Lau Sim Shredded Chicken Noodles: You are only allowed a maximum of 7 giaos!

With Amagada and SCS butter

Shredded Chicken Noodles with Fish Dumplings (Her Giao)

There is a popular saying amongst the Hokkiens that Teochews are very "Hao Lian" (Proud). Well, when you meet a hawker like the Mr Sim, you can't help but agree that there is some element of truth in it. Having blogged so many hawker stalls, it is inevitable that when I chance upon a hawker that is a bit of a Food Nazi, there is a very big chance that he would turn out to be a Teochew.

But it is good to take pride in the food that you serve, because it is only that pride that keeps you from taking short cuts in the preparation process. The Teochew "Her Giao", which is a dumpling made with minced pork and dried sole wrapped in a skin made almost entirely of fish meat, is a labour intensive dish which many hawkers have decided to outsource to a supplier. You can't blame them really. In order to make the skin, you have to debone the yellowtail, take all the meat and knead it till it can be rolled out as a paper thin sheet. It is not something one would do unless he is a little "Hao Lian" about his food.



This stall is the kind of stall which I get very excited about blogging. SCS Butter has been telling me about this place for months, but he never mentioned about how the owner does business here. Situated in an old style coffeeshop with that classic old black and gold wooden signboard, you would be likely to give it a pass unless someone had told you about the stall. And even if you had just stumbled upon the stall and ordered a bowl of noodles, you probably wouldn't make the effort to return there again. That is because the chicken noodles are pretty ordinary and it is only the Her Giao and the Fish Balls which are exceptional. But if you just went up to the uncle and asked for a bowl of noodles you are not going to get any Her Giao. He only gives it to the regulars and for those people who actually ask for it.

That is not all, he imposes a restriction on how many Her Giao you can actually buy! So here are his rules:

1. You only get 2 Her Giao if you order a bowl of noodles
2. You cannot order just Her Giao without buying the noodles
3. If you buy a bowl of noodles with 2 Her Giao, you then have the option of buying a bowl of Her Giao soup. It is $3.50 and comes with 5 Her Giao
4. Each person is only allotted 7 Her Giao maximum. So if you want more, you have to bring friends along so you can eat their share

Now, he is not mean about it or anything like that. He just feels that he can only make so many Her Giao per week and he needs to make sure that customers that come to eat his Her Giao gets to eat something when they come to the stall. And he also feels that if you eat 7 Her Giao you probably reach the point of diminishing returns so you would get less enjoyment from the Her Giao as you start getting too full.


Special Her Giao 70cents each

So just how special is this Her Giao? Well, it is quite a different style of Her Giao from what I have been eating all along. The skin is rather chewy but somehow increased masticatory work you have to do brings out that extra "pangness" of the fish. Unlike other Her Giao, this one is packed full of the meat filling which has lots of "Ti Poh" (fried sole fish) in it. So if you love Ti Poh, you are going to love this. The soup here is very special too. It is almost milky white because of all the pork bones used to cook the soup. He does use a bit of msg in the soup but he has a money back guarantee should you feel thirsty within 3 hours of drinking the soup. 4.5/5

The chicken noodle as I have already alluded to is really quite ordinary. 3.75/5. But you need to order a bowl in order to order the Her Giao, so really, you have no choice but to eat it. SCS Butter was telling me that the Fish Balls at this shop is really quite special as well. They are only available on Fridays to Sundays and usually get sold out by lunch time. According to Mr Sim, the best time to eat the fish balls is at around 10.30am. If you come too early, the fishball would be a little more salty as they have not been soaked long enough and the texture is not as good. At 10.30am, the fish balls are just right.

Conclusion

This Her Giao is really quite special and coupled with a friendly Food Nazi, it was a really great eating experience.

Lau Sim Shredded Chicken Noodle
Tai Thong Coffeeshop
1 Tai Thong Crescent
Singapore 347835
96663183
7.30am to 1330pm
Closed on Mondays

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Rubiah Muslim Food: To get your Sotong Roe, you need to get past the Nazi

With Smart, Sumosumo, Wahcow, Cactuskit, ijeff, chocolate and PK


If you enjoy Sotong with roe, you are going to like this post.

