根叔美食世家 - Gen Shu Mei Shi Shi Jia

Another great discovery from Leslie Tay - this small stall in Toa Payoh is a seriously good value-for-money place. We had read so much about it that when we finally had the chance to go there for lunch, we were pretty excited and were determined to try as many dishes as we could stomach 2 hours after eating lor mee and wanton mee at Tiong Bahru.

We decided to try 3 items - the yam cake, the pork ribs with rice, and the boat style porridge.

The husband declared this as the best yam cake in Singapore. It was soft, slightly bouncy and extremely flavourful with a really tender and moist texture.

I had the boat style porridge, or tang zai zhok. The texture of the porridge was very creamy, although not quite as fine as say, Crystal Jade. But a good bowl nonetheless - it was easy to gulp down, and we didn't get the usual post-porridge MSG-induced thirst after lunch.  

This has to be the winning dish - steamed pork ribs with black bean sauce on rice. I would go back in a heartbeat for the super tender pork ribs that were not too salty, with the run-off flavouring and infusing the rice. Almost perfect.

Address: #01-03, Block 74 Toa Payoh Lorong 4

Bukit Merah View Carrot Cake

After reading Leslie Tay's post on this place, we decided we had to give it a try and agreed with him completely that this, perhaps, is the best chye tow kueh in Singapore. The rice cakes are soft and fluffy with a slight crust, and the servings of egg are pretty generous, well balanced with random bits of chye poh.

Leslie Tay's recommendation that the black version has a slight edge over the white version is also spot on. I'm normally a fan of the white version, and while it isn't bad, the black one is slightly more tasty and interesting. 

The servings are very generous, with each of these plates at $2.50 each. 

Bukit Merah View Carrot Cake
Blk 115 Bukit Merah View
#01-37

Ah Seng Braised Duck Rice at Serangoon Gardens

Ah Seng Braised Duck gets my vote for best braised duck in Singapore. I've never really been a fan of braised duck, but this one I could eat everyday. There's a super long queue during peak hours that starts about 1130, and they normally sell out in the afternoon.
This was a quarter duck, mostly breast meat. The duck meat is tender and moist, and the braising sauce goes really well on top of hot steamed rice.
Even their chilli sauce is fantastic.
Their duck wings are amazing as well - try to make the order in advance because these get sold out early.

49A Serangoon Garden Way#01-44 Serangoon Garden Market & Food Centre

Teochew Fishball Kway Teow Mee, Hong Lim Hawker Centre

It's been a while since I had a good bowl of noodles - a former colleague brought me to Hong Lim early one morning for breakfast before work, and introduced me to this stall on the second storey. It's run by an old mandarin/dialect-speaking couple, which felt good, like the good ol days before recent migrants took over hawker stalls.
It was a simple $3 bowl of dry mee pok, and it wasn't super vinegary or porklardoil-ish, but it was just plain good comfort food.

Good springy texture.

531A Upper Cross Street #02-65

Hong Lim Food Centre

天记 Porridge at Maxwell Market

There's always been this stall where I see the operator packing and washing up when I arrive at Maxwell Market, no matter how early. The rest of the day and night, the shutter is down. I got curious and asked one of my older colleagues if they knew what it sold. Trust these wise old people, who wake up at 5am and come to the office by 7am, to know something good.

It's a porridge stall that opens at something like 4am, and they normally sell out by 7am. One time I arrived at 7.10am and the operator shook his head and me and said 卖完了. To satisfy my curiousity, one morning I proceeded to drag the poor husband out of the house at 6.45am (it was his fault that we missed the stall the last time) to make sure that we got there on time.
They sell pork or fish porridge, and the gruel mixture is soft, not too thick (I think Zhen Zhen is a rather negative example of thick porridge) and flavourful. It's easy on the tongue and throat.
The raw fish salad is pretty good too. Not too much ginger (think Zhen Zhen again), and a good mix of lime, soy and sesame oil dressing.
This cost me $7. I was very pleased with it : ) It's not the cheapest hawker breakfast, but it's good quality and $4 is a reasonable price for good raw fish salad.
I think this is worth waking up at 6am for, just not everyday.

It's on the same row as Tian Tian chicken rice, between the double-boiled soup stall and fruit stall. It's a fantastic alternative for my favourite porridge stall that unfortunately closed down last year : (

Hill Street Tai Hwa Bak Chor Mee

I've resisted posting about this stall for a while because it's crowded enough and certainly doesn't need a larger following (which equals longer queues). But I've come to realise that good food is worth sharing about, and so reluctantly I've decided to post this.

Side thought - why are all the BEST (my vote for best Char Kway Teow and best Bak Chor Mee) stalls from Hill Street? It must have been one heck of a foodie paradise in its heyday. I remember my dad buying braised duck from the hawker centre that was pretty damn good.

