Now I’m feeling very good lately as far my hae mee fix is concerned because I’ve finally found one hae mee that is worth a rave, finally!!!!

Let’s face it – Prawn Mee is all about the prawn soup. It’s not your fault that some stalls are using King Prawns to tempt you to part $10 for a bowl of Prawn Mee but seriously, if you and your partner want to have a good prawn mee time, $20 sound quite a ridiculous amount no matter how good the prawns or prawns’ soup are. For $20 I can safely say that you can prepare a good prawn mee time for your entire family at home.

So it’s this reason that I find it hard to sing praises for a $10 bowl prawn mee, I mean, heck, $10 prawn mee is not like the $10 Hor Fun or $10 Cze Char where a few person can share the portion.

Ok there are many many stories about Dai Dong Prawn Noodles and they apparently played hide and seek with their customers around the Jalan Besar area for a while until they lost a big chunk of their regulars. Well they finally settled in this little corner coffeeshop at the intersection of Rangoon Road and Starlight Road.

Dai Dong $4 Prawn Mee

You need to have $4 in your pocket before the owner will agree to serve you a prawn mee here. Now, eventhough Dai Dong is a prawn mee stall, they also specialise in other mee combinations with ingredients like pork ribs/tails/intestines/liver.

Dai Dong $4 Prawn Mee

Sometimes, buying any food other than what the stall is famous for can be risky because you are obviously paying for something that are not the most popular but I’m going to tell you that at Dai Dong, the spare rib mee is definitely a risk worth taking.

It was by a stroke of luck that the pork rib ended up in my bowl of prawn mee. I didn’t tell the owner that I only wanted a pure prawn noodle and the owner just assumed that I wanted a pork rib/prawn combination because apparently that’s how orders are done at Dai Dong – the default bowl is with pork ribs.

Dai Dong $4 Prawn/Pork Rib Mee dry

As you can guess, I wasn’t happy when I saw pork ribs in my bowl of prawn mee soup when served. Hell I’m coming here to eat prawn mee so why am I now needed to eat pork rib?

Ok ok, as with any other risks, you can win or lose and I’m glad to say that this pork rib delivers a FULL HOUSE! FWAHHHHHHHHHHH! I’m never a fan of pork ribs in soup. I mean no doubt it can easily fall off the bones and are quite soft to chew but otherwise, what’s so shiok about a piece of ‘overboiled’ pork?

Dai Dong $8 Prawn Mee

Not at Dai Dong mate! Their pork ribs are cooked(braised perhaps?) in some kind of delicious marinate and by the time it ended in your bowl of prawn soup, it is such a fine piece of delicious rib. Well it is so good that I’ve visited them many many times in the past few weeks and every single time I need to get a $2 portion of pork ribs to go with my prawn mee, and mind you it’s just 3 little pieces but shiok enough to make me willingly part $2 for it.

While it may have been true that their pork ribs excelled for me, their prawn soup is what that can really make me have an ‘orgasm’! This is a real prawn soup, no gimmick, no dried scallops, no tik poh or hae bee(dried shrimps) thrown into the pot. Pure prawn flavour providing that excitement that is so sorely lacking in many of the Big Prawn Mees because they apparently use more ‘ho liao’ for the soup base which is suppose to give you more bang for your buck but au contraire, it often deviates from the original prawn flavour, so much so that the prawn flavour is diluted already.

Dai Dong $8 Prawn Mee + $2 Spare Rib (Prawn mee bowl very big!)

Ok to be fair, the soup does have a hint of that bakuteh herby flavour which pushes the oomph a little more north for me.

Dai Dong is where you get a bowl of prawn mee soup with very shiok prawn flavoured soup. Seriously real PRAWN FLAVOURED and not other strange flavours that you get when eating those Big Prawn Mee from elsewhere. It is shiok enough for me to rate it better than most of the Big Prawn Mees I’ve eaten.

If there’s ever one Prawn Mee that I would be happy to pay for just the noodle and the soup without any ingredients, then Dai Dong Prawn Noodles is what it takes.

Price: $4+

Recommendation: $4 prawn mee pork rib + $2 pork rib!

Conclusion: My champion hae mee soup. However since taste is all but subjective, I’ll just say that I relish a real prawn stock instead instead of other chapalang flavours you can get in some hae mee soup. Pork rib is a must try but don’t expect good prawns here. For the $8 bowl, you only get peeled prawns(banana) so it is definitely not in the league of those Big Prawn Mee stalls like Wah Kee or Hoe Nam as far prawns are concerned.

Likes: Soup, pork ribs.

Dislikes: A little expensive.