This is a stall that is frequented by Cactuskit and it has a perpetual queue outside the stall from the time they start selling. Now, I am not a big fan of Sotong, much less Sotong with roe. But our kakis that day, especially Sumosumo and Smart were all going on about this Sotong that I had to go buy a plate of rice just to be able to take a photo and find out what the fuss was all about.



I guess it is not easy to find a place that almost guarantees that you will get a Sotong that is full of roe. I found it amazing that the three or four servings that we ordered were all full of roe, much to the delight of our kakis. To me it was a 4.25/5, sumosumo gave it a 4.5/5 and Smart a 4.75/5. So I guess this is one dish that depends on whether you really like Sotong roe.



What I really did enjoy was the pennuts with ikan bilis which was excellent here, as was the bergedil. The Sayoh Lodeh was quite average. Cactuskit was also raving about the Assam Fish here.


Be nice to this lady or you might not get your Sotong with Roe!

Now the Malay lady behind the counter is perpetually stressed and sweating away but she's actually quite personable when you talk to her. However, in order to get to her, you will have to get past the Food Nazi who stands guard at the door taking orders. I won't say that she is particularly nasty, but just very pragmatic and bent on taking your orders without wanting to engage in small talk. If you don't believe me, just try asking her with a big grin on your face whether she can make sure that your sotong will be full of roe! ;)

Conclusion

As I alluded to in my opening sentence, if you like Sotong with Roe, you will definitely want to make a beeline to this stall, but just make sure you behave yourself when you are making your orders! You have been warned.

Note: I use the term "Food Nazi" in a very tongue in cheek manner. Food Nazis are not really that nasty, they are really people with a heart of gold but just lack the ability to express it. To read about other the Hawker Food Nazis please click here

Rubiah Muslim Food
Whampoa Food Centre
Stall 34
10am to 6pm
Closed on Sundays

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Lim Seng Lee Duck Rice: Cheap no Good, Good no Cheap

With Damien


I guess it is part of the Singaporean character to look for things that are cheap and good. This is especially true when it comes to food. However, many foodies are also ready to fork out their cash when they come across really good food. The fact is that the "Good" is not cheap and it is compounded by the fact that the "Cheap" is not as good as the "Good" that is not cheap.

There are only a handful of hawkers in Singapore who can actually command such unquestioning allegiance from their customers. Their food is so good that their customers don't mind paying the premium as well as suffer potential verbal abuse in order to have their taste buds tickled. According to Damien, this is one of them.

I was of course skeptical. How good can braised duck really get? I have yet to find a braised duck that I could have a craving for.

Well, all that is about to change. The duck here is actually very enjoyable. The meat was moist and tender and the unique, sweet vinegar chilli was the perfect accompaniment for the duck. It was actually quite shiok! 4.5/5 Just one problem, the plate small plate of thinly sliced duck costs $5 and if you go during peak periods, the wait can be pretty long.

Conclusion

Really nice braised duck with a shiok chilli sauce dip. Good enough to get me thinking about traveling all the way out West to eat it, but not quite that good enough for me pay a premium and still suffer a long queue for.

Lim Seng Lee Duck Rice
38 South Buona Vista Road
10.30am to 8.30pm
64759908

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Empress Place Beef Kway Teow: Teochew Beef Kway Teow got no gravy one!

With SCS Butter


Did you realise that most of the hawker food that we are familiar with are less than a century old? It's true! A few of our most famous heritage stalls can trace their roots back to around the early 1900's. That makes it about 3 or 4 generations from then till now. There are a few very famous names which have span 3 or 4 generations and inevitably they would have created some sibling rivalry along the way. Names like Beach Road Prawn Noodle and Rochor Bean Curd immediately come to mind.

