Favourite breakfast - Congee

I love congee from my neighbourhood hawker centre. I usually order pork and century egg congee. They come with slices of pork, liver, minced pork balls, slices of century egg, youtiao (fried flour sticks), and a runny egg, and some fried shallots. I like to have my congee on weekend mornings or whenever the craving strikes, especially when the weather is cool and wet.

What's your favourite breakfast?

Hiap Chiang Prawn Noodles

I am always excited whenever I find some very old school food from the past era. At the main junction along Selegie Road, there is a very old shophouse coffeeshop, Hiap Chiang Eating House, where Rex Cinema is nearby and diagonally opposite The Verge.  

Inside the simple and rather dilapidated coffeeshop, there are only a few tables and only one stall selling prawn noodles soup and drinks.  It is operated by a couple of old men and an elderly lady. 

They only sell prawn noodles soup, not even the dry version.  You can choose from yellow noodles, to thick bee hoon to kway teow.  The ingredients available are prawns (deshelled), pork ribs and pig skin (which is rather unusual). This is the first time I see a prawn noodles soup stall selling its noodles with pig skin.  

I ordered the combination of yellow noodles and thick bee hoon, prawns and pork ribs, with beansprouts and a few strands of kangkong, What I love is their thick well-cooked broth.  The soup is dark, not too cloudy and very wholesome, its taste exactly what I used to find in old stalls when I was a little kid. Unlike those famous prawn noodles soup in Singapore, they do not come with chilli powder. It is served with red cut chilli. I actually prefer this version. Throwing in the red cut chilli into the soup.  I finished all the noodles and ingredients before taking my time to slurp up every drop of the wonderful broth.  

If you are nearby, check this stall out. 

Hiap Chiang Eating House
215 Selegie Road

Tel: 6837 0328 

A supper haunt - 511 Bedok North

Bedok 511 is one of the places where my friends and I like to go for late dinner or supper. Even late in the evening and night, the hawker centre is still bustling with business and crowd. Here are some dishes we usually like to order and they are quite popular with customers there too. 

Kidney/Liver Mee Sua. It is a very thin type of salted noodles made from wheat flour. Personally I like this version of Mee Sua more than the Taiwanese Oyster Mee Sua which is added with vinegar to enhance the dish.  Our local Kindey Mee Sua  It is not too starchy, the soup is slightly peppery with a hint of a little herbs too. Spinkle some red cut chilli into the soup, it is quite tasty. If you do not fancy liver or kidney, you can always ask for pork slices or other ingredients.

Bak Chor Mee (Minced Pork Noodles) from Tian Nan Xing stall can be comforting as you slurp the soup. This stall only serves BCM in soup version. Hence I would usually order the Kway Teow soup. It comes with 2 dumplings and 2 meatballs and a very flavourful broth.

I love Satay, sticks of pieces of pork, chicken, or mutton marinated with sweet sauce.  Barbecued skilfully over the fire with charcoal, these are tender, sweet and with an aromatic taste.  I especially love ketupat (sticky rice) and lots of onions, and dipping them into the sweet satay peanut sauce. Mmmm...

These Chicken Wings are from the same stall as the Satay.  They are very well don.  Sprinkled with lime juice, and dipping them into the spicy sour chilli is truly out of this world. 

The Rojak is equally good, not too saltish or overly mixed with too much prawn paste.  I like my Rojak with lots of mang kuang and you tiao, and preferably without pineapple. I do not like pineapple in any dishes except the fruit itself.

We complete our supper with sugarcane juice and salted prune juice, an appetising complement to a lovely meal.

Ng Soon Kee Fish & Duck Porridge

To me, this stall in Aljunied Crescent sells one of the best fish soup and duck porridge around. They need no introduction judging from the incredible long queues and long wait for the food, and they have been in business for more than 20 years. Even if you see there is no queue, you would have to wait for at least 30 minutes, because most likely, the customers before you have called and placed their orders by telephone earlier.  I usually call and place my order 1-2 hours before collection. Otherwise, physically waiting for the food would be averagely 40 minutes to one hour during normal times.

If you are true blue Teochew, you would love Ng Soon Kee's fish soup. I usually order the fish soup to go with a bowl of plain rice. They are rather generous with the ingredients; the wholesome soup consists of sliced pomfret fish (or Batang fish), Szechuan vegetables, lettuce, tomato etc... The soup stock was utterly tasty with the fresh ingredients used. The few slices of Szechuan vegetables gave the fish soup the extra oomph!