Address		Overall Rating
Dai Dong Prawn Noodles 97 Rangoon Road 8am – 3pm Off: Monday		Food: 9/10   Authentic: 9/10   Value: 8/10   Service: 8/10   Ambience: 8/10   Cleanliness: 8/10   Overall: 8.25/10

You see, food businesses are becoming very competitive due to the higher operating cost therefore it makes all senses for hawkers to diversify their ‘portfolio’. So outsourcing becomes a reality because there are simply too much to handle and that’s how commercialisation began. The authenticities of the food go down a bit and these entrepreneurs hawkers have to think of other ways to make themselves ’special’ to stay ahead in the game. So gone are the days when they can depend on just one niche to attract the queues because it just doesn’t pay to specialise anymore, lest you have a smaller targetted pool of audience which of course can limit your earnings.

But the good thing out of all these is that we can get more creative food because now food sellers have to think out of the box and break away from the norm. And it’s exactly this reason that food stalls like Jia Xiang Sliced Fish Soup & Noodles exist.

At the corner of Rangoon Road and Dorset Road at Farrer Park sits a noodle stall that has menu with lists so long that it might just put some Cze Char stall’s menus to shame. They have many different types of soup items like sliced fish, fish head, seafood, dumpling soup to different types of noodles like bak chor mee, fish ball noodles, abalone noodles to all different types of appetizer items like guo tie, fried prawn roll and so on.

Seafood Bak Chor Mee $6

Now all these are proof that they are a ‘Master of None’ type of hawker stall but yet after passing by the coffeeshop a few times, I was just ‘feeling itchy’ on this occasion to try one of the items on the menu which is the Seafood Bak Chor Mee.

For $6, you get a bowl of Bak Chor Mee which has the common Bak Chor Mee ingredients like bak chor(minced pork), pork slices, sliced fish cakes, braised mushrooms and with additional ingredients like 2 king prawns, a scallop with shell and several fish dumplings.

Seafood Bak Chor Mee $6

Compared to Ah Guan Mee Pok Pte Ltd, this one loses a bit on the chilli shiokness but it is doused with a type of black sauce(tasted like a mix of lor bak gravy and sesame oil) which is quite shiok nonetheless. Won’t call this outstanding but I guess the extra ingredients are what you’re paying the other $3 for.

This bowl of Seafood Bak Chor Mee is proof that we have a new breed of hawkers who wouldn’t mind to introduce contemporary ideas to food they sell which is very a welcomed move for our local food scene. I guess these new ideas more than make up for the lack of authenticities in the food otherwise.

Seafood Bak Chor Mee $6

Price: $6

Conclusion: Not the shiokest bowl of Bak Chor Mee around but you will get fulfilled if you are a seafood lover who just happens to want a bowl of Bak Chor Mee.

Likes: Getting seafood in bak chor mee.

Dislikes: Chilli shiokness no enough.

Address		Overall Rating
Jia Xiang Sliced Fish Soup & Noodles 137 Rangoon Road 8am – 8pm Daily		Food: 8/10   Authentic: 7.5/10   Value: 7.5/10   Service: 7/10   Ambience: 7/10   Cleanliness: 7/10   Overall: 7.75/10

To the prawn noodles aficionado, I guess they know where to go for a good fix around that area but unfortunately for me, I’m still waiting for the elusive one to beckon. I guess if I’m willing to pay $8 or $10, many stalls can provide me with a good fix but honestly speaking for $10, the bar then has to be raised right? The real good ones are not just those that can give me a king prawn just because I paid $10 for it but able to hit all the shiok points for me outstandingly. So far I have found none able to do that and of course I am more keen to discover one that doesn’t require me to part $10.

So when I was told about this good hae mee(prawn noodles) stall called Lam’s Prawn Noodles which has a purportedly long history, I can’t resist not checking them out and see how much the prawn noodles there can thrill me.

Lam’s Prawn Noodle has many different types of prawn noodles combination with ingredients like ribs, intestines, pig’s tail, scallop and even crab.

The cheapest bowl of prawn noodles here will set you back $4 while other combination like large prawns, scallop or crab will cost you between $7 to $12.

Lam’s Prawn Noodles $4

My $4 bowl came with 4 fresh mid-sized prawns but they are not the tiger prawns or banana prawns. It tasted like one of those you can buy for $7/kilo from any seafood stall in the market so it was slightly disappointing there.

The soup however was quite shiok. It didn’t have that hae bee(dried shrimp) flavour overdrive which is the case with several other big prawn noodles I’ve eaten. If you relish the pure prawn flavour in the hae mee soup then this might be what you’re looking for.