Then of course there is the famous Hock Lam Beef Kway Teow which is the subject of our discussion today. Yes, the man who made famous the Teochew style Beef Kway Teow bestowed the business to his 4th son, Anthony because he did not do so well in school. But later on the youngest son also wanted a piece of the "Hock Lam" name. So the only legitimate owner of the Hock Lam franchise is the one at China St whereas the "Popular" Hock Lam Beef Kway Teow at Purvis street is considered the illegitimate one though both are brothers and thus share in the family recipe.

But that is not all, the patriarch, Mr Tan Chin Sia also had a daughter who also decided to go into the Beef Kway Teow business, but she started selling it at Empress Place and called hers Empress Place Beef Kway Teow instead. It did very well, but unfortunately had to close down during the MadCow epidemic in the late eighties. Fortunately for us, the Brand was resurrected again in few years ago when her son decided to bring back the familiar Beef Kway Teow that he used to eat at his grandfather's stall.



So much for that little bit of Beef Kway Teow history, back to a more tasty subject.

Have you ever wondered why Beef Kway Teow is called Kway Teow even though most of the time you eat it with thick bee hoon? Well, there are really two types of Beef Kway Teow in the market, the Hainanese style and the Teochew Style. The familiar one with the thick bee hoon and thick sticky gravy is in fact Hainanese style. According to David, there are very few stalls apart from his that sells true blue Teochew style beef kway teow. True Teochew beef kway teow is never served with thick bee hoon and there is never any thick gravy. David said that his Grandfather will turn in his grave if he realised what had happened to his Hock Lam St beef kway teow.

Instead, Teochew style beef kway teow uses normal kway teow and the dry version is served with just a dash of sesame oil, soy sauce and chilli. Now I was skeptical at first, but with my first mouthful of the kway teow, I realised what I have been missing. The kway teow was indeed very fragrant and the slices of beef were cooked medium and were very tender. Unexpectedly good! My favourite was the cooked beef and the tendons which were very "pang" and had an uncomplicated beefy flavour. The soup was also sweet and robust which David attributes to having the bones simmer in the soup for over 2 days. 4.5/5

Conclusion

I tend to believe that Teochew beef kway teow was originally served this way because of the fact that kway teow is used and also that the Teochews in general prefer most of their food to be "cheng" (not heavy). So the sticky gravy I think is more likely to be Hainanese in origin. Any food historians amongst our readers who can shed more light on this?


Empress Place Beef Kway Teow
LTN Eating House
936 East Coast Road
11am to 11pm daily
Recommended by Damien

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Holland Village XO Fish Head Bee Hoon: The Original XO Fish Soup!

Who in the world would think of putting XO into Fish Soup?

A guy who loves XO, that's who. It turns out that the inventor of the XO Fish Soup was none other than an XO salesman who loved his drinks so much that he added it into Fish Soup. And as it turned out, it worked!

Come to think of it, there is no reason it wouldn't work. If you think of the creamy fish soup like any European cream based sauce, putting a dash of brandy in it actually does make sense.

But as luck would have it, our man Ricky struck gold when he came up with the very first XO fish soup some fourteen years ago and sprouted lots of copy cats ever since. (So he claims) According to Ricky, you can't just simply add the XO into the soup at the end. Firstly, you don't just use any old XO, it must the best grade. Then it has to be added into the soup while it is boiling and allowed to cook for a little while (the timing is a trade secret). The dash of XO just prior to serving is but the garnishing at the end of the cooking process.

This stallowner is the type of person who believes in only using the best and freshest of ingredients. Well, there's really no point in wasting good XO on 2nd rate produce is there? So he brags about how he sources his snakeheads (Loi He) from Malaysia and how he only uses the top grade MSG so that it doesn't cause the bad aftertaste. The result is a tasty fish soup with that extra XO kick! One little word of reservation. It's been a while since I ate here but I could have sworn the soup was a little more tastier in the past. Might be just that day's batch. 4.25/5



The other dish that I always order when I am there is the Har Cheong Kai (Prawn Paste Chicken). It's always freshly fried, crispy on the outside, juicy and fragrant on the inside. Again, the use of good prawn paste and MSG with fresh (not frozen) chicken wings really makes a difference. I love to dip the wings into the fish soup for just a quick soak before biting into the piping hot mid wing. Heavenly! 4.5/5

Conclusion

It is written that

The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11

Ricky himself admitted that he knows nuts about cooking, but somehow the addition of XO into fish soup became an instant success story. Really goes to show that a lot of success in life has to do with chance and opportunity doesn't it?

