Saybons: It's French Food on the go!

With damien

Mushroom and Cheese Crepe $4.50

It is good that the younger generation of "hawkers" are venturing out into more international cuisines. It means that we get to eat stuff that we would otherwise find in fancy restaurants at cheaper prices.

Crepes are by no means new to Singapore. They had their day years ago when the famous Crepes Suzette were selling their crepes like, well, hotcakes. And like mosaic tiles, these tasty French fast food may be making a comeback soon.



OK, personally I like these very much. Maybe it is because my mother used to make them with ham and cheese when I was a kid. The outstanding thing about the crepe here is the quality of cheese they use and of course the tasty buttery crepes itself. I really like the chewiness of the cheddar cheese. Both Damien and I initially thought that it was Mozarella at first, but the owner confirmed that it was a special brand of Cheddar. The combination of the savoury, chewy cheese with the crisp (at the edges) buttery crepe and deliciously sauteed mushrooms has hit that "really want to go back to eat again" button for me. 4.5/5



Apart from the crepes, they also sell a variety of French soups and bread with flavored butter. The soup I would recommend is the seafood bisque. This is probably one of the few places in Singapore where you can get a seafood (lobster) bisque for less than $4 without sitting in a restaurant. The soup is made fresh everyday from prawns and crabs and was quite good except that I felt it could do with more of that burnt crustacean taste. The soups are served in cups with covers and you are supposed to sip them like you do coffee. I still prefer to slurp rather than sip my soups. 4/5



Apart from the savoury crepes, they also have a number of dessert crepes. Owner and executive Chef, Daphane, who trained at the world reknown Le Cordon Bleu insists on doing everything as French as she is commercially viable. So she uses Valhorna Chocolates here for the dessert crepes. The one I would recommend is the strawberry with white chocolate. Strawberry and chocolates always work very well together! 4.25/5

Conclusion

The crepes are certainly very good and definitely worth trying. I think the ladies would be happy with the soups as they are made with your waistline in mind, and that means less than 5% cream in the soup. It's got the Singapore Heart Foundation's approval.

As I alluded to in my previous post, soon half of all our food courts will be selling this type of international cuisine! It would be interesting to see if crepes will emerge as the next fad after Doughnuts!

Saybons French Food Factory
17 Phillip Street
10am to 4pm Mon-Fri
www.saybons.com
8101 5678.

Disclosure: This was an invited review

Kay Lee Roast Meat Joint: Move over Colonel Sanders, I also got 11 Herbs and Spices!

With iwatch_ueat and SCS Butter


I am beginning to realize the only common thing about Char Siew is the fact that it is long strips of marinated meat! No, some people don't even BBQ their Char Siew and it still passes off as Char Siew. (I am not in anyway endorsing this, but I even see it in Hong Kong!) It does not have to be red in colour, some are dark brown or even near black. And the number of recipes for Char Siew abounds. My last post on Char Siew featured a Teochew style Char Siew which uses Tau Cheo (Fermented Beans) and malt. The Fatty Cheong Char Siew was an Oyster Sauce and caramelised sugar version. Now I discover Kay Lee's Zhu Jiang version which uses Yao Chai (Herbs) in the marinade!



The Lao Ban Niang is a colourful character who is fiercely passionate about the Zhu Jiang heritage of her Char Siew and Roast Duck. She insists that she has tasted all the best Char Siew in Singapore and still feels hers is the best.

"We don't use any MSG in our marinade! My sauce is the only one of its kind in Singapore. When you taste it, it leaves a Karm Karm (Astringently sweet is the best I can describe this word) taste in your palate, AND you never get thirsty from it!" She boldly declared. Even the method of chopping the duck is special. She chops it diagonally, insisting that it makes a difference to the texture of the meat.

The only thing I love more than people with passion is expressive people with passion!



The Char Siew here is very shiok and, as the Lao Ban Niang said, the sauce is very special. And most importantly they use the pork "Armpit" meat which is beautifully marbled. It's wonderfully tender and chewy at the same time. 4.5/5

SCS Butter and I had differing opinions on the duck. I thought it was one of the best ducks I have tasted in Singapore though it still lacks that extra ooompph that I referred to in my last Roast Duck post. The special thing about it though, is that the skin is crispy which sets it apart from a lot of other Roast Ducks. 4.5/5



The Sio Bak here is very good. The skin is crispy and the meat has got enough five spice and salty flavour. Unfortunately we ate it in the afternoon so it was not fresh out of the oven. It would have been even better then! 4.25/5

The steamed soup here is excellent. I liked the watercress soup just slightly more than the winter melon. Those who are fat conscious should skim off the layer of fat on top of the soup which is evidence of how long the soup has been steamed. Lao Ban Niang claims that they are slow cooked for 6-8 hours to extract all the flavours. Again she claims that no MSG is added! With the soup so tasty, I was of course a bit skeptical. But we all can say that we did not have that "post MSG thirst" that you usually get with poor quality MSG.



I have saved the best for last!

This is my discovery of the month! Hakka Salt Chicken! I am not sure if there are other stalls in Singapore that sells this but this is the first time the 3 of us were eating this dish. The chicken is first boiled then roasted. After it is chopped into bite sized pieces, a special condiment made from fried garlic, ginger and lemongrass is liberally spooned on top of it. I think God must have made Chicken and Ginger to go together! Somehow the combination just tingles the tastebuds like a well composed symphony. First bite was a "Phwa Sayah, where have you been all my life" experience. If you don't come all the way from Choa Chu Kang for the Char Siew, you must come for this chicken! 4.75/5

Conclusion

Excellent roasted meat with a unique sauce that is not commonly found. The hidden pearl is the Hakka Salt Chicken which is a really Must Try!

Kay Lee Roast Meat Joint
125 Upper Paya Lebar Road
67438778
kayleeroastmeatjoint.com
10am to 7pm
Closed on Tuesdays

Soon Huat Pig's Organ Soup: Serangoon Way Food Centre

With Tag Tag, iwatch_ueat and carnineviand


This is one for the fans of Ter Huang Kiam Chye (lit. Pig innards with Salted Veg). I am no big fan of this dish myself. Just like first year Med School, Anatomy was not my most favourite subject. Ok, dissecting was fun, but memorising where all the nerves and blood vessels went for the exams was not!

But for those who enjoy being intimate with the innermost parts of the pig, this is a bowl of gastronomic joy.



The soup was power packed full of pig-protein precipitates. Bits of pork strands swirled around in the soup like snowflakes in a blizzard. The soup was too livery for me. For a guy who usually orders Mee Pok Tar Mai Ter Kua (Mee Pok dry but hold the liver please), I did not enjoy it. But my friends, Tag Tag and carnineviand were lapping it up. 4.25/5 (their rating)

Conclusion

I confess that I don't quite like it, but my friends and the long queue of people certainly do!

Soon Huat Pig's Organ Soup
Serangoon Way Food Centre
Stall 42
9.30am to 4pm
Closed on Mondays

House of Steamed Soup & Rice: Steamed Soup Served with a Smile

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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