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!

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!