In Hong Kong, tea restaurants/cafes or the Cha Chan Teng as they called it, have been around for a long long time. Over there, it’s at these eating outlets that the western food culture gained foothold whereas ours started from kopitiams.

The Char Chan Teng originally started getting popular in Macau offering Macanese cuisine which is unique to Macau with a fusion of Chinese food and Portuguese food. Things like Cheese Baked Rice or Portuguese Egg Tarts are inventions of these outlets.

When it arrives at Hong Kong, they incorporated Hong Kong cuisines into it and Hong Kong style Char Chan Teng would have food ranges from dim sum to wanton mee to sandwiches and of course instant noodles too.

Culturally Hong Kongers patronise these kind of cafes for yuan yang tea(mixture of coffee and tea) or iced lemon tea(dong ling cha) just like we patronise mama kopitiams for teh tarik or hawker centres for sugarcane juice. It’s like you won’t be expected to find sugarcane juice in a kopitiam or a restaurant right? So it’s the same thing for them in that way.

In the old days, these eateries operated in a style which is something they called Tea House until the 1990s, Hong Kong Maxim Group, Hong Kong’s biggest food corporation launched a new concept design to uplift the standard of Char Chan Teng which is now famously known as Hong Kong-style fast food.

Other than Maxim, the other 2 popular Hong Kong fast food are Café de Coral and Fairwood. These kind of eateries nowadays offer all kind of food from Chinese to Western to Indian to Italian or even American. International food getting popular is the effects of globalisation just like a lot of our foodcourts also have turned into something that offer you Korean, Japanese, Indonesian or Taiwanese food nowadays.

These Hong Kong-style concept outlets arrived at our shore sometime between 2006 and 2007 in the form of Xin Wang Hong Kong Kitchen and Wong Kok Char Chan Teng and many others. I have been told many good things about such cafes and thought that it’s one of those places where people would just go for some foreign food. Back then I didn’t take interest in such places because I’m usually not very adventurous with exotic food.

Some time this year, a friend who visits this kind of cafe pretty often, offered to take me to one and that visit was to open up my eyes in many ways. For one, when I first arrived at the outlet, I was amazed by the crowd. As we all know it’s only good food that Singaporeans love queuing up for, so I almost got deceived by the queue of about 15 at the door.

But my first visit to Xin Wang was not fantastic. It’s not that I didn’t enjoyed my experience but it’s just that my expectation bar was raised wrongly. I now know that it’s not the place to go for quality Dim Sum but if you and a few friends want a nice place to chill out and some exotic food or drinks to go along then the place would be making all senses.

I can imagine it’s the same case as when Starbucks and Coffeebean first appeared on our shore. There must had been someone who also couldn’t understand why people would want to pay $5 for a coffee when it can be bought at 50 cent at a kopitiam.

But just like Mcdonalds, it’s not just the burger people want to buy. There is also the comfort factor so these kind of concept outlets where you get to eat simple food or drinks at a comfortable environment by paying a little more can have a market.

In Singapore we have kopitiams > foodcourts > restaurants and Hong Kong style cafes just come in between foodcourts and restaurants. The standard of the food is not any better than any food you can find in foodcourts and yet the ‘restaurant atmosphere’ it is offering you is not going to cost you what would otherwise at a restaurant. The market for this sort of outlets is very strong and it is booming day by day.

Wong Kok’s Entrance

Wong Kok’s Interior

I had the opportunity to be brought to Wong Kok Char Chan Teng recently and over there, I opened my eyes a little wider. For one Wong Kok’s prices seem a little lower though the atmosphere is definitely better over at Xin Wang Hong Kong Kitchen.

Wong Kok’s French Toast

Since I now know that these places are not to be expected to serve real quality food, we ordered sporadically on the recommendation of the waitress. We ordered Nissin Noodles with Chicken and Beef, a French Toast and Cheong Fan Omelette. In the past, when I heard about people coming to these kind of outlets to eat Nissin Noodles with a piece of luncheon meat or something else for $7, I cannot understand the logic of it. After eating it, I still cannot understand the logic. I mean they’re using Nissin Brand noodles so it tasted exactly like how Nissin Noodles should taste – no surprise there.

