Bee Heng Poh Piah: What is your opinion of Newton Food Centre?

With Wahcow, Sumosumo and Cactuskit


I know that a lot of Singaporeans avoid going to Newton Food Centre as it is often seen as a tourist trap. Furthermore, many foodies also lament the fact that the food there is not outstanding and that there are nicer hawker food elsewhere at lower prices. That's is a bit of a shame because I think that this is the most well known hawker centre amongst our tourists.

I must admit that I haven't been to Newton Food Centre for at least 18 years since I left to pursue my degree in Sydney. In those days I remembered Newton as a great place to eat. I wasn't really into documenting great eats then, so I can't really tell you which stall was good. It was still a tourist trap to be sure, but at least I remember that the food was good. When I got back, it seemed that Newton had become a place that is more well known for its touts and exorbitant prices which is why I haven't even thought of going there for a meal.

Well, I think that this blog will not be complete without the mention of our most famous Hawker Centre so I decided that I need at least give it a chance. Fortunately, it turns out that one of our regular kakis (Wahcow) was quite a regular at the place and had a few things which he felt could be recommended. I am sure there are many readers out there who have their own favourites at the food centre to recommend so I am going to start with a couple of stalls and see if there are other worthy mentionables to bring us back for a repeat visit.

Let's start with Bee Heng Poh Piah because it is the one facing the car park and it claims to have been around since 1930. First thing that caught my eye was the price: $1.80 each with minimum order of 2 rolls. Hmmm.... it is beginning to look like Newton is living up to its infamy.

The Poh Piah was pretty decent though, so it wasn't a complete waste of $3.60. The filling was pretty good and the crispy bits were quite nice. But for me, I like my Poh Piahs really turgid and looking like it is going to burst at the seams like the ones at Kway Guan Huat, so it wasn't something I would go out of my way to eat. But if you are at Newton, it is quite an acceptable side dish to order along with your other dishes. 4/5

Conclusion

So what do you all think of Newton Food Centre? With so many BBQ seafood stalls around, I am sure there must be one that is good and reasonably priced that can be recommended. Or do you all think that Newton Food Centre really is just a place which is set up specifically to cater to Tourists and that locals should avoid it?

Bee Heng Newton Food Centre
Stall 12 (Facing Car Park)
12am to 12pm
Closed Thursday

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Kway Guan Huat: The Presidential Poh Piah

With smart on 1st trip, ieatfamily on 2nd trip

A thing of beauty!

If you are a Poh Piah lover, then you really have no excuse if you have not been to Kway Guan Huat. Not only is this eatery a part of the Singapore food heritage, the Poh Piah here is quite simply, darn shiok. At last, a Poh Piah that made it into the "Really Must Try" list.

Just take a look at the skin. Nice and translucent, yet it holds a chock full of filling without breaking or allowing the sauce to ooze out. The texture is chewy and it leaves that wonderful sweet carbo aftertaste upon chewing. The second most important ingredient is, of course, the turnip filling. The savoury sweet filling here has that wonderful umami oommph. It's no wonder as they actually de-shell Sri Lankan Crabs in order to add crab meat into the filling. You can't really see the crab meat, but you can definitely appreciate that crustacean sweetness. Thirdly, the homemade crispy bits which are actually made from some sort of fish paste adds that wonderfully sweet crunch to the Poh Piah.



Put them altogether and you get a wonderful matrix of flavours and textures. Chewy (skin), crunchy (crispy fish bits), juicy (turnip), crispy(lettuce and bean sprouts), sweet (sauce) and spicy (chilli) plus and interesting contrast between the warm filling and the cool vegetables. This is the inexplicable beauty of a expertly rolled, fully packed and turgid Poh Piah. 4.6/5



There is only one thing that I am not quite happy with and that is the fact that the filling is microwaved just before making the Poh Piah. I felt that traditionally, it should be scooped up while it is still bubbling in the pot. I think it would have made a difference to the amount of juiciness.


Crispy bits and Poh Piah skin ($16 per kg) can be bought separately

The best thing about the Poh Piah here is that it is fully customizable as well. They sell the standard version here for $2 each. But if you came all the way from Tuas and just want the premium stuff, just ask Zita to pack for you the works ($3.50). And you can even get to choose from not just one, but four different types of crunchy bits. Ahhh, heaven!

Zita is the Lao Ban Niang here and she has told me that she welcomes her guests to bring their own stuff to put into the Poh Piah. Crispy Pork Floss and XO sausages immediately comes to my mind. Some of her other customers have added stuff like seaweed.


Poh Piah Set for 2 $16 (Eight sheets of Poh Piah skin - refillable)

If you like to roll your own Poh Piahs instead, they also sell Poh Piah sets here where you get the filling in a claypot and all the ingredients so that you can do it all yourself. I thought it was quite ingenious. You pay them a little more to do the work yourself! Hmm, it's just like paying to go pond fishing I guess. They also sell sets that you can bring home to have your very own Poh Piah party.



