5 posts tagged “chinese”
Adam Road Hawker Centre is most famous for their nasi lemak, but today we're not gonna talk about that. Since nasi lemak can be quite subjective and I don't eat nasi lemak.
There is a prawn noodles stall there which is quite prominent. Crabs filled with a salivating amount of orange and yellow roe and big, fat and juicy prawns stare out at you from within the stall display. They serve pork ribs prawn noodles too, but I have not thought of it till now, but maybe you can order pork ribs prawn noodles with crab! I bet that will be the most expensive bowl of noodles you will ever buy at a hawker centre. It sounds like a dream combination though ;)
Their soup is the clear kind and while there is prawn flavour to the soup, its not strong enough for me. The kuay teow that I ordered with the prawn noodles is at the bottom and its the thinner kind. Having such big prawns are a major plus factor for me and I will say that this dish is above average. I would say the prawn noodles stall at Lavender Food Centre has the best soup. Just mentioning it is enough to make me want a bowl now.
The crab version is the same. Just no prawns inside the soup that is cooked with prawns. The treasure you are looking for is underneath its shell. You should go discover it yourself. It will burst any cholesterol meter. But it will not hurt once in a while. Haha. It costs something along $8 to $10 for a bowl with half crab. One full crab will be almost twice the price.
There is another stall which is quite good. It only specialises in Mee soto and mee siam! This is a Malay stall and it has a red sign board. For me, this is the best mee soto in Singapore. The soup is damn tasty and satisfying. The chicken meat soft and tender enough. Extremely good for rainy days or when you are looking for some savoury soup.
Alternatively, you can just order the chicken and soup without the noodles and that will be fantastic too.
Chen Fu Ji is an old establishment since the time when Chinatown was still real and not a psuedo cultural tourist trap. Can't remember when was that? More than fifty years ago. Many things have since changed.
From the start, their fried rice have been extremely well received. And in those days, mostly middle-lower and blue collared workers patronised the stall.
What exactly is so special about this fried rice which costs about $18 for a two person serving? According to their website:
1. The four treasures in cooking - shallots, garlic, ginger and spring onion
2. Rice that is carefuly selected for its grain size, texture and mositure content
3. Rice which is cooked and conditioned prior frying
4. Each grain of rice is fused with egg, giving it a smooth texture and golden hue
5. A distinctive aroma when served
6. Heap of unique egg floss and freshly peeled crab meat
7. No hint of oil
And I'd say I agree with all that. Every rice grain is really "golden" from the egg used. The crab meat was everywhere, the egg floss was really delicious AND there was no hint of oil. The dish was served in a black claypot like pot. When the lid was uncovered, it looked good perhaps with the contrast of golden against the black pot.
Is it worth the $18? Yes. For a first novelty try to find out what the fuss is about anyway. Will I eat it again? Maybe once every few years. But its not because it is lousy, but because I am not a huge fan of rice and my mother can whip up a plate of above average fried rice which is almost similar to theirs. And I can add in my own crab meat! Maybe I'll bite off one huge chunk of crab pincer and go along with my mum's fried rice instead.
Chen Fu Ji
3 outlets at Riverside Point, Suntec City and Changi Airport Terminal 2
http://www.chenfuji.com.sg/eng/
Usually when I have meals with rice, I don't have the habit of finishing it. But there are some dishes that when eaten with rice, I'll almost come into the danger of finishing every single grain. And like almost everybody else, that powerful ingredient is curry.
At Tiong Bahru, there is this special Hainanese Curry Rice.
Special in the sense that the stall fills an entire bottom of a shop house so its like a speciality food for these people.
The curry looks very smooth huh? The meat is fried chicken and it was crispy and the meat was just tender enough. The curry is thick and don't let its slightly brownish appearance fool you. It is indeed quite spicy. But as with spicy things and being a Singaporean, that is what makes it shiok and enjoyable even if you have to eat it and perspire in the afternoon heat.
You see the glass next to it? That is why you'll need to order some lime juice. Cooling an refreshing. Just the right way to finish off a satisfying meal of Hainanese Curry Rice.
They serve other dishes that you can order along with your curry rice too. Such as fried vegetables, braised three layer pork meat (which is quite good) and other meat like fish.
(Sorry no exact address availabe but it is near Tiong Bahru Hawker Centre... around the area)
Dian Xiao Er, or roughly translated to "Shop's waiter" in English, is a really quaint and cute eatery brought to you by the same people under the Soup Restaurant. The eatery is really small and cosy compared to the humongous place that it is in, that is Vivocity. The waiting time is fast and the service staff is highly efficient and even with a queue of more than 10 people, at the very most, you only have to wait for 20 minutes.
Inside the restaurant, it really reminded me of those found in ancient China, those places that you only see on TV. There are red lanterns and even Nu Er Hong (a type of Chinese wine) on the menu. Quite an interesting place!