Wong Kok’s Nissin Noodle with Pork Chop

Wong Kok’s Nissin Noodle with Beef

Wong Kok’s Omelett Cheong Fan

Mine came with a piece of beef which was marinated but not exactly fantastic. The other bowl came with 2 pieces of chicken breast which was pan fried and tasted not any better than any pan fried chicken breast I’ve had. The omelette Cheong Fan was interesting. It surprisingly had that wok hei flavour and was quite shiok. It’s overall taste is comparable to chai tao kuay and indeed if someone were to blindfold me and asked me to eat this, I would had guessed it’s chai tao kuay. The French toast came in that familiar deep fried crust with peanut butter in between. This was good though I prefer the one I had at Xinwang. At Xinwang, it’s a bigger piece in a cube shape and though it was deep fried but the inside was fluffy and very good to go along with the butter and maple syrup at the top.

Hong Kong style cafes seem to be keen to serve ‘fun’ food more than anything else as they embrace you in comfortable atmosphere but the price can be pretty steep and you could chalk up a bill that’s better off be spent at a restaurant if you’re not careful.

Indeed, it could be argued that this kind of outlet concept is so popular to the point where there are no compelling reasons to be regarded as a need to serve better quality foods. What it does appear to be, at the very least in my eyes of the food that I’ve eaten at such outlets is thay they do have a certain level of authenticity.

Price: $2+ onwards for drinks, $4+ onwards for appetizers, $6+ onwards for main dishes.

Recommendation: French Toast, Omelette Cheong Fan.

Conclusion: Eating in this kind of place gives me the feeling that the dynamic has changed and it’s not only food but other things that can make you shiok too. Here the food quality drops a bit but it all can still be a fun experience especially staring at the ‘alien’ menu. For me, these are places that I would go if I have good company and don’t really care how my food would turn out.

Likes: Omelette Cheong Fan is authentic.

Dislikes: Nissin Noodles for $6 is not worth it(though it came with a piece of meat too).

Address		Overall Rating
Wong Kok Char Chan Teng 旺角茶餐厅 200 Victoria Street #02-50 Bugis Junction		Food: 7/10   Value: 6.5/10   Service: 7.5/10   Ambience: 7.5/10   Cleanliness: 8/10   Overall: 7.25/10

So what are the things that connote a shiokadodo plate of delicious crab? The first is that the crab must be ‘chee’(fresh). The definition of ‘chee’ is that it not only has to be well and alive, it also must not be kept in the holding area for a long time. It’s the time they were caught to the time they are being slaughtered that decides the ‘cheeness’ of it. Therefore it all still boils down to the basic, that is, a steady flow of customers is required so that there are little leftovers and so that ingredients are always ordered fresh because it’s always cleared within a day. This applies to all perishable goods and ideally we would like to eat something that is freshly delivered on the same day, right?

When crabs are fresh, you get big chunks of meat in the claws, in the bodies, heck even those tiny legs can offer something when you crack open it. Another way to judge the ‘cheeness” is to see whether the meat sticks to the shell or not. If it is really so chee until the ‘cheenesst’ possible, you will actually see something like the shell(eventhough cracked) still sticks to the meat until you may need to suck each strand out which may seems a tedious task but it’s a clear representation of ‘cheeness’. When it’s not that ‘chee’, well I think we don’t have to go through that for I’m sure we all have been there eaten that, at least once in our lives. The second is the sauce. There are many places that can dish out terrific sambal chilli crab sauces but for me the best chilli crab sauces are those that doesn’t make you feel ‘jerlad’ after eating it. Any plate of chilli crab or any food for that matter that leaves a bad aftertaste is not good enough, period.

During those days when Jackson Food Centre was still in operation, I had to visit it quite often. It’s not that the food there is fantastic but just that Chili Crab produced by a Cze Char stall there was seriously good. It was so good that everybody I’ve brought to eat at the stall, praised it to no ends. Now maybe it was silly of me not to note down the name of that cze char stall because I almost had a cardiac arrest when I found out the closure of Jackson Food Centre in one of my visits. All that greeted my jaw dropping face was a piece of flat land and so I haven’t a clue what is happening to that cze char stall and finding out where it moved to is akin to finding a needle in a haystack. If any of you know which stall I am talking about and have information of where it’s moved to, drop me a mail ok?

