tender and plump, grill taste good and can taste the chicken".



The accompanying peanut sauce was thick and chunky with generous amount of coarsely ground peanuts. The interesting thing is that the Satay from this stall comes from a supplier, but they do cook their own peanut sauce. And the other interesting thing is they are actually an Ikan Bakar cum Satay stall rather than a specialised Satay stall!

So, without much ado, let me present Musa Ikan Bakar Stall -- winner of the ieatishootipost East Coast Lagoon Satay Challenge. 4/5

Musa Ikan Bakar Stall
51 East Coast Lagoon FC
Open 4pm till late
Closed on Mondays
64422976



Post Mortem

Personally, I still feel that the overall standard of the Satay here can and should have been better. The problem is that there are so many stalls and no clear favourite, each stall does well enough just by enticing the passersby with their perfunctory "Satay sir?". They don't see the need to put in effort on their part to improve their Satay. Think about it, every stall we ate at literally serves the same chunky thigh meat Satay. No one thought about maybe adding the chicken skin, or even doing Chicken Mince like the legendary Fat Man Satay of the old esplanade Satay club. It is just complacency mixed with contentment - a lethal concoction for blah food.

Then, there is this funny thing amongst Singaporeans about not wanting chicken skin in their Satay. I am not saying that eating chicken skin is good for you. You should not eat too much of it especially if you have high cholesterol levels or are overweight. What I am saying is that the same people who frown at eating chicken skin in Satay are also happily munching away at BBQ chicken wings, chicken rice and wagyu beef . It's a form of gastronomic hypocrisy that has permeated our society.

I think that is what most Satay sellers assume.

As a result, you don't see any chicken skin in Satays in Singapore whereas they are still widely available in Malaysia. And then we all complain that the Satay is better across the causeway.

Satay is one of the "must try" dishes in the minds of many tourist that visit Singapore. Yet I can't even name one great Satay in any of the "Satay Clubs" at East Coast Lagoon or Lau Pa Sat! It is truly a great disappointment, but also a great opportunity for some enterprising young entrepreneur to rise to the challenge and give us a "die die must try" Satay for us all to enjoy.

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

Kwong Satay: Satay with Hokkien Mee, my favourite combination!

This next entry is very risky. Let me explain.

First this satay is relatively unknown. Unlike those famous stalls that a lot of people can attest to, this one I am basing only on my taste buds. Secondly, the satay it is not even made by the stallowner but it is actually sourced from a supplier. So why is it even here in the blog?

Because I do enjoy it and it is situated just beside one of my regular Hokkien Mee haunts. Best thing is that they sell pork satay which is increasingly hard to find. The meat is tender and it is on the sweetish side which I like. The spices of the marinade is fragrant and the citrus punch of the lemongrass is evident. 4/5

For me, the things that I most look forward to eating when I am overseas is, undisputedly, the combination of Hokkien Mee and Satay. I guess it has something to do with my childhood days in Toa Payoh Lor 8 when I would go down to the coffeeshop to buy these two items and then come home to share with my two brothers. Those were the days when the hawker stalls were at the front of the coffeeshop rather than at the back which is very conducive for learning how to prepare hawker dishes like Hokkien Mee. There was never enough to feed 3 hungry boys, so I was always left with the longing for more.

Talking about combinations, the other combination that I really enjoy is Prawn Mee Soup and Ngoh Hiang and of course Laksa with Steamed Chicken. So what other hawker fare combinations do you all enjoy?

Conclusion

Pork Satay and Hokkien Mee combination! Yummm....


Kwong Satay
396 East Coast Road
12pm to 9pm
Closed on Mondays




PS: After being prompted by an anonymous reader I began to do some research on Kwong Satay and realised that actually they are quite an establishment! I am glad that there is supplier of Hainanese style satay which is of a commendable standard. More info can be found on their website www.kwongsatay.com.sg. Found out that they actually use pandan leaves to wrap their ketupat. Must try next time!

Chuan Kee Satay: Authentic Hainanese Pork Satay!

