Makan @ Kovan
Recently, I went back to Benkei Japanese Cuisine for the Japanese food. Mr. Richard Neo greeted me when he saw me. I asked how his business has been since we last met. He said business is good and he shared there were more people coming after I wrote an article and published it on my blog. Here is the link:
Many who has followed my blog or those who spoke to me more often knew of my frequent lamentation on the quality of food when you eat out these days. Almost every food court sells the same food. It has been too commercial and higher rents and costs means more expensive food. In the old days, each hawker made their own ingredients and even sweat the small stuffs like shallots. Today everything from the "chee cheong fun", shallots, chilli, etc. are from factories. For expediency, they cook and prepare the food in advance and heat them up when you order. This is a crime for the food police. I hope for SOS - Save Our Singapore.
Still there are places for good food and good variety and in the Hougang/Sengkang and Upper Serangoon neighbourhood, one good place would be Kovan. Even before the hawker centre, you can go to the surrounding coffee shops or you can find Nakhon Kitchen at Hougang Street 21, Blk. 212:
Just further down at the nearest coffee shop where the Poh Kee Satay is you can find Simons' BBQ Seafood who moved here from Yishun sometime ago. Sometimes Simon himself may tell "don't pay if not nice". Of course it is his way and rapport with customers. Get the "sotong" or squid just don't be blur like sotong.
Of course when you go for BBQ seafood, you must not miss the stingray. Stingrays are delightful. You see them swimming on TV on Discovery Channel and you think of applying sambal on them.
And of course lala with garlic.
Simply hop over to the nearby Kovan hawker centre and your choices escalate. Nearest to the Heartland Mall, there is a satay store helmed by an old man and if get there at the wrong time he'll ask you to wait for almost an hour. Next to it is a chicken rice stall that sells only "white" chicken that has a queue all the time because it is not only good but is cheap and good.
Just behind it, you can find a good porridge stall and this famous and hugely popular roast meat stall. When you see a short queue or no queue, it means everything is finished.
You can find a good fish soup stall and you choose if you want Batang fish or Red Snapper. You can find kway chap, desserts, soya bean and plenty of many others. In other words, if you don't really know what to eat, come to Kovan. You will find something there. There are three noodle stalls that peddles the same thing - dry or soup minced pork/mushroom noodle, fishball noodle, laksa, and curry noodle.
All three have long queue. I find that they are almost equally good but this one from the back row seems to be longest maybe they are the most generous in their servings.
I think for many of us, fish balls are so easy to eat.
So too noodles.
Some of you may have read in the papers that someone paid $300k for this shop! And they are selling rojak, our local salad.
This person reportedly owned several stalls here.
The rojak is pretty good actually and reasonably priced.
For my muslim and also non-muslim friends especially fans of chicken, you must try this Ayam Penyet. You can get the fillet for younger children otherwise the drumstick.
Fragrant rice, super crispy chicken and power chilli that leaves you clamouring for more. It is halal.
These days things can get confusing when one finds Ang Mo Kio school in Hougang ang Hougang school in Ang Mo Kio. The food stalls too are doing the same. Geylang Carrot Cake at Kovan.
This stall is only open from morning till early lunch. The guy fries his carrot cake as if he is dancing. It is the only carrot cake I have ever tried that has strands of real carrot, not radish and it is good!
Everybody knows Yong's Teochew Kueh at Upper Serangoon Road. There's a new kueh stall at Kovan that sells the same favourites like "png kueh" and "soon kueh" in a smaller version.
The noodle stalls all sells pretty decent and quite good laksa as well.
You can't miss the two noodle stalls facing the car park as they are side by side with a queue all the time.
The minced pork mushroom noodle.
The stall next door.
Better come quick as the real estate situation in the years to come with the number of projects sprouting up all over Upper Serangoon, Sengkang and Punggol may not just caused traffic jams but enjoying these simple but delicious foods may see longer queues and make you wait longer each time.
Get ready to do some own cooking. I shall be stocking up on some food and sauces. I'll share them saucy details with you some day. This is like a doomsday prep. Have a nice weekend!
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