Now if you think that making a Poh Piah is easy then think again. Amagada and I made our own Poh Piah initially, but we got Zita to make one for us and boy there was a difference. It's got something to do with the proportion of ingredients and also how you roll the Poh Piah. One of the crucial things that I observe is the initial side folds. Notice that she brings both sides to meet each other in the middle before proceeding to roll the Poh Piah? That makes the Poh Piah really full and the double layer of skin gives it more skin to chew on in every bite.

Conclusion

What else can one ask for in a Poh Piah? The fundamentals are all there and you can even bring your own fantasy filling. Plus, the old shop has got a rustic charm and a sense of history to it, being able to trace its roots all the way back to 1938 when it was being sold from a push cart. It really doesn't get better than this.

Oh and before I sign off, I was told that the President's maid comes regularly to tar pau the Poh Piah home. Guess that's another one to add to my list of Presidential Hawker Stalls.

Kway Guan Huat Joo Chiat
Original Poh Piah Skin & Kueh Pie Tee
95 Joo Chiat Road
63442875
Zita 96773441
Open 10am to 8pm daily
Closed on Mondays

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ABC Poh Piah: Poh Piah goes with everything!

With smart and bashful hunter


Poh Piah is just great. It's healthy (relatively) and tasty and it is a really good side dish with whatever you are ordering. If you think about it, it is just the Chinese version of the Donar Kebab or the Burrito and the way I see it, it should originally be eaten whole rather then cut into bite sized pieces. Why I say this is because the nature of the "wrap" is such that it is designed as food on the go, meaning that you can grab the Poh Piah in one hand while the other hand is being used to hold onto the reins of your horse. It is supposed to be Chinese fast food, if you know what I mean.

However, nowadays, it is the custom to cut it into bite sized pieces and eat with your chopstick which really doesn't make sense as quite often, some of the filling will drop out during the transit from the plate to your mouth.

Smart (more precisely, his wife) recommends this particular Poh Piah stall in Toa Payoh. So far, very few of the Poh Piah's in this blog has hit the threshold for me except for the Qi Ji which at one stage really did it for me. But I found recently that the standard of the filling had fallen a little. For me the ultimate Poh Piah has got a nice, soft, chewy skin which leaves that sweet carbo aftertaste, packed full of the savoury turnip filling and most importantly, packed with lots of the crunchy stuff.

I must say this particular Poh Piah tastes rather good. The balance of flavours of the ingredients is just right. The only problem is that it is a little limp and the skin (handmade but procured from elsewhere) just lacks that chewiness of which the Qi Ji one is still currently the gold standard. Perhaps the next time I could ask the Uncle to make a specially turgid one for me! 4.25/5

Conclusion

Try to see if the Uncle will sell you a Poh Piah with extra ingredients (you'll have to offer to pay more of course). That might well turn this from a very good to great Poh Piah.


ABC Poh Piah Blk
93 Food Centre #01-204
Toa Payoh Lor 4
9am to 10pm
Monday closed

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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

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Ruby Poh Piah: Double Skinned Poh Piah

With PK, smart, iwatch_ueat, Tag and VB


When you eat Poh Piah, what do you go for? For me the skin is paramount. The skin must be hand made, chewy and leave that carbo rush at the back of your palate. Then it must have the shiok shiok crunchy sweet stuff and of course they have to be generous with the lup cheong and other ingredients.

This Popiah is quite well known amongst my group of kakis so we gave it a try. The thing that differentiates it from the rest is that the lady uses 2 pieces of Popiah skin to wrap the Popiah and the skin is quite good. The ingredients are generous except for the ever important crunchy stuff. So, quite a good Popiah to eat while you are at Whampoa Temp Mkt but not something I'd drive all the way to Whampoa for. 4/5

Conclusion

Good value popiah with double skin which is quite yummy. The lack of crunchy stuff is the big stumbling block for me.

Ruby Popiah
Whampoa Temp Mkt

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Qi Ji Poh Piah: Prince of Poh Piahs: Sim Lim Food Centre Part 3 of 3

With yummydummies, PK, smart, liverpool, iwatch_ueat and tamago


Oh yes! I think I have found my perfect Poh Piah! I remember eating these few years ago when someone ordered it for a lunch meeting. But at that time I was not blogging yet, so I did not bother to take down details of the Poh Piah. Now I can photo archive it for posterity!



This strength of the Poh Piah lies in the skin.... literally. Although it is super thin, it is amazingly resilient. Even when you Tar Pow it, it doesn't get soggy, but retains its chewy, slightly gummy texture. I derive a lot of pleasure chewing on the skin which is almost like chewing gum (but not quite). The filling is marvellous too. The layer of crunchy stuff remains crunchy while the turnips are still moist and sweet. If you put in XO Lup Cheong, King Prawns and maybe even some freshly peeled Crab Meat, this could be transformed into my vision of a Dream Poh Piah! 4.5/5

Conclusion

So far the best Poh Piah I have eaten! The magic is really in the skin. I will need to try the famous Joo Chiat Poh Piah one of these days in order to see if this one can be topped!

