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

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Teo Kee Mushroom Minced Pork Noodle: Melt in your Mouth Braised Pork Soft Bones

I simply love braised pork soft bone, don't you? I just could not resist ordering a bowl of this Braised Pork Noodle. The Pork Soft Bone has been cooked till you can finish the whole bowl of noodle without leaving anything in the bowl or on the table next to the bowl.

Talking about throwing bones and other stuff on the table around your bowl, I am just wondering if you all still do it without a second thought? It's funny, I must admit that in a hawker centre I do it without hesitation, but it is not something that you do in a fancy restaurant especially if there is a nice pristine white table cloth. But then, when we are in a Chinese Restaurant, we still do it, table cloth or not. Do you think that throwing the unedible stuff onto the table for the elderly Ah Soh or the Bangladeshi worker to clean up is right etiquette or should we become more civic minded and "developed" and politely leave everything in our bowl?

At least I don't have to face this dilemma when eating this dish since nothing much is left when you are finished with the pork. The braising sauce is very good. It is robust, sweet and you get a hint of the cinnamon and star anise without it being over powering. The noodles are also special egg noodles which are nice and QQ. 4.25/5

Conclusion

If you like pork soft bones or just need the extra collagen for your osteoarthritis, this is the place to go for relatively cheap soft bone fix.

Teo Kee Mushroom Minced Pork Noodle
Blk 137, Tampines St 11
Tampines Round Market and Food Centre
#01-05
5am to 2pm
Closed on Mondays

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Xing Ji Braised Duck: Good Enough to switch loyalties!

This stall is closed

On assignment with Professional Photographer, Alec Ee
Set for 2, $8 Photo by Alec Ee

On this occasion, I was invited to join professional photographer, Alec Ee to a photoshoot of his favourite Braised Duck stall which according to him is better (in a different sort of way) from the famous one at Tekka. This little known braised duck stall facing the Sungei Road thieves market was only started 6 months ago but has already attracted a regular following of braised meat lovers like Uncle Alec, who, until he found this stall, was a regular at Tekka.



Being in the presence of a professional photographer was a little intimidating for me at first. When you look at the kind of photos that he takes, you will know what I mean. Because he was so particular about the lighting and set up, it meant that for once, I was the one who had to be patient and wait while others took the pictures. After that I had to take my shots before we got to eat! Phwa I was really hungry by the time I got the first piece of duck into my mouth.


Duck Noodle $2.50 Pic by Alec Ee

The first thing that caught my attention was the way the stall owner sliced the duck breast. It is in the same style as the braised goose served at Guan Hin. Surely a good sign! When it comes to duck I actually prefer the breast meat to thigh meat. Because duck breast is actually red meat not white, I find that it combines tenderness of breast meat with the taste of thigh meat.

Do you know the difference between red and white meat? Red meat consist of slow twitch muscle fibres while white meat consist of fast twitch muscles. Slow twitch muscles are used for slower, sustained activity such as walking while fast twitch muscles are good for quick but short lived bursts of activity. So, chicken breast is typically white meat because a chicken doesn't really fly, it uses its breast muscles to quickly flap its wings when it is excited. The legs contain more slow twitch muscles since it is always walking around. That explains the difference in tastes of the two parts of the chicken. But since ducks actually fly (most migrate seasonally), the breast meat contains more slow twitch muscles so that they can have sustained muscle activity while they fly for long distances. Which is why duck breast tastes more like red meat. Yes or no?

The Braised Duck here is quite good. The breast is nice and tender and because it is sliced thin and wide, the texture is very different from your usual braised duck. I like the Lor as it is the thin watery type and is on the sweeter end of the spectrum but it still has enough umami. 4.25/5



Aside from the duck, the other thing that you really must order is the pork cheek. Oooh, sinfully soft and chewy at the same time! Not good......Very Good! 4.5/5

Conclusion

My next assignment is to try the famous Braised Duck over at Tekka. The braised duck here is very good, but until I get to compare it with the other famous one, you will just have to take Uncle Alec's word that it is good enough for him to switch loyalties! It's a new stall, but the stall owner really has passion for his craft, so I think it is only a matter of time before other braised meat lovers will discover his stall.