Price: $0.80

Conclusion: I guess this should be considered relatively affordable at $4 with 4 middle sized head-on prawns in quite shiok soup. The score however just stopped at good and a bit more to go to be great. The soup is old school kind which is what I liked.

Likes: Soup.

Dislikes: Prawns disappointing.

Address		Overall Rating
Lam’s Prawn Noodles 137 Rangoon Road 9am – 9pm Off: Tuesday		Food: 8/10   Authenticity: 8/10   Value: 7/10   Service: 7/10   Ambience: 7/10   Cleanliness: 7/10   Overall: 7.75/10

So what is your favourite Xing Hua food? I must say that after eating Xing Hua food a few times, I didn’t find it great. I mean things like fried sliced mackeral fish or fried lala isn’t something you can’t cook easily at home, or eat it anywhere else for that matter. Then they have other authentic items like Bamboo Herbal Prawn or Lor Mee also didn’t quite hit the spot for me. The only thing that I really liked is Xing Hua Char Bee Hoon which has an unique sweetness and for something like $3+ a plate with plenty of miscellaneous seafood, it is quite a steal.

Xing Hua Seafood Restaurant Fried Mee Sua $4.50

Having heard many good things about Xing Hua Fried Min Xin Mee Sua, I decided to give it a go this time. It comes a little pricier at $4.50 but every plate is fried on the spot as opposed to the Char Bee Hoon which is prefried already waiting in the pot for customers.

Other than the mee sua instead of bee hoon, the only other difference from fried bee hoon I guess is the garnish of peanuts and laver. Although not quite a seaweed person, this laver managed to shiok me. Not sure how they cooked this or did they even cook it but the taste is slightly salty and goes very well with the mee sua. If you baked/dried your braised kiam chai boey, I guess the taste would also turn out to be something like this.

Lala aka clams

This mee sua is quite delicious with that distinct heng hwa sweetness but somehow the flavour is still a little on the bland side for me and that is of course synonymous with Xing Hua food. For those who don’t know, Xing Hua food are characterized by flavours with only light seasonings that can enable the natural flavour of the seafood to expound.

I guess the chef can probably up the ante in this if he can infuse a bit of wok hei on the mee sua. My plate of fried mee sua looked ’simmered mee sua’ more than anything so as much as I enjoyed it, that ‘wok flair’ is something that may be able to turn it from good to great. However all in all, it is quite satisfactory and although it didn’t exactly charmed me, the wonderful Xing Hua sweetness is very tasteful and extremely expressive.

Xing Hua Seafood Restaurant Fried Mee Sua $4.50

Price: $4.50

Recommendation: Fried Mee Sua & Fried Bee Hoon.

Conclusion: This fried mee sua has that intrinsic sweetness that belong to Xing Hua food. Finished the whole plate quite effortlessly so it’s definitely quite good but if given a choice, I would go for the fried bee hoon because the bee hoon can absorb the unique sweetness while the mee sua’s flavour(which is all that blandness) seems a little empowering.

Likes: The distinct Heng Hua sweetness

Dislikes: A little bland in taste(flavour is good though).

Address		Overall Rating
Xing Hua Seafood Restaurant 276 Race Course Road 11am – 9.30pm Off: 1st Wed of every month		Food: 8/10   Authenticity: 8/10   Value: 7/10   Service: 7/10   Ambience: 7/10   Cleanliness: 7/10   Overall: 7.5/10

Curry pots at Jie Shuang Qiao Jia Li Fan

In case you’re wondering how did I manage to locate it, I was passing by the area few days ago and the big pots displayed at the front of the stall drew me to it like a magnet and I found out that they just happened to be the one Hainanese Curry Rice stall that I was looking for a while back! Fwah! The feeling was as good as found a needle in the ocean!

Jie Shuang Qiao Hainanese Curry Rice opens from 4am in the morning to after lunch time, that obviously tells you something right? I mean there aren’t a lot of Hainanese Curry Rice stalls that can provide you with a fix in the middle of the night so this looks like a Hainanese gem to behold.

Just like the common Hainanese Curry Rice stalls, they have the authentic items like pork chops, curry sotong, lor bak, stewed cabbage and many others. There are 2 types of pork chops here. One is the fried pork chop(bak pa) and the other type is doused with a kind of special sauce. Can’t see myself missing either type so both types together with stewed cabbage were ordered by yours truly.

Hainanese wet style Pork Chop

The flavour of the wet pork chop here is something you can’t find anywhere else. A little sweet and a little sour with a strong hint of pork lard cum ketchup. It is deep fried and then soaked in gravy that tasted pretty unique. This is seriously quite authentic and it is good enough to even make me empty my plate of rice with nothing else.

