Live To Eat!

Do you live to eat or eat to live? Sometimes you are not sure like standing over a golf ball on the green not knowing if the break is left or right so you just go straight and hope for the best. In days of old, all the food people are highly skilled practitioners who took great pride in peddling their food. Whether it is your prawn noodle, mee rebus, mee siam, satay, chee cheong fun or hor fun they tasted good mostly and were healthier. For every dish they prepared, they do all the ingredients by themselves.

Today's food mostly come from a central kitchen somewhere or they sourced the ingredients from a supplier. In fact, some are completely supplied to them. The worst food are those they cooked in advance and then when you order, they just heat it up and serve. No food should be prepared and served that way! You walk into a food court and you see the same food everywhere - minced meat/mushroom noodle, chicken rice, roast pork, duck rice, fried kway teow, Korean food, Japanese food.            


The environment is nicer as it looks cleaner and in the comfort of air-conditioned space but the prices are steep. Why do they have to keep making places like these and raising the costs of everything? Who pays for it? The consumers like you and me. Give me old style or old school anytime. The old style restaurants and coffee shops can be very good. Let me introduce some.

Orchid Live Seafood

Golfers who once patronized Orchid Country Club should know. In fact even non-golfers knew and they packed the place on weekends. At one time, my friend Martin and I (sometimes when I joined) would have dinner there while we were having fun at the range. So what is good? Most things are because they are served fresh and piping hot. From the chili mussels to the stir-fried vegetables and steamed fish. The one of two things you must never miss there is the Lobster Porridge because it is simply so delicious. It comes in a pot with lots of soup. Slurp it up and you will be a happy person.

Of course, this could be the most expensive dish. The lobsters are succulent and juicy. I used to see them catching them live from the tank at OCC.

I mentioned earlier one of two dish because, this is the other one that you must try! The "Steven" chicken so named after the creator Mr. Steven Chua himself. All children, adults and even the old folks love it! You see, Steven slice off the meat of chicken wings and left them to dangle on the bone when he fried them with a special seasoning (I think there is honey) and he gave free fall to the sesame seeds.

And this is yours truly with Master Chef Steven Chua himself (Steven not the chicken). Steven used to carry a walkie-talkie barking out instructions to his staff when they were at OCC so one day I asked him why he needed the walkie-talkie since his voice was so loud everybody could hear him. You see I believe Steven is a stickler when it comes to serving food when it is hot. This is especially true for steamed fish. Not only must the fish be very fresh, it has to be steamed to perfect timing in typical Teochew style then served and be eaten immediately. This is the same reason why your mother chased you to eat when dinner is ready. Very simply, bring me along when you go there because Steven will personally cook each dish for me when he sees me - for old time's sake. Must try!

You can look up Steven at 16 Jalan Kelulut Tel: 64842495 (Yio Chu Kang Road near the Catholic Church). He has another outlet at 1, Bah Soon Pah Road (off Sembawang Road). I "soon pah" (promise/swear) this is very good.

Lucky Wanton Noodle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0-oinyjsk0

Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood) would asked: "Do you feel lucky today?" Then come over to Tanjong Pagar market and food centre and you will get lucky! This Wanton noodle (not that the noodle is wanton nor does it weigh one tonne) was authentic and then they stopped operating for awhile which somewhat disappointed the office crowd but one day they came back and we are happy again. Like the popular Nasi Lemak stalls around they all used to serve their food for just $2 until inflation got the better but still at $2.50 you get better food than the food courts.

Their style has been updated. They now have darker sauce as base (compared to previous light sauce) with the springy noodles. The "char siew" (barbecued pork) is meaty without being too fat and burned just enough. It comes with a soup with three wantons if you order them "dry". Their wantons are delicious.

Funny thing was some friends and I were having a beer on a very hot day and we decided to order some wantons - one plate of deep fried and another plate of steamed wanton but dipped in a plate with chili sauce with spring onions sprinkled over generously. These are the must haves!! The boss as you can see from the photo was funny and as a regular I commented on his very good wantons and told him I am going to write a blog article about it. His reply was that the beer was talking and I was only joking but when he met my friends and I later, he asked about it. He said he got his daughter to check but could not find my article. I told him I have not even written how was he to find? He will be very pleased now.

We can also ask for a bit more vegetables, spring onions and yes more lard if you may like. Must try!! Do not miss these!

Yong Tau Fu & Soon Kueh

I last wrote about this Hakka Yong Tau Fu at Syed Alwi Road at "Gar Loke Eating House". I still do not know its name but it is a no frills old coffee shop. Their Yong Tau Fu is of course good but I did not pay attention the last time to their other interesting food.