So where do I go for chilli crab nowadays? I’ve been to Changi Teochew Kitchen at Changi Village, No Signboard Seafood Restaurant at Geylang and Long Beach at East Coast. And something that’s not unbeknownst to me, all those experiences provided evidence that restaurants do not necessarily produce the best chilli crabs in town. Well perhaps restaurants have so many items on their menu that they couldn’t just rely on a delicious plate of chilli crab to pull the crowd and so they can’t be bothered.

Fresh Crabs

Mattar Road Seafood Barbecue(玛达律烧烤海鲜) is a seafood stall tucked somewhere in a little corner at Old Airport Road Food Centre and it seems to be quite something. In the past, I’ve actually walked through that stretch of the food centre a few times and know that a few Cze Char stalls are doing business at that end but somehow never bothered checking them out because obviously we don’t go to Old Airport Road to eat Cze Char right? I mean Old Airport Road Food Centre is really about hawker fares because there are so many good hawker food in the market.

But this time, while walking along that stretch, I noticed that a crab picture that is printed on the signboard of a stall is quite huge. It is so huge that it seems to be shouting ‘CRABS! We are famous for CRABS!’ I asked to see their menu and saw that there are no meat dishes and only seafood. I was further told by the lady that Chilli crab is one of their signature dishes. Lo and behold, that quickly rang a ‘MUST TRY MUST TRY!’ on the spot and I thought that it might just be the zigsaw puzzle piece to replace the missing piece lost at Jackson Food Centre! And my hope was further boosted by the many many newspaper articles that is pasted on the front of the stall.

Chilli Crab at Mattar Road Seafood Barbecue

The chilli crab came with a familiar sambal, sweet and savoury tomato sauce. There were signs that seem to suggest ‘Buah Keluak’ is being used here and also a lot of grounded peanuts. The sauce is shiok though I would wish they had beaten more eggs into it.You can see from the picture that the crab is very ‘chee’ and one of the ‘cheenest’ ones I’ve had for a long long time. Overall for me it is about 85% to my favourite one at the late Jackson Market Food Centre. The other dish we ordered was the sambal sweet potato leaves. It was not bad though I thought it could be nicer if the sweetness level can be reduced a little.

Sambal Sweet Potato Leaves

The crab costed us $25 while the sweet potato leaves was $8. Though not exactly comparable to my favourite one but at $25, it is still great value considering the crab is quite big and extremely ‘chee’. Definitely worth another visit soon to try other items on the menu.

Price: $25 for crab and $8 for sambal sweet potato leaves. No charge for rice.

Recommendation: Chilli crab( Heard they’re also popular for butter crab)

Conclusion: Not the best but 85% there. At least you’re only paying half the price of what would otherwise cost you in restaurants where the standards also won’t be any much better than this. The crab here is one of the freshest I’ve had in a long long time. A clear sign that they have a good flow of customers.

Likes: Freshness of the seafood, sauce was good though could do better with more eggs(I think).

Dislikes: A little too sweet though not really that bad.

Address		Overall Rating
Mattar Road Seafood Barbecue 玛达律烧烤海鲜 Blk 51 #01-63 Old Airport Road Food Centre 4pm – 11pm Tel: 6447 2798 Off : Tuesday & Wednesday		Food: 7.5/10   Value: 8.5/10   Service: 7.5/10   Ambience: 7/10   Cleanliness: 8/10   Overall: 7.5/10

For those who wondered why Hainanese cuisine has such limited food variety, it’s because Hainan was not active agriculturally. It was actually meant to be an exile island where the Emperor exiled all the hardcore political dissidents and other elements. These officials were banished to that little island mainly because they did not agree with the right people and too dangerous to have around court but yet too precious to kill. The place became a province only in 1988.

The fact is no emperor had visited Hainan island and none of them looked to develop Hainan and so it was, in general, culturally backward and poor. The men spent most of their days at teahouses talking about everything and anything under the sky. As such Hainam nang in Singapore are more political conscious or socially conscious. If you go around Singapore, those ah beih who sit in coffeeshops and comment about politics or current affairs, more than half of them are Hainam nang.

