Buzzing Cashier Event Report

Many thanks to the ieaters who turned up to be "guinea pigs" for Buzzing Cashier last Thursday! I think we all had a great experience seeing how a Variety show is made.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Buzzing Cashier, the basic premise is that the Hosts look for a stall whose owners are not doing very well and really need help. They then bring some well known chefs to come teach them how to improve their recipe and after two weeks they bring a gang of tasters to see if their dish "can make it".

I guess its like a "makeover" of sorts. But as I spoke with the writers, I was quite impressed that the emphasis is about helping those hawkers who are really in need. So unlike a lot of other food programs, when they set out to choose hawkers to be featured, they are actually seeking those which are unknown, not doing well and really need a miracle to turn their lives around. So it really is a show with a social cause.


Yi Feng and Kim Ng with myself and Chef Han of Meritus Mandarin Hotel

During the shoot, I got to know the other two judges who can be called legends in their own rights. The first is Chef Han, who is the Executive Sou Chef of the Meritus Mandarin hotel for the last 36 years. Now, this is when we need to set some of Singapore's hawker history straight. Chef Han has been the man in charge of Chatterbox's Chicken Rice since its inception and is really the one who is responsible for its fame. However, I think the general public's perception is that Chatterbox's Chicken Rice chef left years ago to open his own stall in Pasir Ris. This is only half true. Basically, the chef who left was the chef in charge of making the chicken rice. But the real person in charge and more importantly, the one who taught the chicken rice chef, Chef Han, is still helming Chatterbox. So let's set the record straight once and for all.


Chef William, Executive Chef of Copthorne King's Hotel

The Chief Chef of the episode was Chef William who is in charge of the Penang Buffet at Copthorne King's Hotel. Chef William is the ideal choice for the role of teaching the stall owner on how to cook carrot cake as he himself came from a family who sells carrot cake. Chef William is quite a hawker foodie himself and we had a great time discussing his favourite hawker haunts.

The first episode of Buzzing Cashier Season 2 airs this Monday, 6 July and the episode that we shot will be aired on 10 August. So do make sure to tune in!

More photos of the event can be seen on our facebook page.

If you are keen to be take part in the next buzzing cashier tasting event, do register yourself in the ieatishootipost facebook group.

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Heng Carrot Cake: Something in Newton worth going for

With Cactuskit, Wahcow and Sumosumo


Judging from the comments so far, it is quite clear that many of our readers regard Newton Food Centre as a place for tourists which was my perception as well. However, I must say that Newton Food Centre actually turned out to be better than we expected. Both Cactuskit and I
haven't been back here for awhile, but we both felt that there was quite an air of expectation about the whole place. I was interested to see just how bad the touting really is, but after trying to get myself touted for awhile, I would say that the touting problem is about the same as the Satay sellers at East Coast Lagoon. This place does indeed have Singapore's greatest concentration of BBQ seafood stalls though, which I guess is so because the hawkers want to cash in on high priced items.

However it would be unfair to say that all the hawkers there are out to make a quick buck from the tourists. In fact, I think the hawkers there know that they still have to cater to the locals in order to survive, especially those that are selling the less touristy items like Seafood BBQ.



Now, if you are one of those who shun Newton Food Centre then you might just miss out on this Carrot Cake which was surprisingly quite good. They have been there since Newton Food Centre was first built in 1971 and are still steaming their own Carrot Cake because they insist that home made carrot cake still tastes better.

Their efforts are quite evident in the white version. The texture of the carrot cake was just nice. It is softer and more "wobbly" than the commercial version and you can make out the strips of radish in it. It is fried till crispy on the outside but moist and soft on the inside and was very tasty. It definitely is not the best a carrot cake can get, since they avoid the use of lard, but it is certainly one of the best ones I have tasted. The black version is also very good and they managed to fry it till it is nice can caramalized. This might be one of the rare occasions where I find that both the white and black versions are just as good. 4.25/5

Conclusion

Very good homemade Carrot Cake and though it is in Newton, they still sell it at $3 per plate which I think is quite reasonable. It is certainly one stall which I would go to Newton Food Centre for.

Heng Carrot Cake
Newton Food Centre
Stall 28
Opened in the Evenings only

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Guan Kee Chai Tau Kway: Still steaming it themselves!

All is not gloom and doom in the hawker front.

We all complain that it is going downhill and that everything is getting outsourced such that hawkers are now more like traders rather than cooks but there is a glimmer of hope over the horizon. I guess with all things, it is a cycle we are talking about. We go from handmade to factory made and then when it looks like everyone is selling the factory made stuff, the handmade stuff suddenly becomes a unique proposition for consumers which some clever hawkers will capitalize to their advantage.