They do beef ball soup as well which I haven't tried. It is no frills at this coffee shop.

One of the other specialty is their "Soon Kueh" (packed in boxes in the picture).

It is different from the Teochew type. The skin is translucent, springy and chewy and they add black fungus inside. However, it is a tad oily perhaps due to the sticky skin. The real "soon" in the soon kueh is actually shoots which has a pungent taste. What most of them offer like here are really turnips. The fillings in this one is quite delightful.

Loy Kee

I believe Chicken Rice is one of Singapore's favourite food. Even foreigners love it. So which are the best chicken rice stalls in Singapore? Loy Kee has been one of the favourites and this one at Whampoa is the original stall.

Besides Loy Kee, we have Nam Kee at Novena and Toa Payoh. I frequent the one at Toa Payoh more than at Novena as a matter of convenience. I think their dark soya sauce chicken is great! Boon Tong Kee at Balestier is very popular too and they do have several outlets. There is a very popular one at Margaret Drive but I can't remember the name. Then there are many others like Pow Sing at Serangoon Gardens. There is another at Serangoon Gardens that has very delicious roasted chicken. Tian Tian at Maxwell is also an all time favourite. The one near Heartland Mall has photos of President Nathan and MM Lee Kuan Yew. There are so many good chicken rice stalls here so it is very convenient for us all.

Din Tai Fung

You know about their ramen, xiao long bao, Szechuan soups and others but you must do the fried rice. They are so generous with the eggs as your rice comes covered and smothered by eggs. This order can be had with their pork ribs fried to a golden brown. You will like it!

Boon Tong Kee

I like the chicken rice at Boon Tong Kee, the rice is fragrant and not too oily and yes the chilli is very special too. Good and tasty chicken rice can be eaten with the rice on its own even if there were no chicken plus great chilli.

This one at Balestier which has been there for the longest time used to serve one of the best hor fun around with very solid "wok hei" - the breath of the wok. Hor fun without wok hei is taking the fun out of the hor. At one time the chef may have changed so I am not sure if the hor fun is still as great. Worth checking out the next time but they have other tze char food that can satisfy the palate like their sweet and sour fish prepared quite differently from anywhere. They are thinly sliced and fried till it is very crispy.

These are tou fu stuffed with meat.

Qiji

Qiji serve halal food with local favourites like mee siam, lontong, mee rebus, laksa, nasi lemak, popiah all freshly done and has a certain quality about them taste-wise. I just thought that their mee siam is pretty good as I remembered having savoured this authentic taste from an old lady who sold it during my childhood days. So it is like walking down Memory Lane for me. You will not be disappointed. Mee siam is so simple to eat and it stirs up your appetite. My comfort food.

It was my cousin Robbie who introduced this to me when I was a little boy. It turned out to be such a fabulous dish to savour. I found out that the original stall near where Robbie used to lived is still around but the son has taken over so I tried it a few years back. Nostalgia.

I am talking about Soup Kambing. I love the colour, the spiciness and the fabulous gravy and when done well, the mutton is soft. You can dip it with bread if you want. The thing is not every one can make good kambing soup. This one at Newton is pretty neat. See the huge pot there waiting for you? From the carpark, just walk towards the far right of the food centre. It is the next row just behind the front facing the inside. Power!!

Eng Kee Famous Roast Pork

Whatever you do you have to be early to get this one because there will be a long queue and the tables will be taken quickly and they would have a sold out by not later than 2pm. It is located at a coffee shop along Enggor Street near and across the Amara Hotel.

I have a soft spot for these stuffs. Char siew (BBQ pork), roasted pork, roasted duck are lovely especially when the gravy is good too. This one comes with very good ngoh hiang. Recently, our team members have been gravitating towards this place for lunch.

The best char siew I have ever tasted and enjoyed for awhile was at an old coffee shop at Pagoda Street, simply the best and I have tried quite a bit. Unfortunately, I do not know where they are now. This is comfort food for some of us and I know what you are thinking "I love animals, they are delicious."

I went to Queenstreet wanting to have peanut porridge, fried bee hoon I last recommended but was lazy to walk further or queue longer. So I just parked at the big car park near two coffee shops. I ordered porridge with raw fish from a stall called Ri Ji. I have tried the ones at Chinatown (have to wait) and Maxwell Market (perpetual long queue). The raw fish here is fabulous. Was so good I got another helping of the raw fish.

This is certainly a solid morning breakfast! 

I was actually just sharing about interesting food all over but I have got feedback from people who wanted to know where they are located. Hence, I shall try to provide an address and location and if possible a telephone number. You see recently my appetitie has been getting better so in a state of excitement you may sometimes forget to note the addresses when the food is in front of you.