Oh you luscious plate of noodles!

To borrow a line from George Orwell's well-known novel, Animal Farm, he wrote that "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others". Well, to use the same analogy, I would say that "All Hokkien Mee (HKM) are equal, but some are more equal than others".

Before you think I'm mad to be sprouting all these, I had possibly one of the best (not THE best, but ONE OF the best in a loooooong time) HKM at Bedok Corner hawker centre.

And it got me wondering: What exactly makes a dish of HKM great? Well, some say the dish has got to have a right mix of bee hoon (vermicelli) and yellow noodles, some say the sambal chilli must be shiok shiok while others say that the stock is the one that makes all the difference. If you ask my mother, she would say that the best HKM is fried generously with lard and wrapped in an opeh leaf (banana leaf).

Being part of the more health conscious younger generation (but as much as I think lard is one of the best inventions after sliced bread), I am more cautious eating a dish of HKM that is chockful of lard, no matter how sinfully tasty it is (but once in awhile is OK lah) because HKM is one dish I eat quite frequently outside. Which is why I think the best HKM is one that combines all of the abovementioned qualities sans the lard - good mix of bee hoon and yellow mee, sambal chilli that is pungent and spicy and the stock that is used to simmer the noodles in must be thick and rich.

Bedok Corner Hokkien Prawn Mee, bless the owner's soul, has all of those qualities that I think makes a great HKM.

It has a very good wok-hei flavour (meaning that the owner's control of the fire and wok is so good it imparts a mellowness to the noodles), the noodles are fried in a stock that is very rich, so you get whiffs of seafood and pork flavour in your noodles, the HKM is sufficiently moist without being overly "wet" or dry and the chilli...OH THE CHILLI! It is salty, pungent with the aroma of what I think is hae bee (dried shrimp) and is sufficiently spicy such that it gives a kick but doesn't numb your tongue. The squid and prawns are also quite fresh, though I think they could have been more generous with how they serve the squid - it was sliced very thinly so I couldn't exactly bite the silvers of squid properly. Where's the fun in that! One thing to note though, this dish of HKM does not come with your usual serving of belly pork, so it's just squid, prawns and egg. But I am really not complaining because the whole dish, taken together with a few drops of freshly squezed lime juice, is simply delightful (even with the stingy squid strips and lack of belly pork). 4.3/5


The stall is quite generous with its portion of noodles - this medium sized ($4) packet was too much for me and my friend to finish!

The only two bad things I can think about this stall is the queue, which is to be expected (I had to stand in line for about 15mins) and the attitude of the stallowners. I think they're a husband and wife team. The husband cooks while the wife takes orders, but the wife is quite a food nazi (full definition can be found here).

Exerpt from ieatishootipost:

"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."

Well, the wife isn't exactly the nicest and politest stallowner around our little island. When I tried asking her for more chilli, she gave me a small glare and scooped only a teeny bit more onto my HKM. And when I asked her for her stall's opening hours, she grunted in response without looking at me. Now if that's not being a food nazi, I don't know what is! But since their HKM is so damn good, I shall grin and bear it anyway.


It doesn't look as appetizing here, but trust me on how heavenly it tastes!

Possibly one of the best tasting HKM I have tried in a long time. Certainly worth the queue and the grumpy auntie.



Address:
Bedok Corner Hokkien Prawn Mee - Bedok Corner Food Centre, Upper East Coast Rd, Stall 29 (see this post for directions on how to get there)
Open from 4pm to 9pm, closed on Monday

Bedok Corner - kampung days once more

One of the more famous hawker centres in the Bedok area is perhaps the Bedok Corner Hawker Centre, located near the Bedok Camp. One of the reasons for its popularity is because of the hawker centre's two famous stalls - one that sells Hokkien mee and the other that sells cheng teng.

The hawker centre itself is unlike the usual hawker centres you normally come acoss. Its layout is circular and there is a very "kampung" feel about the place. It is also one of the few hawker centres in Singapore I have come across that has so many Muslim/Indian food stalls in one place! So fans of Muslim/Indian food should really drop by to get their fix.