Hainanese Pork Chop aka ba pa

The deep fried pork chop is pretty similar to those from Beo Crescent, with a strong sweetness and plenty of the substance are actually lard. This should be considered as one of the better pork chop around though too much of it can make you feel ‘jerlad’ so remember to consume it in moderation.

Hainanese stewed cabbage

The stewed cabbage is quite bland for me though it’s quite pleasant to eat with all the curry and everything else. I guess if you dump all your cabbage into the pot with water with nothing else and let it simmer, this is what you will get. Can be good or bad for you depending on how much flavour you think your stewed cabbage should have. For me it lacks punch and I would prefer to go for other kinds of vegetable next time.

Hainanese Curry Rice from Jie Shuang Qiao Jia Li Fan $4

The curry tasted like a milder version of the one you can find at Jian Dao Jian, in taste, flavour and texture. For those who find Jian Dao Jian’s curry having too much robustness then this will suit you fine. This stall has been operating for 2 decades so it should be classified as one of those really authentic Hainanese stall. Not the best in town but has a whiff of Jian Dao Jian’s gravy and Beo Crescent’s pork chop. This meal was quite good though didn’t exactly come through with flying colours. Have to wait for me to come back to try the other authentic items to see if I can find any reasons as to why they have to open at 4am early in the morning.

Price: $4

Recommendation: Wet pork chop and dry pork chop. Sotong and tor bak looks good.

Conclusion: I consider this quite good though didn’t quite WOW me. I guess I had eaten too much good Hainanese Curry Rice in the past month and so can’t be WOW that easily. But this is one of the more authentic ones no doubt. The pork chops are something I would definitely order again.

Likes: Authentic. Pork chops are good.

Dislikes: Cabbage is bland.

Address		Overall Rating
Jie Shuang Qiao(结霜桥 aka Kek Sng Kio) Hainanese Curry Rice 72 Syed Alwi Road Corner of Syed Alwi and Jalan Besar 4am – 2pm Off: Monday		Food: 7.5/10   Authenticity: 8.5/10   Value: 7.5/10   Service: 7/10   Ambience: 7/10   Cleanliness: 7/10   Overall: 7.5/10

I guess at the end of the day, it’s all about getting the hits to your umami right with the correct balance of the 5 Ss which are the sweetness, sourness, saltiness, spiciness and shiokadodoness. The fact is a bowl of Katong laksa usually leaves people yearning for more while the normal ones somehow gives you a kind of ‘jerladness’ especially if you finished the soup right to the last drop in the bowl.

For those who don’t know, I this suaku went to Sungei Road and gullibly joined the queue at the wrong laksa stall. That gave me an excuse to head back to Sungei Road to locate the ‘real’ laksa stall so here I am on this fine shine day to see whether my taste bud can be convinced that Sungei Road is indeed famous for the right reason.

Sungei Road Laksa

The first extraordinary thing I witnessed is the queue which was something like 20 person strong though luckily it only took up 10 mins of my time. The second extraordinary thing is that the laksa soup were been kept boiling by a charcoal stove. ‘Old school, old school!!!’ was what ringing in my ears as I saw most people in the queue buying a large bowl. Truth is, it didn’t look appetising so I was having reservations about it being really shiok though I have to agree that most shiok food don’t necessarily have to look shiok to the eyes.

Laksa soup still boiled using charcoal stove

The soup tasted like a milder version of the katong laksa with a subtle hint of the coconut milk. Other than it being a little diluted(compared to the Katong version), I guess it’s quite delicious. Won’t call it spoon-licking good but the balance of the 5 Ss is right and it’s definitely a laksa I can imagine eating everyday without feeling ‘jerlad’. I guess the mild milkiness combined with the 5 Ss is what makes this special. The ingredients and the noodles tasted normal but for $2, I think it’s fair that one should not expect the shiokness to be extremely overwhelming.

Sungei Road Laksa $2

So is this better than Katong Laksa? It does have it’s own uniqueness in the taste and the flavour is definitely quite authentic. In spite of the lack of robustness in the gravy, it is more than compensated for by the the lovable balance of the 5 Ss.

Sungei Road Laksa $2

Price: $2

Recommendation: $3 bowl

Conclusion: To give credit where it’s due, this is, arguably one of the best I’ve eaten in terms of balance of the taste in the gravy. However, the ingredients and noodles are normal but yet you’re only paying $2 for it so this come across as shiok comfort food. Won’t call this outstanding but very satisfying and definitely have enough oomph in the gravy to make you feel your $2 is well spent.

Likes: Gravy is shiok

Dislikes: None.