Another dish we usually order is the "lou ark" (braised duck wings) here. The duck is braised till the sauce has permeated to the bones and the flesh just slipped off easily. The meat is very tender and the taste addictive, with no funny odor. These Teochew braised duck wings/feet is my mom's favourite. Even my niece and nephew love both the fish soup and duck from this stall!

Ng Soon Kee Fish & Duck Porridge 

Blk 117 Aljunied Crescent Ave 2, #01-11, Singapore.

Opening hours: 12noon to 9pm (closed on Sundays)
Tel: 67476014

A meatless diet in Singapore - it wasn't that hard, is it?

Yippee! I have just completed almost 4 months of a meatless diet, 115 days to be exact. I made the decision for health, spiritual and personal reasons. I do it once a year or sometimes more frequently with shorter periods. Suffice to say, there is always the misconception that it is very inconvenient to be a vegetarian in Singapore where it is a food haven. 

To me it was not so much of a problem compared to when I was doing a non-carbo diet, which meant no noodles, no rice, no bread, no cookies etc.... only meat and veggies. Aaarrghhh! That diet was tougher than this meatless diet. I was very encouraged to go vegetarian this time. Even though I have completed this diet, I may just continue being meatless (or almost 90% vegetarian) as I found that taking too much meat cause me to feel too full and bloated all the time, and not to mention, involving the act of taking the lives of animals. 

Here is a guide to being meatless in Singapore, based on my 4 months of diet.

Breakfast

Usually for breakfast at home, I have bread, toast with peanut butter or eggs. Breakfast choices outside at the hawker centres are: (clockwise) Chee cheong fun, roti prata from Mufiz, black carrot cake from Kim Lee, and famous chwee kway from Bedok. Or other times, I go for kaya toast with half boiled eggs.

Vegetarian hawker food

Yes there are many stalls that are out of touch, for example, bak chor mee (minced pork noodles), prawn noodles, chicken/duck rice stalls, fish soup stalls etc... However there are vegetarian options to chicken rice and wanton noodles too (check out my earlier post on Onn Vegetarian).  At chai fun rice stalls, I choose dishes like mushroom, stir fry veggies, eggs, tofu etc. At yong tau hoo stalls, there are many items without the meat paste too, like lady fingers, mushroom, radish, kangkong, yam, fried beancurd stick, tofu, fried tau kwa etc.. 

Indian vegetarian food

I am lucky that I enjoy Indian food and they have lots of vegetarian options.  From clockwise, I love butter and garlic naan with 3 types of vegetarian gravy (from Ananda Bhavan), masala thosai (potatoes inside), vadai is a snack, and dishes like aloo mutter and mushroom gobi (from Mustafa) and so on.

Western vegetarian options

There are fast food options which does not cost a bomb. From clockwise, the delicious vegetarian Chicken Chop from Ci Hang (see my earlier post), Egg Mayo from Subway, Potato Croquette Burger from MosBurger, and Vegetarian Delight pizza from Sarpino's Pizza.

Vegetarian Tze Char

Sometimes I have the craving for steaming hot stir fry noodles from tze char stalls which are cooked on the spot. From clockwise, delicious bee hoon from Eight Treasures stall, customised vegetarian Thai fried kway teow, vegetarian bee hoon /noodles, and hor fun. 

Desserts/Snacks

Most savoury dessert options such as curry puff, chicken pies, otah are out. However there are many types of sweet snacks which vegetarians can enjoy, like cakes and ice cream. From clockwise, deep fried sweet potato balls from Rochor Hawker Centre, sweet tang yuan soup (homecooked), and a malay snack, Kueh Lopes. If I feel like having something savoury, the sweet corn or french fries from McDonalds is always welcome. The choices are endless.

Muslim food

Ayam Penyet or muslim dishes like sambal sotong and ayam merah are out. But you can still have sayur lodeh (curry veggies) and (from clockwise) Lontong, mee rebus, vegetarian nasi lemak topped with yummy sambal petai, or rice with muslim dishes like sambal kangkong, fried bean curd with long beans, fried egg or bergedel. 

Homecooked vegetarian food

The most flexible would be cooking vegetarian dishes at home based on your preference.  Here are some of the vegetarian dishes I cooked.  As I love all kinds of vegetables, it was easy peasy. For example, I cooked lo han zai, egg with gourd, nai pak with mushroom, and potatoes tofu. There are so many variations.

Homecooked porridge/soup

When I am sick of everything else, porridge usually does the trick. We have our usual veggies dishes, our special braised beancurd sticks, or dark sauce tau kwa, and fermented cai sim, olive veggies, nuts. I also had vegetarian dumplings soup to go with rice or noodles. 