Now eventhough Hainan had a lack of agricultural activities, it is quite surprising to know that the Hainanese community still excels in the culinary field. They make the best chicken rice and kaya spread in this part of the world and that’s because a lot of them came here during the age of empire tagging along as servants on the tail coats of their colonial masters. Most of them picked up culinary skills onboard ships and it’s no wonder the Hainanese make fantastic toast or western food such as pork chop.

Being a Hainanese, I was often asked the question “Do you know how to cook Hainanese Chicken Rice?”. The matter of the fact is I don’t know what’s so difficult about boiling some chicken and cook some rice that have that garlic, sesame oil and pandan leaf flavour. But yet the truth is I find no pleasure in eating boiled chicken skin so Hainanese Chicken Rice is really one of those food that I this Hainanese cannot resonate with.

Thien Kee Hainanese Steamboat at Golden Mile Complex has come a long way. I remembered they used to operate from a coffeeshop inside this perimeter of an area near to Middle Road where there were cinemas, some shops and basically have what looked like pasar malam street kind of environment if you know what I mean. Those were the days and my father used to fetch us all the way to that place just to have this famous Thien Kee Hainanese steamboat.

Thien Kee is one of those eating place where a lot of Hainanese goes to because the flavour of the food there can provide that Hainanese nostalgia. Me and my family included. I’ve been eating this thing since very young so that ‘Hainanese’ flavour in the food here is actually something that I had acquired for a long time.

The food served here are very old school kind with ingredients like seafood, pork and vegetables. The price for steamboat starts from $20. Now this place can get so busy that in the evening that you may need to wait for a while to get seats. Infact they’ve even rented something like 3 or 4 shops beside their shop to house those chairs and tables for customers and yet the queues just can’t seem to get any shorter whenever I was there.

Now I’m going to tell you that the steamboat ingredients used here are pretty oridinary and it’s something that you probably can get from the market for a fraction of what it may cost you here. The thing that makes this the only surviving Hainanese steamboat in Singapore is it’s kickass oily rice and chili sauce.

Other than those things, the soup here is pretty good. If you were to pour all your ingredients into the soup and let it boil for a while, it will have what I will call a ‘Hainanese’ addictive flavour which is something I’ve tried but yet cannot be duplicated at home using the same selection of ingredients. I’m suspecting there are some secret ingredients used in preparing the stock, I ain’t sure but it definitely wasn’t the excessive use of msg.

Another highlight of Thien Kee is it’s beef stir fried in ginger and onion. Well it’s very different from the cantonese version where you get lots of wok hei flavour, here you get a dose of what I would call the ‘Hainanese beef flavour’. I’m a hardcore fan of stir fried beef and yet I’ve never seen this flavour been duplicated anywhere else so if you’re coming here I tell you now that you really really must try this dish if you’re seriously keen to explore this Hainanese eating experience right to the max.

I’ve heard many things about Hainanese pork satay here but yet on this occasion when we ordered, we found it to be pretty ordinary with what seem like it was grilled on anything but charcoal. So that charcoal flavour was so dearly missing and so satay unfortunately is something I can’t see myself eating here again. The satay gravy has that run of the mill kind of satay sauce taste which was seriously lacking that peanut flavour.

The stir fried beef costed us $10 while the selection of ingredients was $25. $35 for 3 person to embrace an authentic Hainanese affair is a pretty reasonable price I guess. If you’re going, good luck in finding the place as people often get confused with Golden Mile Tower and Golden Mile Complex. But if you really can’t find it, then just stroll along the basement of both buildings and you will surely soon be met by this most authentic Hainanese steamboat in town.

Price: $20 and above

Recommendation: Stir Fried Ginger Beef

Conclusion: Simple food that did not cost us an arm and a leg but yet authentic. Dining here always make me wonder why I can’t duplicate the flavour using the same selection of ingredients at home.

Likes: Authentic Hainanese flavour and cheap.

Dislikes: Ingredients used can be that bit fresher.