Address		Overall Rating
Sungei Road Laksa Blk 27 #01-100 Jalan Besar 9am – 6pm Off: First and third Wed of each month		Food: 8/10   Authenticity: 9/10   Value: 9.5/10   Service: 7/10   Ambience: 7/10   Cleanliness: 7/10   Overall: 7.5/10

Truth be told, it’s not how good a product is but how you market it. Take for instance this thing called Shabu Shabu in Japan. The word Shabu is of course a translation of the word “Sapo” which means claypot in mandarin. Ok the Japanese somehow managed to get it to represent the hot pot in their culture but what is the difference between Chinese’s hot pot(steamboat) and Japanese’s hot pot? I see similar ingredients used like sliced meat and vegetables but trust the Japanese to know how to make you pay exorbitant price for their version and some will even swear that it is really more delicious. Other than the meat in a Shabu Shabu are sliced thinner which can also be done easily in a Chinese’s hot pot, there isn’t much going for it, isn’t it? Give me a chinese hot pot anytime, I still prefer my belacan dip to the Japanese sweet soya sauce dip which I can also produce for my Chinese’s hot pot easily. There are other things like Chawanmushi which can cost you anything between $3 to $5 in a Japanese eatery but yet can also be eaten from a chap chai peng stall for just 50 cent a portion. Satay is what we can buy from coffeeshop for just 40 cents each but try buying it in the shopping mall and it will be called Yakitori which will cost you anywhere between $1 to $2 each. So it is really all that social conditioning that is responsible for alternating our perceptions for the same thing.

Ah Ho Teochew Noodles Mee Pok Tah $3.50

I don’t know about you but I would prefer a bowl of mee pok tah over pasta anytime. And I’m just wondering what does it take for a mee pok tah with tik poh and tasty her giao to make it into the menu of an oriental eatery in Italy where it will not only cost them $20 each plate but can please them so much to the point where some companies will take the effort to produce bottled mee pok tah sauce for home use. Well I guess that day may never come unless we discard all our “D students” marketer!

Ah Ho Teochew Noodles at Verdun Road has been around for a long long time. For those who remember, they used to operate in the 90s at the back lane(somewhere between Short Street and Prinsep street ) of Sim Lim Square where now the Lasalle College of the Arts stands. In those days, it was one of my favourite mee pok tah stalls simply because the chili sauce is very very shiok. The chilli here is slightly darker which has a hint of the char tah(charred) flavour and it really could hit the spot hard for me though it’s not for everyone. Many people whom I have brought to Ah Ho to eat in the past can’t resonate with it.

They then moved to a shop at Kitchener road sometime back and then moved again to Verdun Road which is just a turn from it’s previous location. In the past, Ah Ho Teochew Noodles was famous for it’s chilli sauce and fishballs which used to have a very unique texture. Today, sadly only the chilli sauce manage to bring back the flavour of yesteryears but only sporadically. The fishballs, her giaos(fish dumplings) and other ingredients tasted very normal and though they bother to throw in a couple of tik poh now for the dry version, it is still a bit off the mark from what it used to be. It didn’t quite justify the travelling time and the distance for me though I guess, on a good day you might just get a bowl that is 1 or 2 notches above the average ones.

Ah Ho Teochew Noodles Her Giao 4 for $1

Price: $2.50 ($1 for fish dumplings)

Recommendation: Dry version.

Conclusion: Ingredients are very normal but very generous. It’s the chilli sauce that makes this a bowl of mee pok tah slightly above the average bowl. If you relish chilli sauce that has a bit of the chao tah flavour then this will do well for you.

Likes: Chilli sauce.

Dislikes: Ingredients tasted “factory” made.

Address		Overall Rating
Ah Ho Teochew Noodles 12 Verdun Road Kim San Lee Coffee Shop 8am to 3pm Off: Wednesday		Food: 7/10   Authenticity: 8/10   Value: 8/10   Service: 7/10   Ambience: 7/10   Cleanliness: 7/10   Overall: 7.5/10

Hong Kong style Wanton Mee

In Singapore, Wanton Mee is a general term for dry noodles mixed with some sauce and Char Siew whereas in Hong Kong, Wanton Mee is really wanton and mee only and it is served in the soup.

If people were to ask me where was my favourite wanton mee place in Singapore, I would have to say Crystal Jade. Ok I know the price is quite steep at around $7+ but the noodles’ texture is seriously quite unique for me and even without good sauce, I always gobbled it down effortlessly.

There are many ways to judge a plate of Wanton Mee but if it is good, usually it is the sauce that did the trick and things like the noodles’ texture or the soup are often overlooked. Kok Kee is one example, the noodles, char siew, wanton, the soup and even the chili sauce are just so so but the sauce makes it a winner.