So this is the story with Carrot Cake. Just when you thought that all Carrot Cake is being outsourced, some stalls see the opportunity to differentiate themselves by steaming their own Carrot Cake. Somehow, it gives the stall a feeling of authenticity.



And the strategy works. Everytime I chance upon a stall that bothers to steam their own Carrot Cake, I will stop and order a plate. That's half the battle won. The other half boils down to the taste.

I guess when it comes to the taste of the Carrot Cake itself, one should be able to taste the difference with the white version since it is not masked by the black sauce. I must honestly tell you that the white version is not that great, which is a bit of a dissappointment. However, the black version of the Carrot Cake is well worth wasting a few Calories for. The Uncle fries it till it has all that wonderfull caramelized charred bits which is oh so heavenly! 4.25/5

Conclusion

Now, I wonder if there is really any point in steaming your own Carrot Cake if you can't really taste the difference in the white version. It's the black version here that is really good, but that has more to do with the frying technique and the recipe behind the sweet sauce.
So tell us, does your favourite Carrot Cake stall steam their own Carrot Cake? And do you think it makes a big difference?

Guan Kee Changi Village Food Centre
#01-02
11am to 11pm
Closed on Mondays

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Carrot Cake: Lots of Stalls at Chomp Chomp with no name

With sumosumo, jems, carnineviand, ping, pong, champagne, Mr YaKwang, Holybro, Holydrummer


You would think that any stall that can do a white carrot cake will be able to do a black one as well right? Afterall, it is a matter of adding black sauce and how hard can that be? But the fact is that most Carrot Cake stalls I know of are either good for the white or the black but not both. Will that be your observation as well?



For this particular stall, it is the white version that is the best version. The carrot cake fried till it is nice and crispy and the nice savoury flavour comes from the secret recipe fish sauce which has gone through some tweaking, plus the addition of prawns when they fry the carrot cake. The outsourced carrot cake is not bad, quite soft, according to Jems who likes it this way. Sumosumo also gave his approval for the white without chilli. 4.25/5

This particular stall has been around for quite a while. It is one of these Heritage Hawker stalls where the business has been passed down from father to son. The old man used to peddle his carrot cake around the Philip St area in Serangoon and settled at Chomp Chomp since 1976. The old man is still around, but his son has well and truly taken over and Dad refused to have his picture taken and insist that the limelight be shone upon his son instead. But after much coaxing he finally relented. I just wanted to post his picture so that those of you who have been eating at this stall for eons will perk up and say, "Hey, I have been buying from this man since his son was still waist high!" Hands up anyone?

Conclusion

Very good white Carrot Cake and worth having a plate on your table as part of your hawker feast.

Carrot Cake
Stall 36 Chomp Chomp Food Centre
(Front of the food centre on the right)
Opened 5.30pm to 12 midnight
Closed on alternate Tuesdays



What to do next?

Check out other famous Carrot Cake places.
Try the two famous Hokkien Mee there Che Jian and Ah Hock!
Make sure you also get a plate of BBQ Stingray from Boon Tat Street BBQ.
RK House Prata from a across the road is also quite good.

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Bee Bee Carrot Cake: Why do we expect them to make their own carrot cakes?

I have always thought that the best carrot cake are those where they actually steam their own carrot cake before frying. But I had a different thought the other day. How come we don't expect Char Kway Teow sellers to make their own Kway Teow, but we demand that from Carrot Cake sellers? It is true that traditionally they did steam it themselves, but it is one of those things that can actually be outsourced. So nowadays a lot of people actually take short cuts because it makes sense for their business and so we can't really fault them.

Anyway this carrot cake is the favourite of two of our makan kakis who live around Marine Terrace, viz Cactuskit and Holydrummer. So it is on their recommendation that I spent a precious Saturday morning (one of only a few throughout the year) trying them out.

Marine Terrace Food Centre is incredibly packed and I was told it is impossible to get a whole table to oneself. A lot of the times, you have to share tables with your neighbours. Indeed, there was hardly an empty seat as all the seats are actually taken! On the other hand, I found that people actually take the opportunity to talk to each other as well since they are forced to sit together. So this problem might not be totally bad afterall.

Anyway there was a 30 minute wait for the Carrot Cake which I found was pretty ordinary. BUT Cactuskit insists that it was a bad day for them and that they are usually better. OK lah I believe you, but that day's carrot cake only gets a 3.75/5.

Conclusion

So are you a Marine Terracer? Is this carrot cake really that great?

Bee Bee Carrot Cake
Marine Terrace Food Centre
Open from 7am to around 1pm

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Golden City Carrot Cake: Carrot Cake with Ikan Bilis and Crispy Fried Chye Poh!

Carrot Cake $3 portion

I found it! I found it!