Back to the Bak Chor Mee. The erractically long queue (but always long). Normal waiting time is about half an hour on average.

And after all those excruciating moments lining up, this is what you get. Lard-laden, vinegar-splashed, salt-fish laced Heaven in a bowl. Words are not enough to describe how amazing this bak chor mee is. The perfect combination of salty, sour and meaty on top of al dente noodles.
We normally order a side bowl of wantons and pork balls to share. The normal serve is not enough.
No address supplied. Don't compete with me in the queue. Go figure it out yourself.

Hill Street Char Kway Teow

The husband and I were determined to try Hill Street Char Kway Teow before the old hawker stopped frying, and drove to Bedok one Sunday after church. We saw lots of people queuing but no one standing in line, which was nice.
The char kway teow did not disappoint. It was moist, sweet, spicy with all the flavours of the different ingredients coming together in an amazing way. Calories worth consuming.

Hill Street Char Kway Teow

Blk 16 Bedok South Road

#01-187 Bedok South Road Market & Food Centre

Tel: +65 9042 1312

Tian Tian Chicken Rice

My favourite quick lunch at Maxwell Market on a busy day (provided you go after 2.30pm) - the chicken is tender, the rice is fragrant, and it always makes me happy eating it.

Wah Kee Cooked Food - Cuttlefish Kangkong at Bedok South

The husband and I decided to go to Bedok South Food Centre one evening after work to eat char kuey teow, but unfortunately were too naive to realise that the Hill St Char Kuey Teow would have sold out long before I even shut down my computer. We decided to have dinner there anyway. While walking around, we spotted a super long queue at a very generically named Wah Kee Cooked Food stall. After taking a peek, we decided that it had to be good, since they only appeared to be selling one dish - ju hee eng chye.

It turned out to be very interesting - instead of the sauce being extremely sweet, it had a bit of a tang to it, and it wasn't as thick as those at most other places. It had thin strips of cucumber as well as tau pok.

It's at Bedok South Food Centre at Block 16 opposite Temasek Junior College, and at stall 193 near the Hill St char kuey teow stall.

Ipoh Sar Hor Fun 怡保沙河粉

A new Ipoh hor fun stall opened at Amoy St Food Centre about half a year ago, and has been packing in the crowds ever since. It's right next to the wait-long-long Tai Seng wanton noodles, and opposite the oh-no-there's-no-more-space-to-queue-on-this-floor Han Kee fish noodles. The average wait is about 15 minutes, which is just about the maximum amount of time I would queue during lunch hour. Piao Ji Fish Soup 2 sections away, with an average queuing time of 30 minutes, is an entirely different story altogether.
A regular $3 serving gets you shredded chicken, mushrooms and veggies. They also have prawns, which you can order with crayfish. The crayfish noodles start at $5 for 2 miniscule crayfish and mushrooms.
I love the texture of the noodles - they are soft but don't fall apart, and they go really well with the sauce. I've seen Chinese herbs used in the sauce pot, so there's a lot more flavour than just soy.
They have fish dumplings at $3 for 6, which are fat, springy and crispy. They go brilliantly with the salad cream and sambal chilli sauce.

They're at stall 02-122, Amoy St Food Centre and open only for lunch on weekdays.

Hakka yong Tau Fu and Beef Balls at Gar Lok Eating House

The husband and I had read about hand made beef balls in the Sunday Times, and decided to visit the place on a Saturday lunch. We knew it was at Syed Alwi Road, and happily parked near Mustafa before embarking on our search for No. 217. Unfortunately Syed Alwi Road happens to be one of those where the odd and even numbers are on the same side of the road. Even more unfortunately, the numbers split up and don't quite make sense- so there we were on a very hot Saturday afternoon following the trail of No. 105, 106, 107, etc, only to find ourselves....at Serangoon Road with a big open field in front of us across the road. So we had to trek all the way in the reverse direction, watching the building numbers decrease, and hoping that once we crossed Jalan Besar, that we would miraculously find the 200s. And we did! But by the time we got there it was just past 1pm. And by the time we ordered, the stall was out of yong tau fu.

Not to be deterred, we went again the following Saturday, this time slightly earlier, and also being smarter to turn left off Jalan Besar. AGAIN, however, they had run out of yong tau fu. So what do die hard foodies like us do?

We went again the very next day, rushing off immediately after church service.

The stall has no English sign, but it's clear it's the only one in the coffeeshop selling beef balls.

Our haul - for 2 people. The stall owner looked incredulously at my husband and I, and asked "how many people"?? When we replied "2" rather sheepishly, he shook his head and muttered something to himself.

The beefballs ($3 per bowl) had a great texture to them, with a lot of bite. There must have been a fair bit of tendon mixed in, and they came in a mild clear soup that was a refreshing change from the usual soy sauce base that the Teochews use for their beef soup.