Da Jie Famous Wanton Mee stall

Loudly proclaimed on the signboard of Da Jie Wanton Mee as being one of the more famous Wanton Mee stalls around, I was a bit skeptical when I saw badly printed photos of Wanton Mee pasted all over and as if that’s not enough of a tell tales sign of a lousy wanton mee stall, it is only selling at $2 for a plate. For some reasons, most customers there were having the soup Wanton Mee but I still prefer my Wanton Mee in dry form so I went for it.

Da Jie Famous Wanton Mee $2

For $2, the amount of char siew on top of my noodles was seriously quite generous. As if that is not enough to score for value, there were 3 wantons in the soup which was not too bad. The fillings are pretty unique with a little bit of kiam her(salted fish) flavour in the minced pork.

Wanton Mee Soup

Now I can understand why most people ordered the soup version. The soup is very very tasty. It is seriously unique with a strong hint of sweetness and really resembles one of those Hong Kong Wanton Mee’s soup. It is the best Wanton Mee soup for all that I’ve eaten, even Crystal Jade loses out.

The char siew was quite normal but have enough charred edges to perform reasonably well. What blew me away was the noodles which had texture that’s equivalent to Crystal Jade’s standard! I have always loved the kind of noodles that have the QQness that is so al dente, thin and chewy. This type of noodle is very commonly found in Hong Kong but only can be found in cantonese restaurants in Singapore. Da Jie wanton Mee is the first stall I’ve come across that uses this kind of noodles. It had very very good bite and is a clear winner for all that I’ve eaten. The sauce was also quite delicious with a lot of sweetness which makes it more of cantonese version.

Wanton

This will be a place for my Wanton Mee fix very often. For $2, there is simply no horse run. For value, taste and authenticty, this scores very highly. The good thing for me is I do not need to visit Crystal Jade for that special QQ wanton noodles anymore. Very surprised to find an extremely high quality of Wanton Mee here for $2. The $3 version will get you a few fried dumplings. I am eager to return to try out the soup version.

Da Jie Famous Wanton Mee $2

Price: $2

Recommendation: Soup version.

Conclusion: For noodles and soup, undoubtedly the best I have eaten in the $2 bracket. Noodles was shiokadodoly QQ. Very nice to bite with a unique chewiness. Soup has a hint of sweetness and very very pang. Almost perfect for me, if they can use a bit of gao wong, would be even better! I would pay for this bowl of Wanton Mee even if it were to be sold at $10 at any restaurant. It is really that good. You gotta try it to know.

Likes: Soup is seriously shiok. Noodles is seriously QQ.

Dislikes: The wanton skin is a little too thick.

Address		Overall Rating
Da Jie Famous Wanton Mee 209 Jalan Besar 7am – 2pm Off: Sunday & Public Holiday		Food: 9/10   Value: 9.5/10   Authenticity: 9/10   Service: 8/10   Ambience: 7/10   Cleanliness: 7/10   Overall: 7.75/10

Both countries have a dish named Laksa.

“The laksa (also spelt tajine) is a dish originating in Morocco named after the pot in which it is cooked. Laksas are essentially a slow cooked stew braised at low temperatures to create tender meat and flavoursome vegetables.

Traditionally Moroccan laksas combine lamb or chicken with a range of exotic spices like ras el hanout, cinnamon and cumin with and a variety of ingredients which can include olives, apples, pears, prunes, apricots, dates, almonds, preserved lemons and honey.

Laksas are usually cooked in the laksa pot which are half glazed clay pots. The base of the laksa is both a cooking and serving dish while the cone shaped cover acts like a closed chimney trapping the moisture in the pot during the slow cook. Although a laksa pot is ideal, the same effect can be achieved with any heavy casserole dish or use of a dutch oven is also another popular choice.

Traditionally laksas are cooked over open flame however with the introduction of cast iron bottoms, laksas can now be cooked on a stove top, gas or electric, or in the oven.”
Lifted from http://www.laksanow.com/laksa-history.html

Aiya, after the ‘food fight’ with Malaysia over some food origin, now there is potentially a ‘name fight’ waiting for us.

The history of our Laksa can stretch as far back to those days when people were doing a lot of migration. First of all, the word Laksa is actually referring to a type of Hindi vermicelli. As we all know that Laksa is a peranakan dish so there’s no surprise that it has an influence of the Indonesian flavour. But yet the leaf which is used in Laksa is something that is widely eaten in countries like Vietnam and Thailand. So you see, Laksa is a dish that was created using ingredients from many different cultures and it was only possible because we were the “Crossroads Of The East”.