Homecooked pasta

I like variety. When I get sick of chinese dishes, I would cook pasta in different methods. Clockwise, stir fry curly pasta chinese style, cream spaghetti with broccoli and mushroom, or tomato sauce pasta with potatoes and mushroom, or vegetarian lasagna. Yummy!

And when I am really in the mood, I make Tofu Burger (check out my previous post). This is my Tofu Burger, with lettuce, sauteed mushroom (and dribbled with a little of its sauce), alfafa sprouts and some mayonnaise. I topped the piping hot grilled potato with a little butter. The Tofu patty was so juicy and tasty that it could easily substitute the pork patty, in my opinion. 

So, being on a meatless diet is quite doable in Singapore, isn't it? Have a great weekend!

Onn Vegetarian

Since I am currently on a vegetarian diet, I am always on the look out for nice vegetarian stalls or shops. I am not really a salad person, so I still prefer local food as far as daily meals are concerned.

I have visited this stall, Onn Vegetarian, in a Upper Boon Keng coffeeshop many times and tried almost all the items. There is quite a variety of rice and noodles dishes but they do run out pretty fast by late afternoon and they are closed on Sundays. 

Bak Chor Mee - this is one of my favourite because seldom can you find a vegetarian stall selling this vegetarian version of Singaporean minced pork noodles elsewhere. Their version of crispy 'pork lard' was good and the noodles were bouncy and well mixed with the sauce and generous portions of mushroom, minced 'pork' and fried beancurd tofu.

Chicken Rice - I was surprised that their vegetarian chicken rice is actually quite good, almost the same as the real thing, from the rice to the 'chicken' meat. One integral thing was they added a black sauce similar to black soya sauce and chilli which gave the dish the necessary kick. 

Wanton Noodles - my father was so taken with their wanton mee that he said, "假到很真!" (almost identical to the real version). I am more particular when it comes to Char Siew. Theirs look nice and authentic but with a slight rubbery taste still. 

Curry Noodles - they added a lime to this dish.  The gravy was light and not so 'lemak' (heavily accented with coconut). The only difference from the usual curry noodles is that they added long beans and lots of vegetarian fried beancurd items. They did not need to add mock chicken, which was quite a relief.  

Mee Tai Mak - a very light soupy meal with the usual culprits of vegetarian ingredients. I wished they had given real chinese mushroom or enoki mushroom though.  One saving grace was they were generous with the green veggies. I tried their dry version too, which was well mixed with dark sauces and ingredients from Bak Chor Mee, although it was a little too oily. 

Braised Sea Cucumber Pork Noodles - this was my favourite and they serve it only on special days.  There were mock sea cucumber and pork belly with big portions of chinese mushroom. The slightly starchy sauce was indeed well braised and permeated the noodles.  I love the taste so much that I did not really care for the mock sea cucumber. With the 'pork belly' and mushroom alone, this noodle dish was complete. 

Onn Vegetarian
Blk 5, Upper Boon Keng Road,
#01-01 Singapore 380005 
(Nearest MRT - Kallang)

逸群鸡饭 Yet Con Chicken Rice, yet another Hainanese gem

I tend to visit Yet Con Hainanese Chicken Rice Restaurant if I am in the Bugis vicinity.  It is always a tassle between Yet Con and its equally-popular neighbour directly opposite them, Chin Chin Eating House. Both specialise in Hainanese chicken rice and pork chops. On a hot day, Yet Con is always my choice because they are air-conditioned.

Air-conditioning apart, stepping into Yet Con, one feels you are back in the 1940s. Its spartan, ancient looking decor from its tables and chairs to chinese white mosaic tiles on the walls, brings back childhood memories of my great grandmother's kopitiam Tze Char restaurant in Hougang.

At one corner manning the counter is an old man, presumably the boss. His little antique cupboard is rather interesting looking and I always notice his age-old abacus on the counter top. And he scribbles indecipherable items you order on a small piece of white paper and which you pay on your way out. It is ironical and amazing they never seem to have any screw-ups with the bills compared to the rest of the other modern restaurants which print out computerised receipts!

On this visit, I was there with my parents on a weekend for lunch.  As expected there was a crowd but we found a table easily as there were only 3 of us. Our table is number 8.

Hainanese White Chicken 白斩鸡. One very obvious thing about Yet Con chicken compared to other chicken rice joints, is their chicken is served dry. They do away with all the sesame sauce, soya sauce and whatever sauces that we are so familiar with. Instead, Yet Con chicken is served dry and the meat is robust almost fat-free, with the skin (very little skin) a tinge of yellow. To me, chicken rice is not chicken rice without dipping into a mix of chilli, ginger and dark soya sauce.  The chilli sauce in Yet Con is not spicy, and a little to the sweet side. 