Close-up of the beefballs. The slimmer mee pok with minced meat is, according to my Hakka husband, how the Hakkas do their noodles.

I loved the texture of the noodles. It was springier and less oily than the usual mee pok.

The yong tau fu ($3) was decent - I can't say that it was the best ever, but it was certainly very yummy. This stall doesn't use a lot of salt, so it's really easy to eat and the fish meat is fresh.

We also ordered a portion of the abacus discs made out of yam. This was a dish which I had never tried until getting married. The abacus was quite chewy, but rather oily, and I think my mother in law's version is probably nicer. Tasty nonethess.

Gar Lok Eating House

217 Syed Alwi Road

大浦牛肉之家 The Beef House

Open from 9am until lunchtime when they sell out

Closed Fridays

Tel: 96654919

Tuck Kee (Ipoh) Sah Ho Fun

The hor fun had a very supple texture, and the sauce was richly flavoured without being too sweet or salty. Overall a very enjoyable meal, although the crayfish could have been larger.

Originally at the second floor of Hong Lim Food Centre, they're now at the temporary market at Hong Lim Park.

Wah Kee Big Prawn Noodes

This stall perpetually has a long queue, and when I finally got my bowl of noodles Iunderstood why. The prawns are extremely fresh, the soup tasty and sweet with a robust prawn flavour and the chilli combined with the noodles is pretty decent too.
Pek Kio Hawker Centre, Blk 41A Cambridge Road#01-15
Open from 7.30am until 2.00pm every day except Monday.

Piao Ji Fish Porridge

One of my favourite lunch stalls is Piao Ji Fish Porridge on the second floor of Amoy St Food Centre. They are more expensive than most other fish soup stalls, with a basic bowl of soup starting at $5, but I think the money is well spent. If you get there between the peak hours of 12-2pm, be prepared to queue for at least 20 mins on a good day.

The cooking is done by a pair of brothers. They cook each bowl individually, which is why it takes so long. They have basic fish soup, using mackerel slices, as well as fish+prawn soup - the prawns are really fresh and large, as well as promfret. They also have a dish where fish bones are fried and served with soup, but I have no idea how to order it.

The fish slices are extremely fresh and cooked to just the right degree. The soup is very tasty, with pieces of galangal, pork lard, fried shallots and preserved radish to add to the flavour. Instead of iceberg lettuce, which most other places use, they also give tang or, which is really nice. The chilli dip comes with vinegar, preserved soybeans and ginger - absolutely divine.

Piao Ji Fish Porridge
#02-100 Amoy St Food Centre

Open 10.30am - 3.oopm, Closed Thursdays

The best or luak in Singapore

I had heard about Ah Chuan from the ieatishootipost website, and finally managed to make my way down to Toa Payoh. The stall is located within a food centre, but only a handful of stalls are open at night. It's quite quiet, and if you're looking for other things to eat, it may be difficult to find something you really like.

There were quite a number of people waiting around 8pm on a Friday night. We waited about 15 mins....not too bad, in my opinion (I've waited an hour for bak chor mee before).

When we finally got our plate of or luak, we realised the wait was all worth it...the starchy bits were soft and fluffy, it was nicely flavoured (not too salty), and the egg was cooked just right- not too hard either. The chilli was excellent too.

Don't get there too late though...they started wrapping up at 8.30pm.

The satay stall at the corner is pretty good too.

Ah Chuan Oyster Omelette

Toa Payoh Lorong 7 Food Centre Blk 22

Stall 01-25, 3pm-9pm, Closed Tuesdays

Porridge for Breakfast

Maxwell hawker centre has a number of pretty good stalls open at breakfast time. My favourite porridge stall there is 诚记 (no English name available) at no. 91, facing Fairfield Methodist Church. I find the porridge nice and light (unlike Zhen Zhen which is seriously thick), and they also have watercress available, which adds a nice crunch.

They serve the usual porridge menu like preserved egg and pork, fish slices, chicken, and they also have fish stomach - not that I've tried it, but I've seen many other people waiting patiently for their serve.

This was a $2.50 serve.

Doing some digging to unearth the cuttlefish and watercress.

I love the mixture of raw fish, lime and sesame oil. A great way to start the day.

Cheng Ji Porridge
Stall 91, Maxwell Road Food Centre

Open for breakfast and lunch seven days.

Hokkien Mee

I love the Tanjong Pagar Market. There is a section on the 2nd storey dedicated to all the unhealthy food - char kuey teow, chai tow kueh and hokkien mee (only missing orh luak). The hokkien mee shop named Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle at #02-49 is really good for a midday indulgence - it comes with sinful pieces of pork lard and pork belly strips, and the sambal is pretty good too.