Then, as people moved, they brought along Laksa and that’s how we have different variations of Laksas like Johor Laksa, Kedah Laksa, Penang Laksa, Bogor Laksa, etcetera. The styles of Laksa in different places are all tweaked to cater to the taste of the local people, for example further north it goes a little sour because it’s near to Thailand and those people whom are more exposed to Thai food would naturally prefer a whiff of sourness in their meals as is synonymous with Thai cuisine while our Katong area was where the Peranakan people lived in enclaves and so that’s how the Katong Laksa version has more of the coconut cream flavour.

For those who are familiar with “Gek Sng Kio”, that area used to be the holy grail of many good food. From Kelantan Lane to Sim Lim Tower, a few kopitiams used to line up the street and my father’s favourite heng hua mee sua was from a stall in one of those kopitiams back then. Now of course everything is gone and the only thing people go to “Gek Sng Kio” for is the famous Sungei Road Laksa.

Sungei Road Laksa $2

Sungei Road Laksa is said to be started by a Hainanese in the year 1956 selling from a push-cart and in those days, customers had to stand and eat by the side of the stall. It is common sense that many food stalls in the past were also operated like that but have you wondered why have those stall’s legacy ended but not Sungei Road Laksa? This “last man is standing” because the food is really shiok or because others have simply given up without fighting? Anthony Bourdain has once famously advocated Sungei Road Laksa to be seriously good but do you think an Ang Mo’s words can be trusted when comes to Asian food? Heck, if you go to Europe, every pizzas that can be bought from any corner surely can WOW you but an Italian might be what it takes to be a better judge, agree?

Just when I thought it would be quite an expensive meal, it turned out that you only need to have $2 to enjoy a bowl of Sungei Road laksa. I seriously can’t remember the last time I ate laksa for $2 so it’s good to know that here is where I can. For that, Sungei Road Laksa deserves full marks for value and they are possibly the only famous food stall I know that did not take advantage of their fame to make more money. I mean it’s already a norm today, to pay $4 for a bowl of Bak Chor Mee or Hae Mee but you know what, for $2 I thought the laksa here is quite a big bowl with generous harm and sliced fishcakes.

Though Sungei Road Laksa is very famous and $2 per bowl is seriously cheap, I find that Katong Laksa still tastes better. I guess it’s just my personal preference to have the gravy a little sweeter. Here it tasted very much like a mix between the common laksa and Katong one so the flavour is a little diluted for me. Having said that, I didn’t grow up eating this so in a way I can’t really relate to it like how I can to Katong Laksa but I’m sure for those who did, this will be the best laksa in the world.

Sungei Road Laksa $2

Price: $2

Conclusion: Definitely not bad but other than it’s cheap, nothing much to rave. Unique for sure but Katong version is still my favourite.

Likes: Cheap, ingredients are generous.

Dislikes: A little sweeter will be better for me, flavour less intense than Katong version.

Address		Overall Rating
Sungei Road Laksa (Kelantan Lane) Blk 31 Kelantan Lane #01-12 9am to 6pm Off: 1st wed of the month		Food: 7/10   Authenticity: 8/10   Value: 8/10   Service: 7/10   Ambience: 7/10   Cleanliness: 7/10   Overall: 7.5/10

The other food I know that still maintained it’s competitive price is Chicken Rice with the drumstick cut. Most stalls used to sell it at $3 for the drumstick + 30cents for rice during those days when a plate of chicken rice would cost you $2. Today, a plate of chicken rice would cost you anything from $2.50 to $4 but yet if you request for the drumstick cut, you’ll still be charged at around $3.30. I have eaten the drumstick cut at many chicken rice stalls(not foodcourt) and have never been charged for more than $3.50. That’s just one of the things that fathoms me.

A saying among foodies has it that if you want to eat chicken feet, you better avoid the braised type because it is black and you can never tell whether is it clean! Then there’s another saying among foodies has it that the white chicken feet(either boiled or steamed) is so mah fan to eat because of the little phalanx bones which need a bit of work to be separated from the skin. So how?

Crystal Chicken Feet $3

I first came across this dish called Crystal Chicken Feet sometime back at a dim sum place. For those who don’t know what this dish is about, it is chicken feet(steamed or boiled) but with the phalanx bones all removed and served with some kind of sauce which is sweet and sour. So it’s just a plate of white chicken feet skin which looks unbelievably alike a plate of jelly fish.

Unfortunately not many places outside of dim sum house serve chicken feet in this form while most sellers in hawker centres would insist that braised is the way to eat chicken feet.