Xing Ji Braised Duck
Kelantan Food Centre
(Facing Sungei Road Thieves Market)
11 Kelantan Road 01-04
10am to 7pm daily

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Boon Tong Kee Kway Chap: Old World vs New World Hawkers: Zion Road Riverside Food Centre: Part 2 of 3

With iwatch_ueat, damien, smartgoh and The HolyC


You know, I am beginning to realize that just as wines are divided into New and Old World wines, each with a distinctive taste, Singapore Hawker Fare can also be divided into Old World and New World tastes.

Food that comes from a 40 year old wok and fried by 60 year old arms will somehow have that rustic taste about it compared to food coming from a brand new wok. New World food just seems to have more of a upbeat, clinical taste about it. I was joking with a 70 year old Char Kway Teow man today that it must be his sweat that gives his Char Kway Teow that unique special flavour. And perhaps that is true since a person's body odour does change as one ages. I am sure you realize that grandparents have a unique smell which my mother likes to call the "Kana Bee". When I was a houseman in Australia, I remember that as I approached the Geriatrics Ward, I could recognize this distinctive smell immediately. We used to call it (with all due respect to our older readers) "Eau De Geriatric".



Now after that lengthy preamble, let me just say that New World does not mean it is bad. It is just different. This Braised Duck has got a New World taste. It is tasty yet has a clinical (clean, orderly, sterile) quality to it. Just 3 years old and run by a young lady, this stall had derived its recipe from the internet, books and experimentation. However, it has already earned many accolades and visits from the usual mediacorp artistes during this short period of time. The braising sauce is thick and tasty and the meats and bean curd were well executed. However, that modern - dare I say, Air-Con Food Court - taste is inescapable. 4/5

Conclusion

Definitely a New World taste, but a good recipe and done very well. It may well be that the new generation of Singaporeans will prefer this version of Lor Bak, just as they would think of Pierce Brosnan as the iconic James Bond. People like myself would always consider Roger Moore to be the real Bond. If you fall into the category that thinks that the only real Bond is Sean Connery, then maybe you will not find this Lor Bak any good at all!

Boon Tong Kee Kway Chap Braised Duck
Zion Riverside Food Centre
Stall 24
11.30am to 10.30pm
91849881

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Say Seng Cooked Food: Domesticated Wild Boar

With PK, yummiedummies, iwatch_ueat, liverpool and smart


This stall is famous for serving out a braised wild boar. Since I have not eaten wild boar in recent memory, I decided to try it out to see what a pig on the wild side would taste like.



We were dissappointed to find that instead of wild boar, they now serve regular pork cooked with the same receipe. Aiya, so this is just ordinary Kway Chap right? Wrong. The taste of the braising sauce was quite different from Kway Chap, being a little less sweet and more aggresive. Maybe my mind was still playing tricks on me since I was still associating the dish with the wild boar. I don't know.

Conclusion

Quite an uncommon find nowadays even though it is not strictly wild boar. Still, its something unique for pork lovers to try. 3.75/5

Say Seng Cooked Food
Albert Food Centre (Opp Fu Lou Shou)
12pm - 8pm Daily

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Loh Mei: The one and only stall?: People's Park Food Centre Part 1 of 3

With iwatch_ueat, damien and liverpool


This is one of those blogs which I have a hard time writing. I write best when I am enamoured with the food. So why even include this stall in the blog? Well, I was told this is the "Last of the Mohicans", the "Final Dodo" even rarer than an albino Panda. Yep, I was told this is the one and only stall left in Singapore selling Loh Mei.

Damien raves about it and he looked like a little boy opening a christmas present when the dish finally came. I was of course looking forward to tasting this for the very first time. Such good food and yet its the only one left? Something just doesn't make sense.