Hock Kee/Qi Ji Poh Piah
Stall 4 Sim Lim Food Centre

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Vegetarian Poh Piah: Poh Piah with a Serious Crunch! Geylang East Central Part 5 of 6

With smart, liverpool, iwatch_ueat and tamago


Finding a Vegetarian Poh Piah is not easy. Finding a Vegetarian Poh Piah which is also good to eat is even harder. That is why this Poh Piah is being featured! The skin is handmade, so it is nice and chewy. But it is what lurks inside that makes it stands out from the rest. When you bite into this Poh Piah, you will immediately be delighted with super crunchy tasty bits reminiscent of the old "Nestle Crunch" ads. (The one where every bite causes an earthquake)



Those following my Poh Piah trial will know that so far I have yet to find a Poh Piah to rave about. This Poh Piah is very good and better then some of the more famous ones I have blogged previously, but it still lacks that ravability (sic) factor. I found the turnips not soft and sweet enough (? lack of dried shrimp) and of course the absence of animal proteins meant that my umami receptors suffered from neglect. However, the crunchy stuff is so good that it almost made up for its other shortcomings. 4/5



Conclusion

Considering that it is all vegetarian, this Poh Piah still managed to put other Poh Piahs to shame! However, I am still on the trail of the ultimate Poh Piah, so if you have one to recommend please let me know yah?

PohPiah/Rojak Stall
Silver Stream Cafeteria
#01-54
Blk 119 Aljunied Ave 2

Specially for ET who requested more vegetarian food!



Update 2 May 2009

The stall has now shifted to this new address:

Silver Stream Cafeteria
Blk 226F
Ang Mo Kio Ave 1
#01-697
Singapore 566226

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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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Poh Piah - Can we do better?

Poh Piah is like the ultimate side dish for most of us. Almost everytime I visit a FC, I get tempted to buy just that one or two Poh Piah to put on the table.



This montage is for those of you who have never seen Poh Piah skin being made. Ever wonder if they make it this way commercially? Think about it. Almost every FC sells Poh Piah, but where did all the skin come from? If you are interested, head to the 2nd floor of Margaret Drive Food Centre and you can see it being made. Basically, the guy puts his whole hand into a big vat of gooey flour mix, and just slaps it onto a hot griddle, then deftly retracts his hand leaving the thin Poh Piah skin on the griddle. Repeat it a few hundred times and you would build the leaning tower of Poh Piah pictured above.



The other main ingredient is of course the braised turnip. It is the chinese turnip that gives the Poh Piah its distinctive taste. You don't appreciate this stuff till you go overseas. When I was in Australia, you can't find chinese turnips, so most restaurants substitute shredded lettuce for turnips when making spring rolls. Not the same yah? A really nice turnip filling is sweet, savoury and really satisfying.



This particular stall was featured in AsiaOne as one of 4 best Poh Piah stalls in Singapore. I think it's because it's one of the few that makes their own skin. The filling is your classic, sweet sauce, chilli, braised turnip, bean sprouts, eggs and the best bits, the crunchy sweet thingy. Some stalls use peanut to substitute, but that just does not cut it. You need this mysterious, crunchy sweet thingy.



Conclusion

Good, I give it 3.5/5, but I just can't help thinking how this could be so much better. I think that hawkers should seriously rethink and reinvent hawker food in Singapore. Just like what we did with Godzilla Da Pao and Sirloin Steak Satay. All I did was to suggest the idea to the stallowners and they were willing to experiment with it. Now both items are doing so well that I won't be surprised if other hawkers start copying them. We are not talking about a quantum leap, just the next step in the evolution of an old favourite. In the Da Pao scenario, all we did was take the humble pau, increase the size (like those in Malaysia) and add really nice stuff like salted eggs and lup cheong. With Sirloin Steak Satay, we increased the size and use a better cut of beef. Why can't we do it with Poh Piah? The fact is that there are many people like you and me out there who want better stuff and are willing to pay just a bit more for it.

Now, if you are a Poh Piah seller, this is my fantasy Poh Piah. Make it bigger! Add extra crunchy thingy, add Crispy Pork Floss, Black Sesame Seeds, Nice King Prawns and XO lup cheong in your Poh Piah and I will come and eat it and maybe take a few pictures. And if you are reading this blog and happen to know a hawker somewhere who is passionate about their food and willing to take the next evolutionary step, go ahead and encourage them, give them your wildest ideas and tell us all about it! We would all benefit from a hawker food revolution!

Queenstown Poh Pia Stall
Blk 40A, Margaret Drive Food Centre, #01-484
97816307
10am-10pm

For those who want to have their own Poh Piah Party, they sell a $50 set which includes everything needed to make 40 Poh Piahs. Call 96423881 to order.

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