After over a year of blogging, I must admit that I am getting a little spoilt. It is getting harder and harder to find dishes that really make me go "Phwa Say!!" I guess the threshold to delight keeps getting higher and higher because once you have tested the best, the rest just don't thrill anymore.

Fortunately, there are still many gems out there just waiting to be found. And finding this satay was a "Holy Grail" experience after quite a long lull period.



The elderly couple manning this stall told me that they have been dishing out their satay for almost 50 years. The uncle started out by helping his father sell satay when he was just 5 years old along the streets of Geylang. Back then, satays were 5 cents per stick and they were not as popular as they are now.

This is traditional Hainanese style satay which means Pork Satay served with a peanut gravy that comes with a pineapple slush. The flowery bouquet from the freshly grilled skewers was too much of an unbearable tease and the first bite of the satay was like getting infatuated all over again. The meat is really tender and coated with spicy golden syrup that hinted strongly of lemongrass and coriander. Fantastic. 4.75/5



I remembered as a kid, pork satay used to come in 5 sections. Meat, fat, meat, fat, meat. This one only had 3 sections. Meat, fat, meat. I thought it might be because they cut down on the fat because of health concerns, but the uncle told me that this is the "pattern" that they have kept for as long as he can remember. Ok, the fat makes the satay really juicy and delicious but do remember to always eat in moderation ok?

Conclusion

Heavenly pork satay. I must admit that I have not eaten such tasty Pork Satay, at least not for a very long time. Now before I get carried away, I must warn you that the waiting time on the weekend is around 45 minutes and while I was queuing, a young lady was bitterly complaining that the chicken satay she just had was not worth the wait. OK, so I am only vouching for the Pork Satay not the chicken. My advice is to head straight for the stall, order your satay and go eat other stuff while you wait. And make sure you order more than enough. It was so good, I came back to reorder some more and that meant more waiting!

Chuan Kee Satay
Old Airport Road Food Centre
#01-85
6pm until sold out around 10pm
Closed Mon and Thurs
Sunday opened at 1pm

Noor Jannah's Kitchen: Get ready for a Prata BOMB!

There are updates at the end of the Blog

Raisin Boom: $2 Raisin Boom plus Kopi or Teh set: $2.50

OK, get ready for the next revolution in Roti Prata, or should I say Roti Canai?

Ever wondered if there is any difference between Roti Prata and Roti Canai? Most people would say that Prata is just the Singapore name for what the Malaysians call Roti Canai. Or is it?

It has been a while since I have been to Malaysia, but I remember that most of the Roti Canai I had there was the soft and fluffy type whereas in Singapore, the Schizophrenic Prata seems to come in many guises. The Roti Canai is actually supposed to be different from the Roti Prata in that the cooking process is slower and more laborious. In Singapore, where everyone is always in a hurry, the prata is cooked quickly by using lots of oil. In Malaysia, where people know how to be a bit more laid back and enjoy life, they make their Canai thick and fluffy and toast it over a slow fire with very little oil, then serve it with sambal and curry. The result is a pastry with a lighter and more chewy texture.

Since we are celebrating National Day this week, I really should not be saying this; but when it comes to Roti Canai, Malaysia really Boleh. So how? Does that mean that we can never enjoy a good Roti Canai in Singapore? Of couse not. If Malaysia Boleh, then Singapore lagi Boleh. We boleh hire the Malaysians to come make Roti Canai for us here in Singapore.


Cheese Double Bomb: $3.50

This stall did precisely that. They hired a guy who had just returned from making Roti Canai in Brunei and he brought with him the idea of the Prata Bomb which is currently the craze in Malaysia and Brunei. I was told that the Malay version of the dough is different from the Indian version. The dough is made with extra ingredients such as sugar, condensed milk and eggs so that it is more shiok.


Clockwise: The making of Prata Bomb

The Prata Bomb is essentially a dessert Prata which is something like a Snail Pastry. It's got margarine and sugar in between layers of prata dough and made to be thick and fluffy. The original Bomb sold in Brunei where this Prata man honed his skills had only margarine and sugar. We wanted to experiment with a few variations on this, so we tried raisins, cheese and cinnamon sugar. (Have to be better than Malaysia hor?)



