Dove Desserts: Heavenly Chendol, Traditional Cheng Tng

With smart, liverpool, bashfulhunter, iwatch_ueat, damien and PowerAunty


I have never considered this question before until now. Maybe you haven't too.

This is the question: How should Chendol be taken? With shaved ice like the one in the picture or as a soup-drink with crushed ice, like the ones they serve by the road side in Malaysia? In all my years of eating Chendol, I have never asked the question. In fact, I did not ask the question until I had the answer.

I have decided, after taking this particular Chendol that it should, it must, be taken this way. Let me explain why.

When you eat Chendol as a soup-drink, everything is mixed up and all you get to enjoy is the taste of cold coconut milk with Gula Melaka. When you take it without mixing it all up, you can actually get to appreciate the different elements of the Chendol plus the texture of the finely shaved ice as it melts in your mouth. This is particularly delightful when you have really good Gula Melaka. Oh yes, the lady boss, Helen is so particular about her Gula Melaka that she insists on driving to Malacca to buy the best stuff there to bring home.

Before she started business about 4 years ago, Helen shared with us how she went up to Malacca to taste test several of the top Chendol stalls there so that she has a Gold Standard to compare with. She believes that she has a Chendol that can stand up to the best ones in Malacca. She makes the Chendol herself,using only pandan leaves and passes it through a special Chendol strainer which she also managed to procure in Malacca. Then the other important element is the freshly squeezed coconut milk and the quality extra large red beans. For me the most striking thing is still the shaved ice and the Gula Melaka. So super shiok, it forever changed my thinking about Chendol. Went back twice in a week and still thinking about it. 4.6/5



When Helen set up this stall, she simply wanted to create desserts that she enjoyed as a child ie the traditional way. So she adds dried persimmons and winter melon in her Cheng Tng and not any of the modern stuff like agar agar or jelly. Not easy to find such Cheng Tng nowadays. 4.25/5

Conclusion

Best Chendol I have eaten in years. Make sure when you order that you stress that you want the finely shaved ice. Sometimes after making cold Cheng Tng, they might forget to set the ice shaver back to fine!

Dove Desserts
Blk 22 Toa Payoh Lor 7
#01-21
92725712
11am to 8pm
Closed on Sunday and Monday
Recommended by smart

Long House Popiah: Good olde Popiah

Poh Piah is like the snack food that you buy to accompany your main meal right? I mean, does anyone here simply go out there and eat Poh Piah and that's it? Usually, we would order a few Poh Piahs as a common "share-share" type of dish.

I sometimes think about hawker dishes along the lines of Darwin's theory of Evolution. Hawkers that have been around for a while tend to have food that is pretty good. It is survival of the fittest after all. And the evolution of Poh Piah has really come to a standstill. There has not been much evolution in the Poh Piah since I was a kid. Does that mean that the Poh Piah is perfect and nothing else can make it better? There are some things like that you know. Like the paper clip. It works so well that nothing can be added to it to make it better. Do you think this applies to Poh Piah as well or can it be further improved?


Poh Piah $1 each

This Poh Piah is almost legendary so I am sure there are many fans out there. The skin is homemade, so it is nice and chewy, the ingredients are fresh and the crispy bits are really crispy. A good Poh Piah, but is this as good as it gets? Or can it be better? 4.25/5

Conclusion

Been searching for the ultimate Poh Piah since the beginning of the blog. Still looking for the 4.75 one.

Long House Popiah
Blk 22 Toa Payoh Lor 7
#01-03
Closed Mon & Tues
91717157 Elvin Ng

ieat on 938Live!

Today's recommendation on 938live is the Beef Kway Teow at Changi Village Food Centre

Lao Liang Pork Trotter Jelly: They don't do it like this anymore!

With iwatch_ueat and SCS Butter


Now this is a dish you don't often get to see nowadays. (Actually I don't think it was ever that common). I admit that this was the first time that I was introduced to this Teochew Dish myself. It is yet another nail in the coffin of my self delusional status as a true blue Teochew Ah Hia.

It is rather interesting, but this Pork Trotter Jelly (or Pork Aspic as some call it) reminds me of some of the stuff that you can get from the Cold Meats section of your Butchery. The reason that this dish is not often seen is, I presume, the amount of time and effort it takes to make the dish. Pork Trotters are stewed for at least 8 hours to turn the collagen into gelatin. The meat is then left overnight to set and then left in the fridge for another whole day. So all in all, it takes at least 2 days to prepare the dish. Of course, if you want to take some short cuts, you could add cornstarch or gelatin as some purportedly do. But this third generation Teochew couple still insists on doing it the traditional way without the additives.