Anyway, back to the design of the hawker centre - after doing some research online about why this hawker centre is so designed, I managed to find the answer from here.

Exerpt:

"As the area used to be a Malay Kampung (village) in the 1980s, the new Bedok Food Centre has a Malay kampung design theme. The predominant design feature for this new food centre would be its roof forms. High pitch roofs are tiered down with big overhangs for maximum ventilation and rain protection. Two main feature roofs are at the two entrances to welcome visitors. Malay motif patterns are also created at the roof fascia to enhance the theme of the place. The individual food stalls are arranged around a central courtyard to reflect kampung-style community living."

And because this hawker centre is not very accessible (there are few buses that lead you there) and the nearest MRT (Tanah Merah) is about a 15-20min walk away and the food centre is also not very visible from the main roads, here is a map that you can refer to when you go there.

Click here to view map
Bedok Food Centre

Despite its relative inaccessibility, Bedok Corner hawker centre is well worth at least a visit. And I shall be reviewing some stalls that I tried in the Bedok Corner hawker centre over the next few days so you can see for yourself what goodies this small hawker centre has in store for you. But for now, you'll just have to be content with my (rather shaky) video showing the circular interior of the hawker centre and its various stalls. Enjoy!

Food for thought

As much as this is a food blog, I believe that it cannot be one-sided all the time. I.e.: talking about the gloriousness of food only and ignoring the possible side effects glorious food might bring along.

So, following my last post, some of you might have been wondering why I'm staying off red meat for the time being. Well, that's because we've all heard about the evils of eating too much red meat (saturated fat, increased risk of colon cancer, the works). And of course, the scary stories about how cows are fed ground up carcasses instead of letting them feed naturally on grass. They are, after all, herbivores. That got me quite turned off red meat.

But just yesterday, I stumbled upon some articles as I was surfing the net that got me really surprised. Apparently, this article says that there are some cuts of beef that are lower in fat than a - get this - SKINLESS chicken thigh! (The Double up chicken I ordered in my last post was a chicken thigh with skin on. Eeks!)

Could chicken really be more fattening than beef? The horror!

(Click to enlarge. Graph taken from http://www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com/nutrition/leancuts.asp)

And in this article, you can find seven reasons to eat beef that you were not aware of. Apparently, there are actually some really tangible benefits to eating red meat! (Just as long as you choose leaner cuts like a tenderloin steak, sirloin steak or filet mignon and opt for organic beef as much as you can.)

But as with all foods, eating in moderation is best. So since I've been staying off beef for awhile, plus there are actually benefits to eating red meat, maybe it's time to start queuing at Astons soon for some steak....

Mmmmm...

(photo taken from http://astonsspecialties.blogspot.com/)

Good and cheap western food - give $10 still got change! Whoa!

So did you guess which restaurant I was going to review? Well, it's none other than Astons Specialties! (Named after its chef-owner Aston Soon)

Astons serves up restaurant style Western food at very cheap prices. With $10, you can easily have your fill. Astons doesn't have service charge as well, but the waiters and waitresses are all pretty friendly despite that. And everyone knows that cheap and decent food and good service is a surefire route to success.

As such, this nondescript eatery along the Joo Chiat/ Katong stretch has been getting lots of attention from TV shows, newspaper reviews and of course, floggers (food bloggers) who wax lyrical about the exceptional quality of food for the price one pays at Astons.

As a result of the publicity, queues have inevitably formed in front of the restaurant. Now, Astons' queue system is rather peculiar. It does not accept reservations, so naturally, come dinner and lunch time, there will be hoards of people waiting in line. But the worst part is that customers have to queue outside the restaurant and wait for an empty table before they can place their order at the cashier and sit down. Surely there must be a better way to do this! Maybe coming up with a queue number system would be good. Making hungry people stand in line for at least 15 minutes facing tables which have food laid out on them already is just plain mean. Because of that, I have only eaten at Astons once before. (And I had to go at a weird timing of 4pm just so I could beat the queue and directly order my food).