I guess I can describe this as Kway Chap with a Nam Zhor (fermented bean curd) sauce. You know how they say somethings are an acquired taste? This must be an example of it. Both Damien and smart loved it, whilest the rest of us were ambivalent. OK, the sauce was nice but I wouldn't rave about it. 3.5/5

Conclusion

Not looking forward to eating this in the foreseeable future, but some others might drool over it. The real question is whether this is really the one and only stall in Singapore? Perhaps some of our readers care to shed some light on it?

Loh Mei Specialist
Blk 32 New Market Road
People's Park Food Centre
#01-1110
65332311

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Tang Cheng Chicken Rice: Back after 10 years in exile!: Part 2 of 6

With liverpool, iwatch_ueat, smart and tamago


We stumbled upon this brand new stall which looked very promising. According to the owner, they are previously a popular stall in Jurong before they took a 10 year break. (This is according to them, if you had patronized their stall before could you please let us know?) Anyway, I saw their big bowl of Achar and decided they must be of a certain standard to provide such an impressive side dish.



Those who like their food more salty and shiok will appreciate their Roast Chicken and Braised Duck. The chicken was tender and the sauce was really savoury (Some of the other makankakis remarked that it was a tad too salty). Now if you like to snack on Corn Chips and Potato Chips to get that Umami (Savoury) rush, then you shouldn't complain about this stall's food. 4/5

The braised duck was nice and tasty but the flesh could be more tender. 3.5/5


Conclusion

Great if you like your food really tasty and salty and are not having to go for a low salt diet (ie if you suffer from hypertension)

Tang Cheng Chicken Rice
Blk 117 Aljunied Ave 2
Geylang East Food Centre
Same row as Ng Soon Kee Fish Soup in the middle

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Lee Xin Braised Duck: Tender Braised Duck: North Bridge Food Centre 1 of 2

With smart, liverpool and iwatch_ueat


I have been passionate about blogging those really old established hawker stalls because since they have been around for so long, their food ought to be good (akin to Darwin's theory about survival of the fittest yah?) But you know what, I realise that what really makes the food good is not how long it has existed, but how passionate the hawker is about the food.

Of late, I have been coming across more and more newly established stalls who have been around only a few years and yet their food is really very good. Another advantage of new stalls is that there is no old baggage holding the hawker back, so he is at liberty to experiment and innovate.



This Lor Duck (Braised Duck) stall is one good example. This gentleman has opened this stall for less than 2 years, but hey the duck is pretty good. You'll notice that the way the meat is cut and presented is reminiscent of how they do it in good Teochew Restaurants like Guan Hin. We loved the tenderness of the Duck and the Lor was tasty though it could have been a little more robust. 4/5

I asked him where he learnt to braise duck from and he simply said that it was a matter of trial and error, constantly getting feedback and trying to improve on the formula. It helps that his spent a good part of his life as a herbalist before deciding to go into the food business.

Conclusion

If you are into braised duck, you should give this one a try!

Lee Xin Braised Duck
North Bridge Food Centre
#01-93
9.30am to 8.30pm

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Chuan Lai Kway Chap King: The First is actually the Last

This blog is dedicated to all the Surgeons that I have worked with. I know how you all yearn for Kway Chap after a long hard day at the operating theatres!

If I asked you to guess what the first picture showed, only those who are Kway Chap Afficianados and those who have done a course in Anatomy will be able to identify that these are the terminal end of a tube that started from the pig's mouth. Oh yes, the Chinese call it the first part of the large intestine. Westerners call it the last part. See where the priorities of the 2 cultures lie?