If you like to eat the jelly of white chicken, then you are going to love this dish. It goes with a very special chilli sauce which they make with Blue Ginger (Lengkuas). The texture is excellent and the jelly is so clear you can see through it easily (I am told that is one of the ways to tell if it was made right). Tastewise, however, I thought that it could have had a bit more oomph. 4.25/5



The thing about Teochew food is the simplicity of the dishes which places the emphasis on the freshness of the ingredients. The shark's meat is simply boiled in water to cook it and served with a plum/peanut sauce. You simply cannot get away with using second rate fish. I am sure there will be people who would rave about this dish, but it failed to wake up the "tiger" in this half past six Teochew Ah Hia. 4/5

If you think that you can simply prepare this dish at home, then you are seriously mistaken. Well, you could maybe get hold of some fresh shark meat, but you would be hard pressed trying to get hold of some plum sauce that is as good as this one. This plum sauce is so good that you have to pay an extra 20 cents for each additional plate. But there is good reason for it. This couple actually make the plum sauce themselves from preserved plums. But that's not all. The plums have to be aged at least 2 to 3 years before being turned into plum sauce. That means that they have a continual 3 year stock of preserved plums at their home! Now, if you ask me, I'd rather just pay 20 cents more to get my plum sauce fix!

Conclusion

Traditional Teochew food that is quickly disappearing from our hawker food scene. For this particular stall, this will be the end of the line after three generations when the couple retires. So better go try some before it goes the way of the Dodo.

Lao Liang Pork Trotter Jelly
Stall 37, Jalan Berseh Food Centre
11am to 3pm
Closed on Mondays

Coffee Hut: Kopi So Good, He had 4 cups!

With iwatch_ueat and SCS Butter


As we were eating the un-cheng Fish Soup, the aroma of coffee wafted through the air and caught the attention of iwatch_ueat who is usually not a coffee drinker. But the aroma of the coffee was so alluring that she decided to order a cup for herself and SCS Butter who is one of our Blog's Kopi Kings.



The first sip of the Kopi and SCS Butter was hooked. He said it is the best Kopi he has tasted around the area. There is that spiciness when the coffee first hits the palate followed by the full bodied taste of the Evaporated milk and coffee, finishing with a lingering aroma at the back of the throat after swallowing. It was so good that we ended up ordering around 6 cups of Kopi.

Well, the truth is that SCS downed the first two cups himself. But I was curious about just how good it was (I was taking Teh C) that I ordered another one to get a taste. I thought it was good but not that great, so SCS had a go and admitted that the first two were better. So we went onto cup number four. I am not sure if it was because we had one cup too many, but the later cups just did not have the oomph of the first two. Given the inconsistency of the Kopi I would rate it 4.25/5 at this stage. SCS Butter would have given the first two a 4.5/5.

The toast was another story. It was delightfully light, crispy and crumbly on the outside but soft on the inside. The butter was the right consistency and not overly thick and the Kaya was fragrant but not sickly sweet. Roland related the fine art of toasting the bread to us. He said that he only uses fresh bread rather that bread which is one or two days old which is easier to handle as it is little stiffer. But the extra effort results in better tasting bread which is fluffy on the inside and crumbly on the outside. This Kaya Toast is definitely worth coming for. 4.5/5

Conclusion

Totally unexpected find. Kopi lovers should definitely check it out.

Coffee Hut
Stall 43, Jalan Bersih Food Centre
7am to 4pm
Closed Alt Saturday or Sunday
90108311 Roland

Mei Xiang Fish Soup: Unusually Un-Cheng Fish Soup

With iwatch_ueat and SCS Butter


What do you look for in a Fish Soup? Some people go for Fish Soup that is very "Cheng" (clear). If you are the "Cheng" type, then you will be very disappointed with this soup. But if you are like me who like a bit of ooomph in the soup, then you would like this one.

The soup here is full of "bits" inside, bit cloudy but really tasty. Not sure if this is due to MSG or not, but it sure hits the spot. We ordered the "Black and White" which costs $6 for a big bowl. You get nice, thickly sliced fish and fried battered fish which is quite yummy (bit on the salty side). 4.5/5

This stall is a bit of a Food Nazi. They don't allow you to take away so if you really want to take it home, you'll have to bring your own box! Also note the weird opening times! However, when I spoke to the owner in the afternoon he seemed quite nice and did not quite appear like a Food Nazi. Maybe you have to get him when he is really busy!

Conclusion

Very shiok fish soup but not for those who like their fish soup to be "Cheng".

Mei Xiang Fish Soup
Stall 44
Jalan Berseh Food Centre
10.12am to 3.16pm
Closed Sat, Sun and Pub Hols

What is Your Favourite Hawker Food?

For the next poll, we will try to find out if there which is the number one, most favourite hawker dish amongst our readers. Since there are so many dishes, I would like you all nominate your favourite fare. From there we will narrow down to the top 10 nominees before we start the polls.

OK people, please write in to nominate your favourite hawker dish! You may nominate up to 3 dishes!

My top 3 are: Hokkien Mee, Satay and Char Siew!