I. don't. like. queues.

I digress. But because of how absurdly cheap Astons prices its food at for the quality given, I willingly queued two Sundays ago because I had a craving for good Western food (not the hawker centre style Western food) and was feeling quite broke. So naturally, Astons came to mind. The waiting time that day was about 20 minutes. And the food took around 15 minutes to come. (But it sure felt like eternity. I was STARVING.)

I decided to go for the Double up chicken. What that is exactly is two pieces of chicken thigh meat cooked in two different styles. (I chose to have my chicken chargrilled and with black pepper sauce) So for $9.90 (yes, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you) I had two portions of chicken meat with two sides of my choice.

The verdict: Well, there was nothing spectacular or jaw dropping about the Double up chicken. The meat was not tough, but it was not as tender as I would have liked it to be. My guess is that for the price, Astons must have used chilled chicken instead of fresh chicken, which would have been much more tender in texture. Taste-wise, the chicken was grilled a la minute (i.e.: cooked only when the order is made) so it did not taste stale. In fact, the chicken was grilled well, with some charred bits that gave it good flavour.

For the chargrilled version, my chicken was drenched in a sort of mushroom-y sauce that I thought tasted pretty standard. The sauce could have been more robust. But the black pepper chicken was better. The black pepper sauce was one of the fieriest I have eaten, and obviously catered to the Singaporean palette. So if you're the sort who complains that black pepper sauce usually has no kick, you should try the black pepper sauce at Astons.


The portion might look small here, but trust me, it was BIG.

My Double up chicken came along with a choice of two sides. And I had a hard time picking which two sides I wanted because everything sounded so good! For cold sides, you can pick from this list:
- homemade coleslaw
- potato salad
- pasta salad
- house salad

For hot sides, you can pick from:
- baked potato
- BBQ beans
- corn on cob
- french fries
- garden veggies
- mashed potato
- onion rings
- tasty rice

So you see what I mean by being spoilt for choice? In the end, I picked mashed potato and pasta salad. I am a huge mashed potato fan and I really liked the mashed potato here because it tasted really creamy and the sauce that came with it was actually the same sauce that my chargrilled chicken was drenched in. Somehow, the sauce went better with the mashed potato than with the chicken. The pasta salad was chilled, so it was quite refreshing to the palate. It came with julienned vegetables which added a nice crunch. 4/5

Overall, despite my complaints, I still feel that Astons is worth a try because for the price that you pay for, you actually get really decent tasting food.

*****

Now, I would like to mention that Astons is very well known for its beef dishes. (They go for as low as $12 for a ribeye if I don't remember wrongly!) But I didn't order beef that day because I'm staying away from red meat for the time being. However, other flogs online have always been raving about how good the beef is at Astons. Well, looking at what the signboard outside Astons reads, I'm sure the man knows and loves his beef.


The man and his beef obsession

You can read other reviews on how his beef dishes are here and he even created a burger and named it after my favourite flogger, ieatishootipost (who is quite possibly Aston's number one fan)! In fact, Aston has had such success with his restaurant (and beef) that he has opened Astons Prime (have not tried it yet), which is located a stone's throw from Astons Specialties. Apparently, one of Astons Prime's highlights is the prime rib of beef served in a cart. And Astons Prime also sponsored ieat's Charity dinner recently. A good chef with a heart of gold? I like!

Address:
Astons Specialties - 121A East Coast Road (opposite Katong Mall)
Open from 12pm to 1am on Tue - Thurs and up till 3am on Fri and Sat. Closed on Mon.
Tel: 6342 4634
Website: http://astonsspecialties.blogspot.com/

Astons Prime - 467 Joo Chiat Road
Tel: 6344 2447

PS: Astons aside, because I mentioned I was such a big mashed potato fan earlier, I thought I'd share this video I found on YouTube on how to make the perfect mashed potato. I shall try this recipe one day!

make a guess...

Incidentally, the chef/owner of the restaurant I'm featuring for my next post likes to hang out at Sin Hoi Sai Eating House!