Chicken Drumstick Rice $3.50

If you fancy eating fantastic Crystal Chicken Feet at hawker centre price, Wan Long Chicken Rice at Berseh Food Centre in Jalan Besar is the place to go. Chicken Rice is their forte though they have many other side dishes like Oyster Sauce Vegetables, Thai Style Tofu and Crystal Chicken Feet.

Boneless chicken feet

Won’t beat around the bush, Chicken Rice is good but not great. The achar that’s served with the chicken and the Crystal Chicken Feet is what that gets it going for me. For just $3, you get a big plate of “boneless” chicken feet tossed in some kind of delicious sweet and sour sauce with plenty of thinly-sliced chilled cucumbers and carrots. Good enough for 2 or even 3. Can’t think of anything more refreshing to go with a plate of chicken rice. It’s one of those combinations I look forward to having whenever I’m near the vicinity and have absolutely enjoyed it everytime.

For those who are familiar with Thai cuisine, this should be called Thai Style Chicken Feet in Thailand. If you are on a whim for chicken feet but lazy to suck out the bones, then this Crystal Chicken Feet is what that may fill the gap.

Crystal Chicken Feet $3

Price: $3.50 for Chicken Rice(drumstick) and $3 for Crystal Chicken Feet

Recommendation: Crystal Chicken Feet

Conclusion: Refreshing chicken feet to go with a plate of chicken rice. If you like sweet and sour, this will do very well for you.

Likes: Chicken feet is shiok.

Dislikes: Would be better if the sweetness can go down a bit.

Address		Overall Rating
Wan Long Chicken Rice Berseh Food Centre Jalan Besar 11am to 8pm Off : Alternate Monday		Food: 8/10   Value: 9/10   Authenticity: 8/10   Service: 7/10   Ambience: 7/10   Cleanliness: 7/10   Overall: 7.5/10

Having tasted some of the really famous ones, I think some are a slight exaggeration of the actual quality. Overall I liked some that I’ve tried for the first time, but I have to say that with respect to ‘authenticity’ to a certain extend, although some Hainanese Curry Rice stalls were raved practically non-stop by many foodies, I simply find the the function of my umami spot still asking for me to head to my favourite stall at Jalan Besar.

I think the main problem here is that, as with all food that we grew up eating, you find an attachment to that specific authenticity that you acquired and then somehow, you lose the flexibility to adapt to unfamiliar flavours that seem to be incongruous.

Scissors Cut is the Hainanese Curry Rice stall where I often go for my Hainanese Curry fix. It amazes me how after all these years, they still can put up with the laokokkok(run down) display in the kopitiam. As you all might know, there are many branches of ‘Scissors Cut’ brand Hainanese Curry Rice all over the island and I’m not exactly sure which is the best but I’m pretty sure that they all have no connection to this stall at Jalan Besar.

Chilli gravy: 8/10  

The most unique thing of Scissors Cut Hainanese Curry Rice is of course the gravy. Well I’m sure most of you had already eaten here at least once, for the benefit of those who haven’t, this place serves 3 types of sauces on your rice and it all may look like something that’s plain disgusting but it seriously taste very shiok especially when eaten with items like pork chop, lor bak and cabbage.

Hainanese Pork Belly: 7.5/10  

Pork Roll: 8/10  

My meal costed me $4.50 with Lor bak, cabbage, pork chop and pork roll. The other items I like in Scissors Cut is their deep fried pork cutlet and chicken cutlet. Somehow i prefer ‘dabaoing’(take away), everything that’s been cut by scissors and jumbled up together with the rice and gravy can send me to heaven.

Hainanese Stewed Cabbage: 8/10  

So for those who haven’t tried this, die die must go and try it. The best way to eat it is to pack and go so that everything can be let soaked in the gravy and when you finally opened it up at home, it can send you straight to heaven!

Price: $4.50

Recommendation: Lor bak, pork chop, stewed cabbage, pork and chicken cutlet and many others.

Conclusion: The most authentic Hainanese Curry Rice for me. Packed home seems to taste better than eating there. A little bit expensive considering the amount isn’t generous but the shiokadodoness is unmatchable.

Likes: Gravy and pork chop.

Dislikes: Kitchen opposite toilet cubicles.

Beach Road Scissors Cut Curry Rice		Overall Rating
Beach Road Scissors Cut Curry Rice 229 Jalan Besar Open 11am to 3:30pm Location @ junction of Kitchener Road and Jalan Besar Road.		Food: 9/10   Value: 7/10   Authenticity: 9/10   Service: 7/10   Ambience: 7/10   Cleanliness: 7/10   Overall: 7.5/10