My husband and I needed to pop by our respective workplaces on Saturday morning, and Chinatown Complex is located directly in between. We have a favourite yong tau fu stall there, and while we usually patronise the stall on weekdays, we usually avoid the place on weekends and public holidays because the queue is really really long (our record queuing time is 45 mins). Because I was craving the yong tau fu, the poor husband didn't have much of a choice.
There are 2 stalls operated by the same family: the one on the left is where they scrape the fish, prepare all the different yong tau fu items, and sell fishcakes from, while the one on the right is where they prepare and sell the noodles from.
The stall originally started operations with the patriarch and matriarch doing most of the cooking and preparation, and the operations team seems to have expanded to include the children and inlaws doing most of the menial work. The old man can still be seen helping out on some days, but I haven't seen him doing the cooking in a long time.
Check out the queue ahead of us (and it was equally long behind us!) - it took us 30 minutes to get our food. The man behind us complained to my husband that he was only in the queue because his wife was craving the noodles, and if it was up to him he wouldn't waste his time. My husband, to his credit, just smiled quietly : )
There are 7 varieties of yong tau fu that they add to the soup, including fish balls, tau kwa stuffed with fish paste, tau pok stuffed with fish paste, and fish paste wrapped with beancurd skin. The ikan bilis is to the right of the picture in a big bowl with a plastic spoon. They fry it with sugar until crispy.
They also have really nice chilli sauce that you can add to your noodles using a huge pitcher. I usually like to pour a bit more on my dry noodles.
After 30 long minutes, this was our loot: I had a mixture of noodles and kuay teow.
The noodles come with 7 pieces of yong tau fu in a certain permutation pre-determined by the serving lady. One serve cost me $3. If you don't want the noodles, they charge you $3 for 9 pieces.
The fishcake (50 cents each) is also really yummy, but when they're running full steam, it has to be bought separately from the stall on the left hand side. The husband went back to queue for another 5 mins to get our fishcakes.
Close-up of the precious fishcake.
You can see from the picture that the texture was really smooth - this was taken after I had bitten into it. It's bouncy, fresh and tasty.
To add to the Chinatown ambience, the drinks stall next door likes to blast 1980s Mando-Canto pop music. They serve pretty good ice milo too.
Xiu Ji Ikan Bilis Yong Tau Fu
#02-87 and 88, Blk 335 Smith Street
Chinatown Complex and Food Centre
Opening hours: 5.30am - 3.00pm 7 days a week.