How do I know? Well because of this post that's why!

Here's the chef...



His name is Aston Soon.
(picture taken from ieatishootipost)

Do you know which restaurant is going to be reviewed next on Eat East already? If not, stay tuned!

I don't think I've mentioned this before (because shy lah), but...

When I was working in TODAY this year, one of my responsibilities was to do food reviews. And while looking through some files in my computer today, I found this review I did on Waraku in June this year.

So besides this, you can also read my earlier review on Waraku that I wrote for the paper!

Supper on a Saturday night

Last Saturday, I was craving for some fried noodles for supper. No, not your usual fried yellow noodles you find in the hawker centre, but deep fried noodles in seafood gravy. Popularly known as sang mee in Cantonese-speak, this is my favourite zi char stall noodle dish. And one place that does it particularly well is Sin Hoi Sai, so I made my way down to satisfy that noodle urge.


Fried noodles fried to perfection

I love sang mee because of how perfectly the slightly "eggy" taste of the crisp noodles intermix with the savouriness of the thick gravy.

Thin yellow egg noodles are quickly flash-fried to give it a very crispy texture and a beautiful golden brown colour. The thick gravy that is poured over the noodles is flavourful, which means that the stock that Sin Hoi Sai uses is chock-full of flavour. The medium serving, priced at $5, is generous enough for two to share. The ingredients such as sliced pork, sliced fish, squid and prawns that the eatery uses are extremely fresh as well. The prawns give a satisfying crunch and carry with it a hint of the sea, while the pork is tender to the bite. Eaten with some sliced red chilli, it is the perfect supper food. 4.5/5


Fresh ingredients, tasty gravy and crispy noodles...simply yum.

Besides serving sang mee, Sin Hoi Sai is your regular zi char stall which has been around for a good number of years. Both outlets (one at Tiong Bahru and the other along Katong) do a roaring business, and it is not difficult to understand why. Taste-wise, most dishes meet the mark and besides cooking up regular zi char dishes, they also serve up more unique ones like steamed frog legs with chicken essence.


Great food and unpretentious ambience at a good price...what more could you ask for?

Sin Hoi Sai is great for not only its sang mee, but also for a good and reasonably-priced no frills eating experience.

Address:
Sin Hoi Sai Eating House - 187 East Coast Road (near the Joo Chiat junction)
Open from 5pm - 4am daily
Tel: 6440 6956

Tiong Bahru outlet: Blk 55 Tiong Bahru Road #01-59 (nearby Tiong Bahru market)

Read what others have to say about Sin Hoi Sai's other zi char dishes here. And even the New York Times has gotten into the action - read about Sin Hoi Sai in the "Where to Eat" section!

Comfort food when you're under the weather

A few days ago, when I was down with a bad virus and having eaten only watery oats for a day, I started to crave for something that was soupy and light but delicious. And immediately, fish bee hoon (vermicelli) came to mind.

Unfortunately, there weren't any stalls selling fish bee hoon nearby my place, so I just had to make do with looking at some pictures I took of a particular fish bee hoon that I tried recently.


Comfort food

Let's start with the good: The stallowner was generous with the crunchy green vegetables and pieces of fish (I counted 6 chunks of fish in my bowl!), the thick bee hoon was springy and not soggy, and for $3, it was overall a pretty big helping.

The bad: The fish was a tad over-fried, making it slighty tough to the bite. I also felt the soup base - which I must say, is the most important factor in determining a good fish bee hoon - did not have enough oomph. Maybe the stallowner was just having an off day (I say this because my friend who frequents this market always waxes lyrical to me about this stall, so I trust that it has some standards!), but the broth was not rich enough with the essence of fish, making it rather bland. 3.5/5


The friendly stallowner caught in action

Nevertheless, I would give this stall a second chance and revisit it based on the fact that the stallowner and (I presume) his wife, are both very friendly people and because at $3, this large bowl of fish bee hoon is good value for money.



PS: Maybe you can try it and let me know if the stallowner was indeed having an off day or not!