I was never a big fan of innards, so I only took the picture of the Rectums to make you go EEEEEeeeyuuuuuck! (or Yum Yum whichever is your fancy)

I had the duck, belly pork and Tau Pok (deep fried bean curd) instead. The Lor (soy sauce) was thick and gooey and it was very herbal in taste, not really my kind of Lor 3/5. The duck was tender and one of the better ones I tasted. 3.75/5 But the belly pork that day was really bad. It had a smelly pork taste that I could not stand. 2/5



This did not make any sense to me because there was a lot of people eating there and the shop has all kinds of newspaper write ups. Even after the lunch peak hour, there were still quite a lot of people eating there and the amount of food prepared was very impressive. I keep wondering if it was just my own tastebuds and that maybe the smelly pork was a one off.



I was told that before the lunch crowd there was double the number of ducks shown in the picture! Such is the popularity of the stall. If there are readers who are fans of this stall, I hope you will write your comments and tell us why you love it so much!

Chuan Lai Guo Zhi Wang
560 Macpherson Road
67441252
8am to 12.30am Daily






Addendum: Fried Da Chang Tou as recommended by one of our readers!

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Pig Trotters: Not for the faint hearted East Coast Lagoon Food Village Part 6 of 7

With AC Towkay & iwatch_ueat



Please read the disclaimer before reading this blog!

Ter Kar (Pig's Trotter) is not something for the faint hearted or people who have been scheduled for cardiac bypass surgery. This is a delicacy you can only partake Gu Gu Chip Pai (Long Long time once). But oooooohhh, when the skin and fats combine with the dark sauce and melts in your mouth, you wish there was not such thing as High Cholesterol. Why does everything that tastes good have to be bad for you?




This close up is for all those who won't blink an eye at the thought of Trotterless Pigs. This is, afterall the best part of the pig! The Lor (Dark Sauce Gravy) here is pretty good, but not awesome. The best Teh Kah I had was in a little "hole in the wall" in a remote village 2 hours from Bangkok, that one was awesome and I would fast for 5 days to enjoy the dish. (Bit of exaggeration but you get my point).



Conclusion

It was 2.30pm in the afternoon and there were at least 5 people sitting around with Pig Trotters on their plates. Most of them have been reduced to bone. I was warned that the Bak Kut Teh was not as nice, so don't bother trying it. Again, this is not my idea of a Late Night Seaside Dish, but good enough to bring my mom and mother-in-law to eat. 3.5/5 Oh, it is not all doom and gloom for the health conscious epicureans. You have a choice between the artery clogging version or the healthy lean meat version.

Han's Bak Kut Teh
Store 42, East Coast Lagoon Food Village (ECP side)
Opened for lunch till sold out in the evening or night

Acknowledgements: Superfinefeline recommended this

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Cheok Kee Duck Rice: East Coast Lagoon Food Village Part 4 of 7

With: AC Towkay & iwatch_ueat



A good duck rice must have a good Lor (Gravy). As my mom would say "lose-win" is the Lor. Most of the time when I eat duck rice, I don't actually go for the duck meat as I would with chicken when I eat chicken rice. I usually go for the Tau Pok (Fried Bean Curd) and the Lor with the rice. And if they have braised peanuts, it's a bonus.



East Coast Lagoon Food Village seems hardly the place one would go for Braised Duck. To me the beach means Satay, Rojak, Hokkien Mee and Roti John. Braised Duck seems too melancholic for the beach. But hey, here was the store and there was a picture of Kim Ng and Fiona Xie eating the duck rice. Who am I to argue with the wonder twins?




The Lor is very good and overall, I like it. Its the thick and sticky type which is a little sweet and the herbs are not overpowering. Actually, I have to admit I am not a duck rice fanatic, so this one is as good a duck rice as I ever ate. However, I don't think you'd drive all the way from Jurong to eat this, especially since they have branches elsewhere.



Conclusion

A good duck rice, but as I already alluded to, when you come to East Coast at night, you just want to eat something that is grilled over charcoal or put on a banana leaf. Know what I mean? 4/5

Cheok Kee Duck Rice
Laguna Food Village Stall 29 (Carpark side away from the beach)
Opened 11am - 10pm
64454222

Acknowledgement: Superfinefeline recommended this

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