Hainanese Pork Chops. I like to order pork chops whenever I visit a Hainanese restaurant, plus my father likes pork chop or sweet and sour pork ribs.  Yet Con's pork chops are tender and juicy even though its exterior has been deep fried to a dark brown hue. The sweet and sour gravy is just right with the right mix of potatoes, tomatoes, peas and onions.  Even though their potato strips are soft and limpy, I wish they were more generous with more potatoes in my Pork Chops.

Pork Liver Stir Fried With Spring Onions. I really like the taste of this dish with a 'wok hei', because I usually like pork liver. The unusually dark gravy was so delicious I can eat it with rice alone.  However my mom did not like it. She says her own version of stir fry pork liver is better as she includes additions of ginger strips, sesame oil and wine, which makes the dish even more fragrant. This I have to agree with her.

Someone introduced me to try the Stir Fried Kailan. I need my veggies in a meal with so much meat.  It was so crunchy and wet and well done, simply stir fry with chopped garlic.  You can choose to have Kailan with fish slices or mixed with seafood too.

Fish Maw Soup. I think it is also one of their signature dish. They are quite generous with their fish maw, prawns, squids, tofu, veggies and pork slices.  Very homely feel kind of soup, very light and refreshing. I feel the taste was a little bland but my parents like it, as they do not like salty soup.

See the chunks of fish maw in the soup. I remember I had their steamboat the last time, with the normal chicken soup base and the usual ingredients of seafood, veggies and meat to cook and DIY.  It is one of the standard item patrons usually order in Yet Con but I find it pretty normal, not outstanding.

I love their Chicken Rice. I can eat it alone on its own.  It is so fragrant and fluffy, infused with the taste of chicken stock, ginger and pandan flavours. 

The exterior of the restaurant is classic and rustic looking. I hope they do not disappear into history. I hope they remain for a long time to come so that the younger generations can savour and experience what they have to offer, as well as to witness a piece of the history of Singapore.

Yet Con Chicken Rice & Restaurant

25 Purvis Street, Singapore.

Tel: 63376819
Opening hours: 11am to 9.30pm 

Of smelly beans and 'smelly' durians....

This is not the first time I blogged about this restaurant (previous post here). It is a humble looking restaurant located in a shophouse next to Aljunied MRT. It is simply named Penang Restaurant.  As I frequent this place pretty regularly, I get to try many of their dishes. I also have many friends who love their authentic Penang Assam Laksa and Penang prawn noodles. Other than that, they serve mostly tze char dishes we are quite familiar with.

During this visit with friends, I noticed they have just printed a new menu with a nicer design. The menu items mostly remain the same.  Price-wise, they are the same too.   

Among the 4 of us including one vegetarian, we ordered a total of 8 dishes to try. What a yummy feast and early dinner for us!

The signature must-try dish is of course the Penang Assam Laksa.  Smooth white rice noodles with lots of ingredients like thinly shredded cucumber, onions, pineapple, mint leaves, chopped ginger, chilli and loads of prawn paste, together with a  thick and tangy broth make this dish a favourite among patrons.

One of the dishes we wanted to try was the Sambal Petai (or Smelly Beans).  Garnished with tiny shrimps and onions, this is one of my favourite dishes.  One unique highlight of the Sambal Petai here is the gravy is dark, compared to the fiery hues of the Sambal Petai we cook at home.  I actually still prefer Sambal Petai cooked with ikan bilis or prawns.

Spicy Sambal La-La.  

Obviously it was one of my friend's favourite, looking at her plate, which were full of empty shells afterwards!  :P

Italian Herbs Prawns. 

Salted Egg Deep Fried Squid. 

Mee Goreng.

Fried Egg with Onions.

Stir Fry Broccoli for the vegetarian among us.

As if the 8 dishes were not enough for the 4 of us...... During the later part of the evening, we went to Durian Lingers. My, what a cosy, nice ambience and air-conditioned place to eat just durians! 

We had the best durians which cost $56 for just 2 big durians.  It's 猫山王榴莲. The durian guy who helped us pick our durians was pretty friendly and courteous.

And here is the King of Fruits - Durian!  Look closely at the reddish yellow flesh of the durians with small seeds. We chose the bitter-sweet type. I think we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly with our 'pungent' durians and sipping coconut juice.  Thanks to my friends for the great company and great makan! What a sweet ending to our evening of feasting!

Penang Restaurant

76 Lorong 25A Geylang

(Next to Aljunied MRT)

Tel: 68413002

Durian Lingers 

212 Joo Chiat Place, 
Tel: 63446347