Address:
Hup Soon Fishhead Mee Hoon - Blk 58 New Upper Changi Road Hawker Centre and Market, #01-208
Open from 8.30am - 3.30pm daily

Eng Seng - crabby delight!

So did you manage to guess the dish I was talking about in my previous post that warranted the long queue? Well, if you haven't already guessed, it's black pepper crabs of course!

Situated along a small lane off Still Road, Eng Seng Restaurant is somewhat of an institution for black pepper crabs. Forget about East Coast Seafood Centre - Eng Seng is the place that people in the know flock to to eat crabs!

It's usually full house on weekends, so be prepared to wait for a table, wait for your food...you get the picture.

Besides being notoriously well-known for its crustaceans, Eng Seng is also notorious for its snaking queues that magically form each day at around 5.30pm onwards. As seen in my previous post, the queue just keeps going on and on...perhaps there really is some truth in the saying that Singaporeans love to queue huh?

The queue...

seems never-ending.

I was lucky I reached there at 5.15pm on a weekend and immediately got a table, so I suppose the trick is to go as early as possible to beat the queue. Soon after I reached, loads of people started appearing at the coffeeshop and a snaking line formed. Perhaps it was just the weekend crowd? Out of curiousity, I asked the loud-mouthed and imposing lady who runs the place like clockwork (didn't dare to ask for her name then, but after reading some other blogs posting about Eng Seng, I found out her name is Ah Hwa), and she told me that "mei tian dou hen mang lah!" (Translated: Everyday is this busy!)

Ok, so now we know: the queue is there everyday. But are the crabs at Eng Seng really worth the 45 min - 1 hour wait?

*drumroll*

You know what, they are! There's just something unique about Eng Seng's black pepper crabs ($32/kg) that taste so remarkably different compared to other seafood restaurants. The usual black pepper crabs served at other restaurants are quite one dimensional (ie: they just taste peppery), but at Eng Seng, I was pleasantly surprised at how my tastebuds were treated to crabs that were were salty, spicy and sweet altogether! The reason is because the chef adds sweet black sauce into the fragrant black pepper sauce mixture. The resultant texture of the black pepper sauce is slightly like that of honey and it coats the pieces of fresh, succulent and sweet crab very well such that you get to savour the delicious sauce in every mouthful. 4.6/5

Don't they look tantalising?

Now, if only you could smell how good they were!

Besides crabs, Eng Seng is also quite famous for its Chinese style mee goreng (fried spicy noodles). Unfortunately, they were sold out when I wanted to order it. So I settled for plain rice instead. However, I had some superb dishes to go with the rice.

One of them was the stir-fried tofu with assorted vegetables and seafood in egg wash gravy ($8 for a medium portion). This simple dish was very delicious thanks to the addition of really fresh prawns and slices of squid that were wonderfully tender. The chef was generous with his greens as well - there were juicy mushrooms, crunchy cauliflower and carrots, amongst other vegetables. The tofu was fried to a delicious shade of brown and the egg wash gravy was very flavourful. 4/5

Lighter and healthier dish to offest the "heaviness" of the crab

I also loved the prawn paste chicken I had during dinner. This dish, however, is not from Eng Seng but from a stall inside the same coffeeshop as Eng Seng called Owl Hot Plate BBQ. I daresay this prawn paste chicken is even better than some I have tried in restaurants! This stall was really a pleasant find. At $9 for a serving of 15 chicken wings, it is a reasonable price to pay for some fantastic-tasting wings. The chicken was marinated very well and the deep savouriness of the prawn paste seeped into the chicken wings adequately. The chicken wings were deep fried to perfection and when I bit into one, the chicken juices were oozing out freely. Now that's what I call a good piece of fried chicken! 4.8/5

Absolutely to-die-for prawn paste chicken...

From Owl Hot Plate BBQ

Overall, I had a really satisfying dinner, thanks to the gorgeous-tasting black pepper crabs, healthy and light tofu dish and of course, the find-of-the-day prawn paste chicken wings! I'll be back for more of Eng Seng's crabs soon...even if it means I have to queue for them!