Holland Village XO Fish Head Bee Hoon
Blk 46, Holland Drive
#01-359
67783691
11.30am to 2pm
5pm to 11pm
Ricky Lau 98331003

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Beach Road Scissor Cut Curry Rice: Sticky, Gooey, Goodness

I would bet that if you brought an Ang Moh friend to eat this Hainanese Curry Rice, he would think you were pulling a quick one on him. It's a plate of rice topped with an unthinkable mixture of gooey chicken curry, braised pork and slimy soft cabbage gravy. If you had never eaten this before, you'd probably be wondering how something that looks like pig's swill could even taste good.

But if you had just finished a 20km road march and had nothing else to eat but dry biscuits and water, this stuff will definitely hit the G-spot.

I also cannot imagine how you can mix curry with lor (braising sauce), but man the concoction sure tastes good. And that is not all, the texture of the gravy is like that of Tau Suan. It's full of corn starch, so it's like eating glue. But when you are famished, that bolus of rice and gravy slides down the oesophagus like engine oil on pistons. It's the quick and tasty way to satisfy your hunger pangs.



Best of all, you can eat everything with just a spoon since they cut up the meat for you with a traditional pair of scissors (don't know where to get these nowadays). Effortless, tasty and simply damn shiok. 4.5/5

Conclusion

Know any Ang Mohs who actually like this stuff?

Beach Road Scissor Cut Curry Rice
Cnr of Jalan Besar and Kitchener Road
11am to 3.30am daily

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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

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Sin Huat Seafood Restaurant: Inside the Mind of a Food Nazi

With Amagada

Crab Bee Hoon $63 One big crab

I finally plucked up the courage to visit Sin Huat Seafood Restaurant! It was an appointment with inevitability. How can any self-professed foodie not visit this infamous restaurant at least once in his lifetime? For those of you who don't know of its infamy, let me just give you a quick backgrounder.

I first heard of this restaurant a few years ago when Anthony Bourdain featured it in his tour of Singapore. Then, a doctor friend of mine told me how he brought a group of his junior doctors there and the meal cost $800! Being an "Old School" Doc, he paid the bill since it is the privilege for the Senior Docs to pay for the Juniors.... a great tradition which I hope will continue to be practised. After a while I also heard over the forum that the owner was a bit of a Food Nazi who insists on taking orders for the food himself and refusing to serve food to people who have ordered food from a nearby store! So it was a combination of exorbitant prices and the chance to be abused that prevented me from eating there for such a long time.

However, curiosity continue to haunt me until finally an anonymous commenter wrote in to say that he paid $58 for the crab and it was seriously shiok. That was the last straw! I had to experience this infamous crab bee hoon for myself!


Scallops 8 pieces $25

When we got to the restaurant, a young lady instructed us to have a seat and wait for the owner to come out to take orders. Of course, we obeyed her orders without questioning. After 15 mins, the owner, Danny finally came out and took our orders. I had already been cautioned beforehand to order only the crab bee hoon as they have fish here that cost $200 per kg. So I told Danny I wanted the crab bee hoon only since this was our supper. But he told us that we should also order the scallops to "eat for fun". Not wanting invoke his anger, I Kuai Kuai (obediently) agreed.

Another 15 mins later, the scallops were served. Ohhhh, they were good. The sauce was very shiok and they use live scallops which you don't readily see in seafood restaurants. Amagada loved it! 4.5/5



After still another 15 mins, the Crabs finally arrived! The verdict: Shiok. Best crab bee hoon so far! Aside from the smaller claw being slightly atrophied, the rest of the crab was solid. The Bee Hoon was not too dry nor too wet and had wonderfully soaked in the flavours of the crab, ginger and that mysterious stock. It was excellent BUT, I had expected it to be even more mind blowing after all the hype. Can't give it a 4.75, but certainly a very strong 4.6/5



After we finished up the crab, the Lao Ban Niang actually came up to chat with us. For the wife of a Food Nazi, she actually turned out to be very nice! She started showing us a video of Anthony Bourdain when he came back to the stall to eat when he was not filming. So that's how I managed to get a pic of the Bourdain in the shop! Sitting at the table where he sat might be as close as I ever get to the Bourdain!