Address		Overall Rating
Golden Mile Thien Kee B1-20 Beach Road Golden Mile Tower Singapore 199589 Tel: 6298 5891 /6293 5910		Food: 8/10   Value: 8/10   Service: 7/10   Ambience: 7/10   Cleanliness: 6/10   Overall: 7.5/10

If I were to tell you that French also once colonized some parts of Indonesia, would you believe? Of course you wouldn’t believe since according to history that never happened.

But yet there is this place in Indonesia somewhere in Bandung that is so very French. This place even has a French name, it’s called Pasteur. The only shopping centre there is called Paris Van Java. The restaurants there have all funny names that looked like they had been influenced by the French culture or something. Even the people there looked French……….ok that’s for humour, people here looked the same as anywhere else in Indonesia. But the weather here is slightly colder due to the higher altitude, it’s like 20 deg when I was there and I heard it can go down a little more sometimes.

Ok in singapore we don’t have a place that sounded French but we have lots of cafe that tried to say they’re from France. For those who doesn’t know, ‘DE’ in French means ‘From’ so if a cafe says Prata De India then it means Prata from India, or Sushi De Japan then it means Sushi from Japan. Now it does sound strange to me to use a French word in any restaurant names especially when there is nothing ‘French’ about the restaurant at all. Obviously neither Prata nor Sushi came from France. So really I can’t stop myself from wondering, are these restaurants just trying to be cool?

Anyway I’ve heard and read so much about this restaurant somewhere in Balestier who are purportedly selling Cze Char food with a lot of Hong Kong flavour. Now that got me really really excited because there are very very few eating places in Singapore that are selling real authentic Hong Kong food. I really love Hong Kong food and for me it is really superior when compared to Singapore food because I think they used a lot of cooking wine, I think. So this recommendation sounded very very good to me except that I was wondering why it is called Cafe De Hong Kong. That’s a very unglamorous name as far as authenticity is concerned. I mean most Hong Kong restaurants would be dying to use something like Golden Dragon or Phoenix Palace etc. But I must admit that lousy name is still not as crucial as lousy food and so here I am on this fine shine day to find out how ‘Hong Kong’ actually is this Cafe ‘DE’ Hong Kong.

I don’t know about you but usually when I’m at a new eating place, there will be some feelings formed. The feelings will be formed from a few factors like how the eating place looks to how busy are the staffs to how many customers are in there. Well if at lunch time and it’s almost empty then it doesn’t look right, is it? Truth be told, I almost wanted to walk away when I first arrived at Cafe De Hong Kong. Now eventhough that place is hard to find a parking lot and I walked like 15 mins to the cafe. I had the option of either to trust my gut feeling and walk 30 mins(to and back) for nothing in order to save my lunch or to take a risk in the hope of discovering something special that somehow eludes the first impression. The thing is I haven’t really read a bad thing about this place so far therefore I decided that whether this place is good or bad, I’m going to find out for myself.

There was not even a single customer inside at around 12pm on a Sunday afternoon, if that’s not strange enough for you, I don’t know what else is. Anyway I quickly flip through the menu and realised that it is extra confusing. First they have this promotional thing sitting on the table which tells you about the signature dishes, then they have 2 sets of menu. I saw a waitress and took the chance to ask her the difference of the 2 menus. She said one menu consists of the signature dishes while the other menu consists of all the dishes. There are 2 things here I couldn’t understand. Why do they need to have their signature dishes in different 3 places on the table. First it’s on that promotional leaflets on the table. Then it’s on the signature dishes(which is quite a long list) menu and then it’s again on the menu that has the entire list of dishes. That really got me confused with names repeating itself unncessarily in different places. All I needed were just the original menu and all they needed really is to put a star or something beside a signature dish to let customers know that it is a signature dish. Another thing is that their signature dishes menu is too long, it’s so long that it looked like another menu.

The menu here didn’t made me feel like dining at an authentic Hong Kong restaurant unfortunately. Most of the dishes are their own creation I think, and the fact that from the photos on the menu, they seem to be very into food decoration but yet I’m the sort of person who are more concern about how the food taste. I have to also mention that while looking through the menu, there’s this waitress who was standing beside our table. There’s nothing wrong in that except that she just can’t seems to stop talking. Ok that got to the point where it was quite annoying especially when I’m not a fool when it comes to Cantonese cuisine but yet she’s trying to give me information which I don’t really need.