Address:
Eng Seng Restaurant - 241 Joo Chiat Place (Junction of Still Road and Joo Chiat Place)
Open from 4.30pm to 10pm (the crabs are usually sold out by 9pm though). Closed on Wednesdays

And here are some other links you can check out on how people are waxing lyrical about Eng Seng's crabs!

The queue

It's a well known fact that Singaporeans like to queue..but (pardon the shaky video) check out this queue! I haven't seen one this long for quite some time.

Question: what exactly are they queueing for? Well, I'll keep you in suspense for awhile..the answer will be revealed tomorrow!

Hint: If you want to guess, it's a dish many Singaporeans are in love with, it's spicy and although it is widely found in many places, not many can do it well!

Happy guessing!

Black, dark, sweet and very very delicious

Hands up those who like carrot cake. No, not the ang moh version - the Singaporean hawker version.

I'm guessing there must be many hands shooting up right now. And it's not difficult to see why. Carrot cake, or chye tow kueh as it is more popularly known as to locals, is soul food to me. When I was growing up in the Tiong Bahru area (and we all know that Tiong Bahru market has some of the best hawker food around), I would never fail to have a plate of carrot cake at least twice a week. Health enthusiasts out there are probably shaking their heads at my terrible dietary habits right now. But how can anyone resist a plate of well-fried, slightly sweet, crispy yet moist and fragrant plate of carrot cake?

Unfortunately, the stall that I used to frequent at Tiong Bahru market has since closed. And I've been struggling to find another stall that serves up carrot cake the way I like it to be.

So you can imagine how rapturous and excited I was when I stumbled upon this gem of a stall in New Upper Changi Road! The taste of the carrot cake is very similar to the one I used to eat when I was a kid. But you know what the best part is? Not only is the taste similar, the price of the carrot cake is also the same! You can get a very satisfying plate for ONLY $1.50 (or $1.20 for a carrot cake without eggs)! And no, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. I couldn't help thinking to myself: "This stall never increase price...no inflation meh?"


Check out how wonderfully cheap the carrot cake is!

Anyway, just take a look at this carrot cake. Isn't it a beauty?


Now you see it...

The carrot cake is generously fried with lots of garlic and chye poh (preserved salty radish), which is the way I think all good carrot cake dishes should be done. The carrot cake itself is also soft and wobbly without being mushy. The taste is fragrant and the bits of salty chye poh in the dish combined with the sweet dark sauce that coats the carrot cake is the best taste in the world - savoury intermixed with tinges of sweetness. There is a good wok hei ("essence" imparted by a hot wok on the food - definition from Wikipedia) flavour in the carrot cake and the chilli packs a really good punch too.

What I like very much (and was pleasantly surprised) about this stall is that the stallowner makes it a point to "cut" the bigger pieces of carrot cake into smaller bits whilst frying it. This, to me, is the ultimate show of skill and knowledge in frying carrot cake. If the pieces of carrot cake are too big, there will not be enough flavour permeating through it. Hence a good carrot cake stall should fry the carrot cake in smaller bits so that when customers eat it, there are crispy bits for added texture and also, each mouthful is bursting with flavour. Many carrot cake stalls don't do that, and when I request them to, some even "tsk tsk" me rudely! So credit must definitely be given to this stall for doing that without being told to! 4.8/5


Now you don't!

The stall serves up both the white and black versions of the carrot cake. I only tried the black one though, but seeing how cheap and delicious the carrot cake is, you can bet I'll be scurrying back to try more!


Credit must be given to this auntie who fries her carrot cake so superbly!

Address:
Siglap Market Carrot Cake - Blk 58 New Upper Changi Road Hawker Centre and Market, #01-223
Open from 6am to 2pm daily (or earlier if they are sold out)

For carrot cake afficionados:
Here's a link to those who want to try their hand at making their own carrot cake at home! (and abit of a history on carrot cake!)
http://www.visitsingapore.com/publish/stbportal/en/home/about_singapore/fun_stuff/recipes/carrot_cake.html