When I started to ask the Lao Ban Niang a bit more about the history of the store, she asked if I wanted to talk to the Danny instead?

A conversation with the Food Nazi himself? Was it possible? Heck, I have already eaten the crab bee hoon, so the most he could do to me was ban me from the restaurant for life and charge me a huge bill for my meal. Oh well, I guess I will have to offer myself as a sacrificial lamb for the sake of a good story.

I think Danny must have been in a good mood that day.

It turned out that our Food Nazi started life as a humble pig farmer and was forced to open a restaurant when the Goverment shut down the last of the local pig farms in Punggol in the early nineties. Out of desparation, he opened a restaurant and proceeded to learn how to cook. He started by doing the usual Cze Char stuff and was soon attracting a good following. One day, a patron told him that he did not want to order both a crab dish as well as a Hor Fun and asked if he could just combine the two together. I think you can guess the rest.

Our pig farmer perfected his recipe and submitted it for the AsiaFood competition in 1997. Thus was born the legendary Crab Bee Hoon.

Well, the Food Nazi turned out to be quite a nice guy after all! Feeling the positive vibes, I asked why he had such a bad reputation. It turned out that he has had his share of Customer Nazis as well. He told me that sometimes they had customers who offer to pay $300 for a $400 bill because they did not have enough money and they needed to take a taxi home. The reason he refused to sell his food to customers who have ordered from other stalls was that there had been occasions when customers would cancel their orders after eating the other food since they had to wait for his.

Conclusion

The hype and infamy really added extra value to an already very tasty dish! It just goes to show that even bad service can sometimes become a positive marketing strategy! At least it did for this blogger!

Sin Huat Seafood Restaurant
659/661 Geylang Road
Junction of Geylang Lor 35
67449755
Open for dinner 6pm to 12 midnight

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Mohd Sultan Rd Cheng Tng: Behave or you don't eat your Cheng Tng!

The concept of the Food Nazi was popularized by Seinfeld and it is a term I use for food sellers who have such a great following that they can afford to be cantankerous but people are still willing to suffer abuse in order to eat their stuff.

Now what is the difference between a Food Nazi and a food seller who just gives bad service? Somehow you still have that respect for a Food Nazi even though you are a bit scared that he might just nip off the tip of your nose. I have had mean and downright impolite people serving me before and these people really spoil a good appetite. I really have no impetus to patronize their stall anymore. But when a Food Nazi treats you bad, somehow you don't really get angry. In fact, you might find that the bad service is all part and parcel of the whole dining experience. So when I call a hawker a Food Nazi, please don't shun his stall. No, the bad service is all part of the fun.



This is the well known Cheng Tng Nazi over at Adam Road. Well known at least to my seasoned makan kakis the HolyC and smart. I just found him to be a tad grumpy that's all. When I asked why his Cold Cheng Tng does not have any longan soup in it, he merely replied that Cold Cheng Tng does not have any longan soup in it. OK, not quite verbal abuse. So what do I need to do to get the real bad service. Maybe he just was not in the mood that day.

The Cheng Tng itself is very cheng (clear) and it was a good Cheng Tng to quench the thirst. There was not really that much ingredients in it. The hot one is better than the cold one. The good thing about the Cheng Tng here is that it is full of that brown frilly stuff which I really like. 4/5

Conclusion

The classic Food Nazi that I know of is in JB and I am planning to blog him one day. If you all know of any other Food Nazis, please write in and let me know!

Mohammad Sultan Road Hot and Cold Cheng Tng
Zion Riverside Food Centre
Stall 7
11am to 9pm daily
Closed Monday nights

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