Since Soup Restaurant is famous for their Samsui Chicken, Dian Xiao Er is famous for their roasted duck! No, I'm not making a sweeping statement, because it is really true. How do I know? Because even right before you step into the restaurant, you will see a few hanged ducks glistening and tempting you - It's almost as if they are sun tanning under the light. They even dare to drip their juice/ fat absent mindedly once in a while, making it almost unbearable for anything else other than placing them in their rightful place - which is your stomach.
Every table I saw ordered their duck.
It is availabe with three different type of herb sauces. The one in the photo is with Dang Gui. The meat was tender and soft enough. The skin was crispy without a repulsive amount of fat (shows that the duck is not overweight. Haha) and the sauce was extremely flavourful! The only best way to enjoy this dish is to cover every part of the duck meat with the yummy sauce. I loved the sauce so much I even used my spoon to scoop the remainder to drink it. It's a bit salty, but what gives? A bit salty is addictive you know. Yes, you should know. After all that salty snacks you've been eating for your whole life.
Another signature dish for Dian Xiao Er is their Prosperous Suckling Pig. The version here however is a vegetarian one and it can be considered healthy if you think fried flour is healthy. Haha. Most people have the misconception that mock meat is good because it has no meat, but seriously, its not. Its usually fried and has lots of sugar. Well, most great food are not that healthy anyway.
The suckling pig here was really nice. I could taste beancurd skin in every piece, and the "skin" was crispy. The sauce that came with it was a bit sweet and sourish and just a bit tangy. It has hints of spicyness in it, but it is extremely mild.
So, what other better way to make a chinese meal complete by having some light and nutritious soup? They have quite a few double boiled soups here, they even have Buddha Jump Over the Wall. The one below is their Black Chicken soup.
It was steamingly hot when it arrived that was why there is a white blurry patch in the middle of the photo. As you can see, the soup is really clear! There wasn't even oil hanging around the edges. So it was light and tasted nice. Sorry, not really a herb soup person, so I don't really know how to describe other than its nice, light and clear.
Of course, no meal at this eatery with the ancient ambience is complete without downing a little of the Nu Er Hong.
Nu Er Hong is quite strong. It is 16% alcoholic which is not as a bad as hard liquor but "badder" than wine. At first taste, it was as if some chicken essence was lurking somewhere within the 33ml of liquid. But its nice to try it. After all, I bet most of our long ago ancestors drank it and its affordable at only $3.20. What a better time than now?
Overall, a good meal. Ambience was memorable at Vivocity's outlet.
Dian Xiao Er
Vivocity #02-137/8
Monday - Friday
11.30am to 2.30pm
5.30pm to 9.30pm
Weekends/ Public Holidays
11.30am to 3.00pm
5.30pm to 9.30pm
Tel: 6376 9786
Do you sometimes long for some affordable and delicious chinese fare? It's right at Ming Kee! Well, that is if you like seafood too.
For starters, their achar is very crunchy and just a bit sour. But its very appetising. It's those kind of achar which has no peanut sauce. So I guess that's healthier? It was mostly made up of carrots, cucumber and pineapple. Yum.
Today they have something called "Fried Fish Skin".
Hmm.. its the thing in the basket on the left. It's very crispy. The staff compared it to eating keropok. I guess this "keropok" has a more fishy taste then. Haha. When the whole table tucks into it, I think the next nearest table will be able to hear the crunch crunch. For some taste, it'll be good to dip it into the smaller dark bowl of sauce. The dip tasted like some sauce that comes along with steamed fish. I guess a more appropriate comparism will be to "Fried Salmon Skin" at Japanese restaurants. No prizes for stating the similarity.
Next we had our main dish for the night...
Crab Bee Hoon! When it came to us (the dish), the waitress took away the top shell to reveal the orange thingy called "roe" mixed into the bee hoon! Instantly, everyone wanted to poke their chopsticks into the bee hoon. The bee hoon was moist enough and with every mouthful of it, you could really taste what I call "the essence of crab". The crab, which was steamed, retained its own sweetness in its meat. With such tasty bee hoon, the sweetness of the crab may not be as obvious. But is that really a waste? Haha. The bee hoon was good enough to make up for that. Try the other alternative - Crayfish Bee Hoon too. Its the crayfish I like best. Somehow, the bee hoon will taste different from the crab one, but in no way more inferior.
Ming Kee likes to steam their shellfish with lots and lots of garlic and butter. And what you get is an extremely mouth watering good kind of dish. Garlic and butter really go very well together. However, maybe their garlic and butter combination works better on their la la. Because with the scallops, it overpowered the taste of the scallops. Their garlic and butter steamed la la dish is really one of the best I've tried. Their flower la la is especially good because for once, it has taste. Not like other la la served outside which is mostly tasteless and a waste of stomach space.
Try their yam paste (or nee) here too. They make it themselves and it is not bad. After all, this is a teochew restaurant and or nee is a teochew dish. They serve it with some pumpkin and ginko nuts.
Ming Kee Live Seafood
556 Macpherson Road(S) 368231
Tel: 67474075
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