Anyway I decided to go for those kind of authentic cantonese dishes that are very very easy to impress and yet hard to fail. Black Bean Sauce Beef Hor Fun, Salt and Pepper Pork Chops and Supreme Tofu. My partner got herself a plate of duck feet which was recommended by the waitress and in her own words “Is really one of the top selling dishes here”.

Now usually for me I think no matter how good a restaurant is, the flow of customers is very important because only a constant flow can ensure that the food are kept fresh. I mean the last thing we want to dine at any restaurant is to be served food that they can’t finish selling and so had to keep it for long. Really, no matter how good the chef is, if the ingredients are not fresh then it really might take some magic for the food quality to score some distinctions. These were my feelings then about Cafe De Hong Kong. I was waiting to see whether are there any magic wand.

Salt Pepper Pork Chop: 7/10  

The first to arrive was the Black Bean Beef Hor Fun. It wasn’t too bad to be honest, it had that familiar ‘cantonese hor fun’ smell but I was disappointed that the hor fun somewhat tasted like overnight Hor Fun. Now that’s the thing I dread whenever I go to any restaurant to eat because freshness of any ingredients is the basic. If the basic is not right, then it’s hard to be outstanding and this plate of Hor Fun could had been fantastic but it’s clearly not. The sauce, the beef and the smell was good but the quality of Hor Fun spoilt it.

Supreme Tofu: 8/10  

The next that came was the Salt and Pepper Pork Chop and again it’s not too bad but definitely not outstanding. The ‘Salt and Pepper’ flavour just wasn’t thorough enough and the fact that they didn’t use a lot of garlic/spring onions/cut chillies like how it’s generously use in most good cantonese restaurants I’ve been to just shows how serious they were to make this really really good.

Beef Hor Fun: 7/10  

The Supreme Tofu is the only dish here that were outstanding. The sauce had a lot of that seafood flavour and the Tofu(they make themselves) was smooth and soft. It blended very well together but then again 4 pieces of Tofu for $12 is really not something I would be happy coming here again for. I rather they take away that 4 thinly sliced scallops and throw in other seafood like squids, prawns and give me many more pieces of Tofu. Well the last time I had a Stir Fry Tofu at a Cze Char place, for $8 I had more than 10 pieces of Tofu with many big succulent prawns. That definitely can give me more value though I must admit that this dish looked fantastic but yet that sort of thing isn’t what I would travel all the way to Balestier for. My partner mentioned that the Braised Duck Feet was good but yet she said not comparable to some of the best she’s tasted elsewhere. The Hor Fun was the only thing we couldn’t finish eating. I think only a really hungry person can.

Surprise surprise. So many good reviews had been written and yet on a Sunday afternoon at around 12 noon there was not a single customer to be found. Now I can see the reason. Maybe Cafe De Hong Kong does have good chefs but a bit more work needs to be done before they can make me travel all the way here to have a meal again. I don’t know about those dishes that people have reviewed and found to be so good, like Winter Melon soup or Crispy Chicken but the basic cantonese food that I had today did not really lived up to my expectation and it definitely didn’t do justice to those excellent reviews I’ve read.

Cafe De Hong Kong just wasn’t ‘Hong Kong’ enough for me and the fact is, for $36.25 I can easily dine at Crystal Jade Restaurant.

Price: $6 to $18 per dish

Recommendation: Supreme Tofu(A bit ex though)

Conclusion: Kopitiam Cze Char’s quality sold at restaurant prices but served in a cafe. Not authentic enough though they are quite creative with their dishes.

Likes: The Hor Fun has nice cantonese ‘wok hei’ flavour.

Dislikes: Not authentic enough. Wish there were more cantonese flavours. Price also a little too high for a cafe.

Address		Overall Rating
Cafe De HongKong 586 Balestier Road #01-01 Eastpac Building Tel: 62553865		Food: 6/10   Value: 6/10   Service: 7/10   Ambience: 7/10   Cleanliness: 7/10   Overall: 7.25/10