The best carrot cake I have tasted is just a stone's throw away from home and it took me so long to find it!

You know, I haven't eaten any outstanding carrot cake that I can really put my finger on until I came across this one. What makes it special is that not only does this lady fry the carrot cake until it is crispy on the outside, but she adds in these delightfully crispy Ikan Bilis and Pre-Fried Chye Poh as well. The Chye Poh is really like manna from heaven!

OK, classic carrot cake connoisseurs might cry foul over the use of ikan bilis in the carrot cake, but I am telling you that after tasting this one, I feel that everyone else should be adding ikan bilis as well.

Aunty buys really good quality ikan bilis and prepares it herself twice a week. She fries them till they are super crispy and flavoursome. The chye poh is also pre-fried and she adds a little bit of sugar into them to give them that extra edge. The combination of the crisp savoury ikan bilis with the sweetened chye poh, soft carrot cake and fried eggs is something I just can just sit there and slowly savour with my eyes closed.



This stall used to be selling fried Hokkien Mee when the Aunty's husband was still around. But since his passing, they don't sell fried Hokkien Mee anymore. In fact, it was her late husband who first suggested that she added the ikan bilis for extra kick!

Truth be told, the first time I met her, I almost thought she was a bit of a Food Nazi. You see, I ordered my carrot cake without chilli, but when it arrived with chilli, I made the excuse that my kids don't eat chilli, and she grumpily changed it for me. What to do? I was scared that if I said I don't take chilli, she might just ban me from the stall! (I did offer to pay for 2 plates of carrot cake in the end but she refused to take the money albeit still grumpy)



But luckily, she turned out to be quite a nice lady when you get to know her. Just be nice to her okay? And when you ask for extra chye poh (Power Up to get Max Ooomph!) offer to pay extra 50 cents for it and keep that smile on her face.

Conclusion

Best carrot cake I have had for as long as I can remember! It's a 4.5/5 for the standard plate but when you add the extra chye poh it becomes a 4.75/5

Golden City Carrot Cake
1 Telok Kurau Road
Open 7.30am to 2pm
Closed Tuesdays








What to do next:

Check out the Fang Choy next door
Go down the road for Seng Kee Bak Chor Mee
There's a Charcoal Fried Hokkien Mee opposite
Check out other Carrot Cake stalls
Check out other stalls run by little old ladies and gentlemen

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Song Zhou Luo Bo Gao: Are you a Black or White Carrot Cake Fan?: Bedok Interchange Food Centre Part 2 of 7

With holydrummer, smart and iwatch_ueat








How did that Michael Jackson song go again? ".....it doesn't matter if you're black or white..."

I beg to differ. When it comes to Carrot Cake there are 3 types of people in the world. There are those who love the BLACK one. There are those who love the WHITE one. And there are those who think that carrot cakes are supposed to have cream cheese icing.

I belong to the group who love the BLACK one. So I will just say that the white one was pretty good and that 2 of the 4 people in the group who belong to the white consortium liked it enough to give it a 4/5.



Now what I like about the BLACK one is the fact that they really chop up the carrot cake into small itsy bitsy little bits and coat it with a generous amount of sweet black sauce. That's the way, Ah Huh, Ah Huh, I like it Ah Huh Ah Huh!. Actually, sometimes I feel a bit silly raving about what really amounts to eating a sweet black sauce with oil, eggs and carbs. I mean, put in enough black sauce and they all should taste the same, shouldn't it? Still, I like it but I can't afford to eat too much of it. 4/5



Conclusion

Wouldn't mind going back for the black one again when I am at Bedok Interchange.

Song Zhou Luo Bo Gao
Bedok Interchange Food Centre
Blk 207 Upper Changi Road
#01-18
6.30am to 8pm Daily

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Seng Kee Carrot Cake: New Twist on an Old Dish Bukit Timah Food Centre Part 2 of 5

Have a look at the next evolution in Chye Tau Kway courtesy of Generation X! Oh yes, our Gen Xers are really coming up with innovative ways of updating age old favourites. Let me just take you through the process of making the Next Gen Chye Tau Kway. (Ok if this has already been around for a long time, then just call me a Sua Gu (ignoramus) ok?)



First, you buck the trend of taking the easy way out and invest in a really cool machine that can steam trays of homemade Chye Tau Kway! Now, you may be able to just make out the bits of carrots in this Carrot Cake. Certainly, the spattering of bright red carrot bits was a welcome change to the usual carrotless carrot cakes that we get served.



Next, innovate on the method of frying the Chye Tau Kway. First, fry the Chai Poh (preserved vegetables) in the middle of the pan until it is fragrant. Then when it is really nice and almost crispy, mix the chai poh with the carrot cake and add the eggs making sure that the whole thing is about 2 cm thick and fry until it is crispy on the outside and just cook on the inside. This whole process takes almost 10 minutes!