We all loved the Raisin Bomb and the Cheese Bomb. The Cinnamon Bomb still needed a bit of tweaking. The wonderful thing about the Bomb is that it is really nice and crispy on the outside and buttery and fluffy within. It might be the same ingredients as the paper thin Tissue Prata, but you will be amazed at how the different way of preparing the dough really transformed the taste of it. You might find this wierd, but it goes really well with curry and I personally found it very shiok with a cup of Teh Tarik. 4.5/5

By the way, if you really want to eat a Roti Canai, you can ask specifically for "Roti Canai". The curry here is very shiok and they also serve the Roti with a delicious Sambal Tumis. The roti is nice, fluffy and not oily, but you will have to wait a bit longer for it. 4.5/5



This new stall in Bedok has several other items that are quite unique. One is the Soup Kambing Lontong which is quite popular in JB but difficult to find in Singapore. The soup is not thickened with cornflour so it is quite light but the flavour of the soup is still robust and uncompromised. You can have it with pressed rice, noodles or bee hoon. One of the best Kambing Soup I have had for a while and it does not make you feel jerlak afterwards. 4.5/5



The satay is the reason that I discovered this eatery in the first place. I have been pushing my friend Sha, who is the supplier of Power Chicken Satay to open a stall in the East and he eventually managed set it up here. The Power Chicken Satay has already been reviewed in a previous blog so I don't need to talk about it much except to let you know that you don't have to travel all the way to the West to try this now.

Conclusion

If this is so popular in Malaysia, it should soon take Singapore by storm just as Roti Boy did. It's been said before that the Prata is our answer to the Croissant. I didn't think it was that similar until now. With the Prata Bomb, we really have something that is comparable to a Croissant! Really Must Try don't you think?

Noor Jannah's Kitchen
Jalan Masjid







Update: 9 August 2007
Just found out that the Malaysian man who specializes in the Prata Bomb had to rush back to Malaysia because his wife became very sick. They have others doing the Bomb at the moment but I can only vouch for the Bombs produced by this guy. If you have been there recently, please let us know if the Bomb was alright.

Update: 9 Sep 2007
The stall has relocated to Bedok South Blk 18 after fighting a losing battle against the authorities who refused to allow them to BBQ the satay outside. The new address and opening times are updated on the blog. Now that they are able to pangang the satay properly, I hope that they can maintain the standards of the satay.

Update: 2 Mar 2008
The stall has relocated to Jalan Masjid in Kembangan and their new premises start operation this month. I haven't gone down to check them out yet. Will update later.

Update: 15 Jul 2008
Unfortunately they no longer do the Prata Bomb!

Warong Sudi Mampir: Satay Legend!

This is one of those satay stalls that don't need to open at night and closes 2 days a week. I think that says it all. At 3pm in the afternoon, almost every table in front of the stall has a plate of satay in front of them and they they BBQ satays non-stop to fulfill the take home orders of hundred sticks or more.

Curious? I certainly was. It is my first time at the stall, and I was keen to give my tastebuds a treat.

I asked the Pak Cik which type of Satay was the "die die must try" one, to which he answered without even a split second of hesitation, "Tripe"

Ooohhh, never tried that either. Sometimes it is good to have had a deprived foodie childhood. I still get to try things for the very first time!



What I like about this satay is the marinade and the good thing about tripe is that it really absorbs the marinade very well, so that you can taste the zesty lemon grass and other spices in the meat. 4.5/5 What I don't like is the fact that they use chicken breast meat for the chicken satay. 3.5/5 It would have been a killer if they used thigh meat and dare I say, some chicken skin. I found the mutton a little on the tough side but still very yummy. 4/5 The satay sauce was also very commendable. Lots of chunky peanuts and very sedap (tasty)!

Conclusion

Really nice marinade and satay sauce. For me it would have been better if they used chicken thigh meat instead of breast, but I feel that the nature of breast meat does allow the flavour of the marinade to come through more than thigh meat.

Warong Sudi Mampir
Blk 14 Haig Road Food Centre
#01-19
64440167
Weekdays 10.30am to 7pm
Weekends 10.30am to 5pm
Closed Wed & Thursdays