Wallah! Next Gen Carrot Cake. Crispy on the outside, yummy on the inside, 2cm thick, not so oily, with real Carrots which contain Vitamin A which is good for your eyes! 4/5

Seng Kee Carrot Cake
Bukit Timah Food Centre
Stall 02-182
7.30am-11pm
Closed on Thursdays

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Rare Teochew Kueh - Ever heard of Chi Kak Kueh?

With ieatMaMa and iwatch_ueat



Ever heard of Chi Kak Kueh? Neither have I, and I dare to pride myself as Teochew Ah Bah! (Half past six one only) I was just walking around Tekka Market Food Centre looking for stalls with Adrian Pang's or Seethoh's face on them. Amazingly, for such an established Food Centre, there were very few with newspaper cuttings. It was then that I chanced upon this stall and spied this unusually coloured Poong Tor (Rice Dumpling - or so I thought).

Mom screamed with delight as if she just found her long lost son and got really excited. I found out later that the excitement was over this rare Teochew dessert whose colour is attributed to the Chi Kak leaves which you hardly buy in Singapore anymore.



The stall owners explained that the kuehs here are made by their 85 year old mother who does an annual pilgrimage to Swatow Province in China to buy back a year's supply of Chi Kak leaves to make the Kueh. She wasn't at the stall because she is at home busy making Kuehs for the next day. The Chi Kak gives the skin a distinctive flavour which is hard to describe except that it tastes a bit like Kee Chang (a type of Rice Dumpling). The filling is made from sweetened mashed green beans. Tastes a bit like Ang Ku Kweh, but we certainly did not strike lottery the next day (Hokkien Poem that says when you eat Hot Ang Ku Kweh, you will strike the lottery) I can't honestly rate this because I have never tasted anything like it before so it is hard to make a fair judgement. Mom gave it a 4/5 cos she had tasted better ones before.



Aside from all the traditional Teochew Kuehs like Poong Tor (Rice Dumpling), Soon Kueh (Turnip filling) and Orh Kueh (Yam cake), they also steam their own Chai Tau Kuey (erronously known as Carrot Cake, it is made from Radish). Most stores nowadays buy theirs from a factory.



Tada! Plate of black carrot cake, everything made in this small little stall. You can taste the difference in the texture as well as the taste of the carrot cake itself. Otherwise, fried egg and black sauce tastes much the same everywhere. 4/5

Conclusion

Happy to have found yet another stall where our culinary heritage is still preserved. Worth a try if only to experience what a Chi Kak Kueh tastes like.


Yan Seng Cooked Food
Stall 01-389, Tekka Market Food Centre
Open 6am till evening

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Miow Sin Popiah and Carrot Cake - Lavender FC

This Poh Piah was highly recommended by the kakis at the forum, so I had to try it. Whoa, so much crispy thingies!! Very excited. But as the lady began to make the Poh Piah, I noticed that the Poh Piah skin has got the words "Made in Kaki Bukit" printed on it! Well, not really, but the Poh Piah skin was the factory made type and looked really synthetic! My heart dropped to the floor and bounced back up again. How can this be? Such a popular Poh Piah using skin made by a machine? This is bad, very bad.



Well, the Poh Piahs weren't too bad, but they weren't exceptional either. $1.20 3.75/5 Really, someone should just resurrect the whole Poh Piah industry and do what the Pau industry did. Let's bring back the handmade Poh Piah skin! Don't let the factories at Kaki Bukit take over this priceless heritage! Please read my other post "Poh Piah, can we do better?" by clicking THIS.




This same store also sells fried carrot cake. So I asked the man, "Ah Chik, why your carrot cake so good? You make your own carrot cake isit?", to which he answered "No lah, buy from supplier one!" I am not having a good day! So I pressed him. "Why your carrot cake so famous?", to which he replied "Don't know leh". No good, no good at all.



But the carrot cake WAS really good. Really crispy and lots of Chai Poh. The chilli is shiok for those who like spicy stuff. I found out later after much interogation that they actually put some secret ingredients to the carrot cake before they add the eggs. Best white carrot cake I had in a while and well worth trying. 4/5

This stall has been around for over twenty years and started at Long House. Along the way, the convenience of the synthetic Poh Piah Skin and the factory produced carrot cake must have lured them to the dark side. I really hope that they at least continue to make their own chilli, turnips and crispy thingy or the next generation won't know what a real Poh Piah tastes like!

Miow Sin Popiah and Carrot Cake
#01-04, Lavender Food Square
380 Jalan Besar
62928764
Closed on alternate Wednesdays.
Opened till 12mn

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